Test Engineer - Up to 12 months Fixed Term Contract (FTC)

Full time / Part time 

Salary: £34,604 - £39,200pa, with potential for further progression to £44,137pa with our pay progression scheme.

Location: Manchester

Contracted to our Wilmslow office. We will be relocating to Manchester city centre from 28 September 2026. Once the move takes place your contracted office will be Circle Square, Manchester. Through hybrid working we offer flexible home and office-based working opportunities and there will be times when you will be expected to attend the office to collaborate with colleagues or travel due to business need.   

Why work for the ICO? 

Pay progression scheme.

Hybrid and flexible working options.

25 days paid holiday per year, plus privilege and public holidays.

Flexi leave (up to 26 additional days leave per year).

Pension (employer contribution around 28.9%).

Online discount scheme to save money at major supermarkets, retailers, gyms, restaurants, insurance providers and many more.

Health Cash Plan.

Fantastic development opportunities to learn and progress.

Further details can be found on the benefits section of our website . 

Job summary

As part of the Digital, Data and Technology Services (DDaT) team, you will be responsible for driving the testing activities within in a given project/product; ensuring that new and amended systems, configurations, packages, or services, together with any interfaces, perform as specified (including security requirements) and ensure that the risks associated with deployment are adequately understood and documented.

Testing includes the process of engineering, using and maintaining test-ware to measure and improve the quality of the software being tested.

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is the independent regulator of information rights. In a data-driven world, we provide advice, guidance, and support to organisations enabling compliance with their obligations, as well as protecting individuals and their personal data.

As an employer, we are passionate about making a positive difference to the lives and careers of our people, and we empower you to be curious, impactful, collaborative and respectful.

Job description

You will review requirements and specifications and define test conditions. To design test cases and test scripts and support data mapping back to pre-determined acceptance criteria - recording and reporting on outcomes. Analyse and report test activities and results. Interpret, execute and record test cases in accordance with test plans. Identify and report issues and risks within related product.

To develop an understanding of the role of testing within product/service development, as a tool for design improvement as well as a validation process.

Key responsibilities:

Reviewing requirements and specifications and defining test conditions

Designing and executing test plans and carry out exploratory testing as part of a broader risk-based approach.

Designing, writing and maintaining automated test scripts and suites.

Designing and writing automated test strategy.

Designing and identifying new test techniques and tools to write test cases, test scripts and supporting data mapping back to pre-determined acceptance criteria, recording and reporting outcomes.

Writing and executing functional and non-functional tests at each level; debugging and refactor the test code in accordance with project test plans.

Identifying, analysing and reporting on test activities, issues and risks associated with a related project/product.

Identify and raise defects with the team, as part of product responsibilities

Support other test engineers and product teams to identify test scenarios to be automated

Responsibility for identifying, raising and managing defects within a given project/product/service and/ or as part of product responsibilities

Taking a business and operational view when analysing the system under test, in so doing identifying gaps not just in software but in processes too

Responsible for evaluating business artefacts and supporting system integration testing

Prime responsibility in the acceptance activity within a development phase of given project/product/service.

Providing reports on progress, anomalies, risks and issues associated with the overall project.

Knowledge of the WCAG 2.2 standards and how to test against them to spot problems and opportunities that ensure all our digital services work for all users

Person specification

Essential criteria assessed at application stage:

ITIL qualification

Knowledge of Jira/Confluence, Agile Scrum

Experience designing, developing and maintaining automated test scripts working with an automated test tool.

Proven experience of working with Agile and Waterfall methodologies

Proven experience of working within an Agile framework.

Proven experience of Full-Stack testing

Being involved from the beginning of a project in a test engineering capacity

Understanding and working knowledge of the role of defect management.

Essential criteria assessed during interview:

Working knowledge of Government Digital Service Design Standards

Proven experience of automated testing, including writing and maintaining automated test suites

Experience of Test Case Creation, Functional Testing and Non-Functional Testing

Experience of change Management

Experience of User test software and methodology and able to write user scripts

Able to design and execute test cases using standard testing techniques. Able to come up with different business scenarios for a feature, working with others in the team.

Able to identify simple patterns and trends. Investigates problems and opportunities in existing processes and contributes to recommending solutions to these.

Aware of non-functional testing techniques. Able to execute non-functional test scenarios and raise defects.

Can run non-functional tests others have written and knows the processes to do so. Understands a range of standard non-functional testing techniques.

Equality, diversity, and inclusion 

The ICO is committed to promoting and enhancing equality, diversity, and inclusion. We are focused on developing a workforce that is representative of the communities we serve and together we are building an inclusive workplace where all of our colleagues have the opportunity to make a real difference. We are championing this through our Equality Diversity and Inclusion Board together with a number of staff networks. Read more about our commitment on our website.  

Candidates with a disability who meet the minimum criteria for this vacancy will be invited to interview as part of the ICO’s commitment to the Disability Confident Scheme. 

As part of the ICO’s commitment to our EDI objectives and creating a workplace that represents the communities and societies we serve, we guarantee an interview to candidates who declare they identify as belonging from an ethnic minority background and who meet the minimum criteria for this vacancy

If you are disabled or have an impairment and require an alternative application method, please email the HR team at recruitment@ico.org.uk

 Closing Date 

Please submit your CV and cover letter by 23:59, Friday 18 September. Your cover letter should be no more than 1,000 words and should clearly demonstrate how you meet the essential criteria for the role.

We may close this vacancy early if we receive a high volume of applications. To ensure your application is considered, we encourage you to apply as soon as possible. If you require any reasonable adjustments to support your application, please contact us at recruitment@ico.org.uk.

In the event of a high volume of applications, we may not be able to invite all candidates who meet the minimum criteria to interview. However, we encourage you stay in touch and apply for future roles that match your interests.

All candidates who meet the minimum criteria and apply in-line with our guaranteed interview scheme for disabled and ethnic minority applicants will be interviewed.

Clearance Required for this role:

Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS)

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Open Vacancies (1)

Test Engineer