Automation Engineer (Back End) - (Security Cleared Or Previously Held SC)

About Us: 

Solirius Reply, part of the Reply Group, is a technology consultancy and digital transformation partner that helps organisations solve complex challenges through strategy, design, engineering, and delivery.

We work closely with our clients to deliver secure, accessible, user-focused services that evolve with their needs. By combining deep technical expertise with people-centred design, we create solutions that deliver meaningful, lasting impact.

Our consultants partner directly with client teams, embedding into organisations to understand their goals, challenges, and users. This collaborative approach enables us to deliver tailored solutions that drive measurable outcomes across public and private sectors.

Past and present clients include the Ministry of Justice, Department for Education, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, UEFA, International Olympic Committee, and Mercedes-Benz. Our services span the full digital delivery lifecycle, including architecture, engineering, delivery management, user-centred design, business analysis, data, DevOps, and AI.

We operate as a collaborative and inclusive organisation that empowers our people to take ownership, innovate, and develop their expertise. As an equal opportunities employer, we are committed to encouraging equality, diversity, and social mobility, while creating opportunities for our teams to work on meaningful projects that deliver lasting impact.

About You:

You are a motivated and adaptable professional with a strong analytical mindset and a passion for using technology to solve real-world problems. You enjoy working in collaborative, agile teams and take pride in delivering high-quality solutions that make a tangible impact. With strong communication skills and a consultative approach, you’re comfortable engaging with clients, understanding their needs, and translating them into effective outcomes. 

About You:

You are a motivated and adaptable professional with a strong analytical mindset and a passion for using technology to solve real-world problems. You enjoy working in collaborative, agile teams and take pride in delivering high-quality solutions that make a tangible impact. With strong communication skills and a consultative approach, you’re comfortable engaging with clients, understanding their needs, and translating them into effective outcomes. You understand and align with Solirius Reply Values

The Role:
We are looking for experienced Automation Test Engineers / SDET to work on projects with our clients from both the public and private sectors. You will have a testing background and be confident using your skills to run projects directly with clients with minimal supervision.

You will be a fundamental member of the team, responsible for designing, developing and delivering test solutions whilst supporting and developing other members of the team and fostering best practice, keeping up to date with industry standards and advances.

While most of our work can be done remotely, giving you the flexibility to work where you’re most comfortable, we do expect all of our consultants to be open to travel as required by our clients, primarily to London. This role would therefore be best suited to those within a commutable distance of London.

Key Responsibilities

• Overseeing all aspects of developing, implementing, and maintaining automated test scripts using automation tools.
• As part of this role, you'll verify the usability, functionality, performance, and scalability of our and our clients applications.
• Constructing automation tools and expanding framework functionalities to accommodate unique team requirements. 
• Initiating and establishing processes for automation and performance monitoring.
• Actively contributing to both our Quality Engineering teams and our clients in establishing Automation and Testing best practices for the organisation.
• Collaborating with various teams to address their automation challenges and coordinating efforts with diverse teams to resolve performance test failures.

Key Skills & Experience:

• Excellent communication and collaboration skills.
• Must have great analytical and troubleshooting skills as well as thrive in a dynamic work environment.
• In depth understanding of QA process and software development life-cycle.
• Hands-on experience of building test automation frameworks from scratch.
• Proficiency in scripting and programming languages such as JavaScript and Java (3+years). 
• Experience of API testing, ideally using RestAssured or SoapUI.
• Experience in the implementation of Contract Testing solutions. 
• Familiarity with the configuration of CI/CD pipelines.
• Expertise in establishing and executing testing tools, testing environments, and testing data throughout different stages of the testing process.
• Experience of working  closely with cross-functional teams, including developers, and other QA team members, to design, develop and enhance automation frameworks.
• Familiarity with containerisation technologies (e.g., Docker) and orchestration tools (e.g., Kubernetes) for testing microservices in a containerised environment.
• Automated API testing with Java (e.g. RestAssured / SoapUI)
• Experience with Contract Testing tools (e.g., PACT)
• Experience using collaborative tools such as Jira, Confluence, or similar for test case management, documentation, and communication within Agile/Scrum teams.
• Working knowledge of CI/CD pipelines, including experience with Jenkins, GitLab CI, or other CI/CD tools for automated testing and deployment.
• Understanding of testing microservices-based applications.
• Familiarity with cloud platforms (e.g., AWS, Azure).
• Understanding of Accessibility testing.

Note: We are seeking candidates who have held Security Clereance in the past or hold and active SC status.

What We Offer:

• Competitive Salary
• Bonus Scheme
• Private Healthcare Insurance
• 25 Days Annual Leave + Bank Holidays
• Up to 10 days allocated for development training per year
• Enhanced Parental Leave
• Paid Fertility Leave (5 Days)
• Statutory & Contributory Pension
• EAP with Help@Hand
• Gym Membership Benefits
• Cycle to Work and Electric Vehicle schemes
• Flexible Working
• Annual Away Days/Company Socials

Diversity and Inclusion

As an equal opportunities employer, we are committed to creating a work environment that supports, celebrates, encourages and respects all individuals, where all processes are based on merit, competence and business needs.

Encouraging high social mobility is really important to us. We foster an inclusive culture by welcoming different perspectives, enabling equitable opportunities and promoting open dialogue. This commitment is reflected in initiatives such as our gender diversity group and our focus on mental health and wellbeing. Whatever stage you are at, you will find an environment where you can thrive.

Should you require further assistance or require any reasonable adjustments to be put in place to better support your application process, please do not hesitate to raise this with us.

As a Disability Confident employer, we are committed to ensuring our recruitment process is accessible and inclusive, enabling all candidates to demonstrate their skills, experience and potential.