Senior QA Automation Engineer

Automation Test Engineer - eDV / UKIC Clearance Required Starting January 2027-12 month outside IR35 contract- 650-700 p/d. Based in London on site 5 days a week. SR2 is partnering with an exciting client looking for an Automation Test Engineer to play a key role in building quality, security and confidence into their software delivery lifecycle. You’ll work alongside Software Developers, DevSecOps Engineers and QA specialists to design and maintain automated testing that is embedded directly into CI/CD pipelines. This is a hands-on role for someone who enjoys building robust automation frameworks, testing modern containerised applications and shifting quality and security left. What you’ll be doing Design, build and maintain automated unit, API, integration, functional and end-to-end test suitesDevelop reusable and scalable test automation frameworks and librariesTest Python 3.13+, microservices and containerised applicationsWork extensively with Docker and modern container platformsEmbed automated testing directly into GitLab CI/CD pipelinesBuild automated regression, performance and load testingTranslate user stories and acceptance criteria into comprehensive automated test coverageApply Risk Based Testing to prioritise coverage and identify gapsPartner with developers to ensure testability is designed into APIs and microservicesWork alongside DevSecOps specialists to automate SAST, DAST, dependency and container vulnerability scanningMonitor pipeline results, troubleshoot failures and help teams resolve issues quicklySupport testing of infrastructure-as-code and deployment configurationsMaintain reliable test data and repeatable test environmentsProvide clear reporting around test coverage, quality trends and pipeline healthContribute a quality and automation perspective during code and design reviewsChampion a test-automation-first engineering culture What we’re looking for Commercial experience as an Automation Test Engineer, SDET, QA Automation Engineer, Test Automation Engineer or similarStrong hands-on Python experienceExperience testing microservices and containerised applicationsStrong Docker knowledgeExperience creating and maintaining automation frameworks using tools such as:PyTestPlaywrightSeleniumRobot FrameworkStrong API, integration and end-to-end automation experienceExperience integrating automated tests into GitLab CI/CD, Jenkins or similarUnderstanding of SAST, DAST and vulnerability scanningStrong debugging and root-cause analysis skillsUnderstanding of software design principles and OOPExperience with Git and tools such as Jira, Azure DevOps, Confluence or TestRailAbility to communicate quality risks and test results clearly across technical and non-technical teams Desirable experience Kubernetes and/or OpenShiftHelm and ArgoCDAWS, Azure or GCPTerraform and/or AnsibleISO 27001 or NIST environmentsISTQB or equivalent test automation/quality engineering certifications Why this role? You’ll have the opportunity to influence how quality is engineered across modern software delivery rather than simply testing at the end of development. SR2 is supporting our client in finding someone who can combine strong hands-on automation engineering with a genuine quality-first mindset and help create fast, secure and repeatable software delivery.