Senior Automation Engineer (12-month Contract)

• Our client, a leading organisation within the banking sector, is looking for an experienced Senior Automation Engineer to join its Payments environment.
• This is an opportunity to work on automation initiatives supporting critical payment systems, improving application quality, streamlining processes and enabling continuous delivery.
• The successful candidate will be responsible for designing, developing and implementing automation frameworks and solutions across front-end and back-end applications, building automated regression packs, integrating automated testing into development pipelines and generating comprehensive test reports.
• We are looking for someone with strong technical development capabilities who can take automation solutions from concept and design through to development, implementation and ongoing optimisation.

Key Responsibilities

• Design, develop and implement automation frameworks, solutions and reusable components.
• Develop automated testing solutions covering front-end, back-end and end-to-end application functionality.
• Design, build, automate and maintain regression test packs for payment systems and applications.
• Automate regression pack execution to support application releases, system enhancements and ongoing maintenance.
• Develop automated functional, integration, smoke and regression tests.
• Automate front-end testing of web applications, user interfaces and payment-related workflows.
• Develop back-end automation covering APIs, databases, web services, system integrations and business logic.
• Develop automation scripts using programming languages such as Python, Java, C# or JavaScript.
• Integrate automated testing into CI/CD pipelines to support continuous testing and deployment.
• Generate automated test reports, dashboards and execution results.
• Report on test coverage, execution progress, pass/fail rates, defects and overall application quality.
• Analyse test results, investigate failures and identify recurring issues.
• Maintain and optimise automation frameworks and regression packs as applications and business requirements evolve.
• Collaborate with developers, business analysts, solution architects and QA teams.
• Ensure automation solutions meet technical standards, security requirements, reliability and performance expectations.
• Maintain technical documentation and support automation solutions throughout their lifecycle.

Technical Requirements

Programming and Software Development

• Strong programming and scripting capabilities.
• Python, Java, C# or JavaScript.
• Object-oriented programming.
• Software development principles and practices.
• Building reusable automation components and frameworks.
• Debugging and troubleshooting.

Front-End, Back-End and Regression Automation

• Front-end automation using Selenium, Cypress or Playwright.
• Back-end automation covering APIs, web services, databases and application services.
• Automated regression testing and regression pack development.
• Experience building, maintaining and executing automated regression test suites.
• End-to-end automation testing across integrated systems.
• Functional, integration and smoke testing automation.
• API automation and validation.
• Experience automating web-based applications and enterprise systems.

Test Reporting and Quality Management

• Automated generation of test execution reports and dashboards.
• Reporting on test coverage, execution progress, pass/fail rates and defects.
• Analysis and interpretation of regression test results.
• Identifying failures, trends and recurring defects.
• Experience integrating automated test results with test management and reporting tools.

Systems Integration and Development Platforms

• REST APIs and web services.
• SQL and database integration.
• Git and version control.
• CI/CD pipelines and automated deployments.
• AWS Cloud platform.
• Docker and containerisation would be advantageous.

Minimum Requirements

• Relevant IT qualification in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Technology or a related discipline.
• 10+ years' experience in Automation Engineering, Software Development or Test Automation.
• Strong hands-on programming and scripting experience.
• Proven experience developing and implementing automated testing solutions.
• Experience building and maintaining automated regression packs.
• Experience with front-end and back-end automation.
• Experience integrating systems using APIs and web services.
• Experience generating automated test reports and analysing test results.
• Experience working within an Agile development environment.
• Strong analytical, technical and problem-solving skills.

Advantageous Experience

• Previous experience within banking or financial services.
• Exposure to payment systems, payment processing and transaction-related workflows.
• Experience working with enterprise-scale applications.
• DevOps and cloud-native solutions.
• Experience with complex system integrations.

What We Are Looking For

• We are looking for a technically strong, hands-on Automation Engineer who can do more than execute existing automated tests.
• The ideal candidate must be able to demonstrate their personal contribution to designing, coding, developing and implementing automation frameworks, automating regression packs, testing front-end and back-end functionality and producing meaningful test reports.
• You should be comfortable working with complex systems, identifying automation opportunities and delivering reliable, scalable automation solutions within a banking Payments environment.