- We are looking for a Software Quality Engineer to join our team based at one of our clients within the banking industry (specifically within the Payments Engineering team).
- The role will support both the existing Mainframe payments platform and the new payments system that will replace it. A key focus will be validating card transaction authorization flows, switching logic, and message processing using ISO 8583 standards.
- The successful person will implement automation-first testing practices across UI, APIs, and messaging layers, integrating automated tests into CI/CD pipelines and using monitoring and production telemetry to continuously improve system quality.
- This role reflects the modern Quality Engineering model, where engineers embed quality throughout the delivery lifecycle through continuous testing, observability, automation, and measurable delivery outcomes.
Test Automation Engineering
- Design, develop, and maintain automated test frameworks and test suites across UI, API, and messaging layers.
- Build UI automation using preferably Playwright, leveraging advanced debugging capabilities in the tool.
- Implement UI automation where required using Selenium or Opentext UFT for legacy systems or compatibility requirements.
- Develop API automation suites using Karate to enable:
- Readable and maintainable API tests
- Parallel execution
- Mock service capabilities
- Use API testing tools such as SoapUI and Postman for exploratory testing, debugging, and service validation.
- Maintain automated regression suites covering critical payment processing scenarios.
Payments & Transaction Processing Testing
- Validate end-to-end card transaction lifecycles, including:
- Authorization requests and responses
- Reversals
- Settlement scenarios
- Network response codes
- Perform detailed validation of ISO 8583 messages, including:
- Message types (MTI)
- Field-level validations
- Message transformations
- Response code behaviour
- Test transaction routing and switching logic across the payments ecosystem.
- Support testing of ATM, POS, eCommerce transactions.
- Validate integrations between:
- Payment switches
- Card schemes
- Core banking systems
- Payment gateways
- Fraud and risk systems.
ISO 8583 Simulation & Payment Network Testing
- Use ISO 8583 simulators to simulate payment network behaviour and test transaction flows.
- Work with Mastercard MAS (Mastercard Authorization Simulator) to validate authorization scenarios and scheme interactions.
- Utilize Astrex tooling to simulate and test ISO 8583 messaging and transaction flows as part of Quality Engineering workflows.
- Build test scenarios that simulate:Host responses
- Network behaviour
- Failure and timeout conditions
- Transaction retries and reversals
- Validate switching behaviour across both legacy infrastructure and modern SmartVista architecture.
CI/CD Integration & Continuous Testing
- Integrate automated test suites into CI/CD pipelines, preferably using Harness.
- Implement automated quality gates that validate builds and prevent defective releases.
- Enable continuous testing practices across build, integration, and deployment pipelines.
- Ensure automation supports parallel execution and rapid feedback cycles.
Production Monitoring & Observability
- Apply a production-quality mindset by monitoring system behaviour post-deployment.
- Use monitoring and alerting platforms such as Zabbix to track:
- Transaction success rates
- System latency
- Authorization failures
- Infrastructure health
- Correlate production incidents and monitoring signals with testing gaps to improve automated coverage.
Quality Strategy & Engineering Enablement
- Contribute to the development of test strategies, automation frameworks, and quality standards across teams.
- Promote shift-left testing practices, ensuring testability is considered during design and development.
- Support shift-right practices by integrating production insights into test strategies.
- Help improve automation adoption and quality engineering maturity across delivery teams.
Engineering Metrics & Continuous Improvement
- Support teams in tracking engineering delivery performance metrics, including:
- Deployment frequency
- Lead time for changes
- Change failure rate
- Mean time to recovery (MTTR)
- Use these DORA-style metrics to help improve both delivery speed and platform stability.
Required Technical Skills
- Test Automation
- Strong experience with modern automation frameworks.
- Hands-on experience with Playwright.
- Experience using Selenium or UFT for UI automation where required.
- API & Integration Testing
- Experience building API automation suites using Karate.
- Practical experience testing APIs using tools such as:
- SoapUI
- Postman
- Ability to validate REST and service-based integrations within distributed systems.
- Payments Domain Expertise
- Strong understanding of card payments and transaction processing systems.
- Experience working with ISO 8583 messaging standards, particularly around:
- Authorization flows
- Transaction lifecycle management
- Experience using
- ISO 8583 simulators such as:
- Mastercard MAS (Mastercard Authorization Simulator)
- Astrex ISO messaging simulation tools
- CI/CD & DevOps
- Experience integrating automated testing into CI/CD pipelines.
- Experience with Harness or similar pipeline platforms.
- Monitoring & Observability
- Experience working with monitoring platforms such as Zabbix.
- Ability to use production monitoring data to drive quality improvements.
- Security Testing
- Understanding of secure testing practices, including:
- Static Application Security Testing (SAST)
- Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST)
- Software Composition Analysis (SCA)
- Ability to derive test scenarios from frameworks such as OWASP ASVS.
- Payment Messaging Standards
- Exposure to ISO 20022 payment messaging standards.
- Tools & Technologies
- Automation
- Playwright
- Selenium
- UFT
- API Testing
- Karate
- SoapUI
- Postman
- Payments Testing
- Mastercard MAS (Authorisation Simulator)
- Astrex ISO 8583 Simulator
- CI/CD
- Harness
- Monitoring
- Zabbix