Lead QA Engineer - FTC; office locations

Position: Lead QA Engineer - 12 Month FTC  (we have office locations  and )
Company Description

Genomics England is a global leader in enabling genomic medicine and research, focused on creating a world where everyone benefits from genomic healthcare. Building on the 100,000 Genomes Project, we support the NHS’s world-first national whole genome sequencing service and run the growing National Genomic Research Library, alongside delivering numerous major genomics initiatives. By connecting research and clinical care at national scale, we enable immediate healthcare benefits and advances for the future.

Our mission is to provide the evidence and digital systems so that by 2035 genomics could play a role in up to half of all healthcare interactions, whilst securing the UK’s position as the best place to discover, prove and benefit from genomic innovations.

We are accelerating our impact and working with patients, doctors, scientists, government and industry to improve genomic testing, and help researchers access the health data and technology they need to make new medical discoveries and create more effective, targeted medicines for everybody.

Behind the Healthcare and Research outcomes, Genomics England delivers through designing, developing and operating complex healthcare software systems.

We're on the cusp of big changes with the real prospect of genomics becoming the fabric of everyday healthcare through the lifetime - from birth to old age.

Job Description

This is a senior, hands-on Lead QA role, responsible for strategy, frameworks, and raising QA standards across multiple squads.

As a Lead QA Engineer at Genomics England with deep Java expertise, you’ll own the technical direction of quality across the organisation, tackling complex testing challenges and driving best practice ’ll shape how we approach testing, define standards, and act as a hands-on authority in modern QA. This role is about influence and expertise rather than people management, combining strategic thinking with strong technical delivery.

You’ll confidently and expertly design, build, and evolve automation test frameworks, act as a trusted authority across tribes, and mentor engineers/teams to raise skills and standards. Working closely with engineering leadership and product squads, you’ll take ownership of ensuring our systems are resilient, performant, and secure.

A real hands-on Lead QA role where your technical expertise sets the standard and you stay close to the code and tooling. You’ll shape QA strategy, mentor teams, and drive quality across the organisation while delivering quality at scale.

Everyday responsibilities include:

Act as a cross-tribe source of expertise in automation, performance, resilience, and security testing

Design, build, and maintain robust test frameworks with a strong emphasis on Java and Playwright

Guide squads in embedding automated, performance, and security testing into CI/CD pipelines

Mentor QA engineers and developers, raising skills and confidence across teams

Produce clear, practical documentation and “golden paths” that help squads adopt best practice

Lead initiatives to improve test tooling, documentation, and knowledge sharing

Collaborate with engineering leadership to embed test practices into CI/CD pipelines and shift testing left

Define, track, and report on testing effectiveness metrics

Stay current with new tools and techniques, bringing fresh thinking into our QA strategy

Essential skills and experience:

Strong hands-on programming with both Java and Playwright

Demonstrable experience designing and maintaining automation frameworks (e.g. Selenium Web Driver, JUnit, TestNG, REST-assured)

Proven track record in performance testing (e.g. JMeter, Locust)

Confident with security testing tools (e.g. OWASP Zap, Snyk)

Experience embedding QA into CI/CD pipelines (e.g. Git Lab, Jenkins)

Proven experience designing and implementing scalable test automation strategies and frameworks across multiple projects

AWS/cloud-based testing experience (Terraform, containers, serverless, monitoring)

Experience mentoring, coaching, and leading on QA strategy

Nice to have:

Modern UI testing tools (e.g. Cypress, Browserstack, Robot Framework)

Contract or mock API testing (e.g. PACT, Wire Mock)

Acces…