Lead Software Development Engineer In Test

Software Development Engineer In Test (SDET)

Hiscox Re & ILS is actively seeking a dynamic Software Development Engineer in Test (SDET) to support our Re & ILS Engineering team and immediately get involved in shaping the way we ensure quality across our technology ecosystem.

We are looking for an enthusiastic and self-motivated individual who will embed quality into everything we do, ensuring that requirements are effectively converted into automated tests that guarantee our technologies are stable, reliable and performant.

We have a hybrid on-premise / Azure cloud infrastructure and are adopting a cloudfirst / provider-agnostic approach as we undertake technology transformation. Our technology platforms include:

• On-premise WPF applications developed in C#, interacting with backend Microsoft SQL Server databases.
• "API-first", product-focused web applications built in Microsoft Azure and Third Party technologies
• A Snowflake cloud data warehouse orchestrated with Python code, dbt and Prefect, currently using Azure Data Factory for ELT.
• Service lifecycle management using tools such as Jira and Azure DevOps.

Within this role you will establish and maintain automated testing frameworks to ensure the quality of our web applications, APIs and data platforms. This will involve the use of techniques including Postman / Newman automation, Playwright testing of web applications, testing of Windows Presentation Foundation applications using Tricentis Tosca, and behaviour-driven testing of executable specifications using the Gherkin given/when/then syntax.

You will ensure that our test suites give appropriate coverage to reduce the chance of regression including tests of application performance under realistic loads. You will also ensure that our disaster recovery and failover protocols are fully tested. In order to achieve this, you will have good understanding of key components of our underlying technologies including C#, JavaScript, JSON and SQL.

As a technologist you will drive improvement of our testing landscape, evaluating and adopting new technologies as required. You will serve as a source of expertise and advocate for quality engineering across the Re & ILS Technology team. You will guide cross-discipline squads and influence them to ensure they build quality assurance and unit testing into their solutions from the ground-up. You will be a fierce proponent of requirements-driven testing.

We need someone who can help deliver value incrementally to the business, understanding what agility really is and always looks to keep things simple by avoiding excessive amounts of code, wherever possible. You will understand best practices in the cloud and the importance of DevOps, and ensure we can easily build, deploy and monitor solutions when they go into production.

Within this role you will be…

• ensuring hands-on development of both testing frameworks and specific tests for APIs, data platforms and web applications.
• creating and working within a specialist quality engineering practice for Hiscox Re & ILS with a 'right-tool-for-the-job' mentality; researching, evaluating and adopting new technologies.
• balancing speed of delivery with quality ensuring your solutions are always appropriate and not overly-complex or over-engineered.
• enabling progression of projects from PoC through production and into BAU.
• communicating and presenting ideas to colleagues in all parts of the wider business.
• working with offshore partner QA engineers and testers in India and Poland, and onsite staff in the London and Lisbon Hiscox office.
• Actively participating in and promoting a wider Hiscox community of practice for all quality engineers

Technical skills will include:

• Sound understanding of testing methodologies including behaviour-driven testing, unit testing and data-driven testing.
• Ability to take an automation-first approach to quality engineering.
• Experience developing testing frameworks for data sciences
• Familiarity with the Python testing framework pytest and its behavioural extension pytest-bdd
• Behaviour-driven testing of executable specifications e.g. using Gherkin.
• Sufficient SQL expertise to develop effective backend database tests.
• Good understanding of DevOps principals.
• Experience working in a truly agile style.
• Experience in working with version control tools like git.
• Experience with both cloud and on-premises solutions.
• Commercial savvy necessary to ensure work is prioritised and targeted appropriately.
• Good Team Player.
• Excellent Communication skills.

Desirable:

• Familiarity with Snowflake and Prefect
• Experience developing testing frameworks for web applications using tools such as Playwright.
• Experience of using Tricentis Tosca for WPF applications.
• Experience building tests into Azure DevOps pipelines.
• Familiarity with C# testing frameworks.
• Exposure to Docker / Familiarity of containerization would be advantageous.
• Experience performance and volume testing APIs using tools like JMeter (or similar).
• Particular understanding of the Azure cloud.

At Hiscox we care about our people. We hire the best people for the job and we're committed to diversity and creating a truly inclusive culture, which we believe drives success.

We have also learned over the past 15 months that working life doesn't always have to be in the office, and when it's safe to do so, we will be introducing hybrid ways of working to encourage a healthy work life balance.

We anticipate the successful candidate for this role will be in the office up to 3 days per fortnight.

We see it as the best of both worlds: structure and sociability on one hand, and independence and flexibility on the other.

Work with amazing people and be part of a unique culture