Lead Test Engineer​/Principal Sdet

LEAD TEST ENGINEER / PRINCIPAL SDET

• Lead Test Engineer / Principal SDET role on a major digital transformation programme
• £640 per day via Umbrella | Initial 12-month contract
• Full-time on-site in Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham, or Newcastle

Our client is a leading digital consultancy delivering large-scale transformation programmes across complex enterprise and public sector environments. Their teams specialise in modern cloud‑native engineering, scalable architecture, and high-quality software delivery practices. Due to continued programme growth, they are looking for an experienced Lead Test Engineer / Principal SDET to help drive engineering quality and automation strategy across multiple delivery teams.

As the Lead Test Engineer / Principal SDET, you will play a key role in defining and embedding a scalable, automation‑first testing strategy across multiple engineering teams.

You will lead the design and implementation of automated testing frameworks within modern Java and microservices environments, supporting the transition from monolithic systems to modern microservices architecture. You’ll also be helping teams improve quality engineering practices across unit, integration, contract, system, and end‑to‑end testing.

This is a hands‑on technical leadership role where you will actively contribute to engineering solutions while influencing best practice, governance, and quality standards across the programme.

• Strong experience designing test strategies for microservices architectures
• Hands‑on automation testing experience using Java, Selenium, and Rest Assured
• Experience with API, contract, integration, and end‑to‑end testing
• Strong understanding of CI/CD pipelines and Dev Ops practices
• Experience working with Spring Boot applications and distributed systems
• Knowledge of Kafka, contract testing, and asynchronous messaging
• Experience with AWS cloud environments
• Understanding of performance and non‑functional testing
  
  Experience with modern tooling including Docker, Jenkins, Git Hub/Git Lab, Grafana, or Splunk
• Strong stakeholder engagement and technical leadership skills
• Ability to work across multiple teams driving engineering standards and best practice