Senior Software Test Engineer - London

Technology. Award-winning customer service. Bleeding-edge data ability.

Simply Business is a new type of insurance company, using all of the above to create the best possible insurance experience for small businesses and self-employed people.

We love working here, and have even taken the number one spot in the Sunday Times Best Company To Work For 2015 and 16 lists; we’ve stopped entering now to focus on a few bigger projects, but you get the idea. It’s a great place to work.

There are currently over 400,000 active Simply Business insurance policies in the UK alone. And we have offices in London, Northampton and Boston, USA.

Talking of offices, ours are bright, airy and geared up for really smart working. We’re flexible, with plenty of remote workers coming in and out, and we believe work and life should be hand in hand, rather than a juggling act. So no need to worry about school pick-ups, or a horrible commute.

Our people are our most important asset, so we focus on building a working life that helps us thrive, not stick. Join us and you’ll be part of our journey to creating something even better, for our customers and ourselves.

The role

This role is more than a practitioner role - it’s a coaching role as well.

The focus of “testing” in the industry has missed a massive opportunity for spreading the wealth of testing knowledge into engineering organisations. You’ll be working directly with your peers to identify and communicate risks before development starts.

You’ll help developers understand quality and learn how to test for themselves, making teams more efficient and increasing code quality.

As a Senior Software Test Engineer you will:

• define testing strategies pre-implementation
• work closely with developers during implementation to ensure appropriate type and levels of testing
• perform functional and non-functional testing
• help other team members share responsibility of designing and performing tests
• emphasise the importance of executing the right test
• collaborate with product managers, have an understanding of what to test & deliver
• help the team create well-defined testable acceptance criteria
• help the team to perform testing during earliest stages of implementation
• be involved in the pull request review process

Responsibilities include:

• assisting in root cause analysis with customer facing issues and resolving gaps in test approach
• creating and improving automated tests
• choosing and using appropriate testing tools and techniques to assess quality
• working with testing community to improve test strategies & automation efficiencies

What we are looking for:

• critical & lateral thinking
• systematic & systems thinking
• a change agent with effective soft skills
• product focused - an ability to gain a deep understanding of the domain and our business over time
• the mindset to solve problems not symptoms
• a thought leader with a passion for training, mentoring and coaching others
• understand the value of different types of testing techniques and when to apply them
• fast to adapt to constant changes and feeling comfortable with it
• comfortable pairing with engineers in a distributed, co-located environment
• a focus on what is most important at all times, realising when to change the game plan and when to stick to it
• great communication skills, both within and outside the team
• curiosity in understanding the domain and system architecture
• have demonstrated ownership of continuous improvement initiatives around testing
• strong understanding of Agile
• proficiency in at least one programming language, Ruby experience is not essential - you’ll just need to be happy to cross-over to Ruby if you join us, and we’ll support you with that
• understand BDD, ability to work with product managers and developers to clarify business rules and capture these for automated verification

What are the benefits?

There’s all the serious (but important) stuff we call ‘core benefits’. On top of that, you can pick and choose from the more exciting options we offer – whether it’s a full gym membership or gym subsidy, comprehensive private health cover, extra holiday, or a National Trust pass.

The ‘core’ stuff

Some of these will kick in once you’re confirmed in post, but here’s the summary:

• a salary that reflects your experience, our pay policy and the market we’re in from your first day, generous annual leave
• life assurance (financial cover for your family, should the worst happen)
• a cash plan to reimburse your everyday medical expenses
• an extra day off if you get married or move house
• an automatic enrolment pension (employer-matched at 5%)

The fun stuff

Passed probation? Time to pick and mix from things like:

• a full gym membership
• private medical insurance
• extra days annual leave
• shopping vouchers
• dental insurance
• travel insurance

But there’s so much more to Simply Business than insurance and memberships. We also commit to flexible working options, smart working (our offices are kitted out for you to work when and how you choose), cycle to work, eye test vouchers, and season ticket loan schemes, and we have a handy online form to put in any training or conference requests.

Best of all, though, are the groups, clubs, and adventures that come with the Simply Business territory. Forget a simple Give As You Earn scheme (although we’ve got that too) – we trek the Sahara for charity, take you on weekends away, throw epic summer parties, and meet up for book groups, public speaking coaching, yoga, manicures, beer brewing, and lots, lots more.

Location

Bank, London

The Simply Business culture is truly unique. And you sort of have to come and spend time with us to appreciate it. So get that application in and we’ll take it from there.