Test Engineer

Test Engineer Manchester (Hybrid - 2 Days per Week in the Office) £40,000 - £45,000 + Bonus + Excellent Benefits

We're recruiting on behalf of a market-leading online gambling business that continues to invest heavily in technology, innovation and customer experience. Due to continued growth, they're looking to appoint a QA Engineer to join their Manchester-based engineering team.

This is an excellent opportunity for a QA professional who enjoys working closely with Developers, Product teams and Technical Leads to drive quality throughout the Software Development Lifecycle. You'll play a key role in ensuring robust testing practices are embedded across delivery, helping to deliver highly reliable and scalable platforms used by thousands of customers. The Role As a QA Engineer, you'll be part of a collaborative Agile delivery team, supporting quality-first engineering practices from design through to production. You'll be responsible for ensuring tests are applied at the right level, identifying risks early, and carrying out exploratory testing to uncover issues that scripted and automated tests may miss.

You'll also contribute to observability-led quality, using monitoring, metrics and logging to understand system reliability, performance and user experience across live environments.

The role will suit someone who enjoys hands-on backend testing and working with APIs, databases and event-driven architectures within a fast-paced technology environment. Key Responsibilities

Apply QA best practices within an Agile delivery team.

Support shift-left testing by reviewing requirements and designs to ensure solutions are testable from the outset.

Execute testing at the appropriate level of the testing pyramid.

Carry out exploratory testing to uncover defects and validate user journeys.

Perform backend testing across APIs, databases and integrated systems.

Contribute to observability-led quality through monitoring, metrics, logging and alerting.

Collaborate closely with Developers, Product Owners, UX teams and Technical Leads.

Identify, communicate and manage quality risks and defects.

Support continuous improvement initiatives across testing processes and practices.

Assist with quality reporting, defect management and delivery metrics.

Support automation initiatives where appropriate.

Skills & Experience Required

Previous experience working as a QA Engineer, Test Analyst or Software Tester.

Strong understanding of the Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC).

Experience working within Agile and/or Kanban environments.

Strong knowledge of Shift Left Testing, Shift Right Testing and testability principles.

Hands-on experience with backend testing, including API testing and database testing.

Strong SQL skills.

Experience with exploratory testing.

Experience testing messaging or streaming platforms such as RabbitMQ and Kafka.

Knowledge of data validation and data integrity checks, particularly within real-time or event-driven systems.

Strong analytical, troubleshooting and problem-solving skills.

Ability to balance quality, risk and delivery timescales effectively.

Desirable

Experience with test automation tools and frameworks.

Knowledge of OpenAPI specifications.

Experience supporting automation strategies within Agile teams.

What's in It for You?

Salary of £40,000 - £45,000

Generous discretionary bonus scheme

Competitive pension contribution

Hybrid working model with 2 days per week in the Manchester office

Ongoing learning and development opportunities

Collaborative and supportive engineering culture

Opportunity to work for a market-leading business operating at scale within the online gambling sector

Guidant, Carbon60, Lorien & SRG - The Vertage Group Portfolio are acting as an Employment Business in relation to this vacancy.