About the job

Summary

The first duty of the government is to keep citizens safe and the country secure. The Home Office has been at the front line of this effort since 1782. As such, we play a fundamental role in maintaining the security and economic prosperity of the UK.

The Home Office leads on immigration and passports, refugee protection, counterterrorism, policing, fire services, and crime and drugs policy. Digital Data and Technology (DDaT) enables the Home Office to keep the UK safe and secure. We design and build the services that help people apply for visas or passports; support policing and counter-terrorism operations; and protect the UK’s borders.

This is an exciting time to be at the Home Office. You’ll have a chance to shape the future and support our mission of putting users at the heart of everything we do, we work collaboratively to design, deliver and continuously improve the digital products and services that enable a safe, fair and prosperous UK.

Our flexible working policy ensures a healthy work-life balance. We also nurture talent and offer a broad range of learning and development opportunities that will help you flourish in your role. We work hard to maintain a positive working culture and are committed to helping you fulfil your potential.

We value diversity and provide an open, inclusive and supportive environment to help you do your best work.

Job description

Quality Assurance and Testing (QAT) is an important part of the Home Office mission. Everyone is responsible for quality and we have a team of skilled people who make sure quality is delivered in the most effective way. This means getting fast feedback, understanding how a service performs, and helping the development team to make more informed decisions. We value automating as much of the test effort as possible allowing our team of specialists and domain experts to undertake better evaluations.

Representing a Test Maturity Model Integration (TMMi) Level 5 certified QA and Test function, you will work within a significant area of IT delivery.

You will have an opportunity to promote quality outcomes and value across the organisation, further developing your own analytical, delivery management and leadership skills with a focus on helping the organisation to deliver high quality outcomes at pace whilst honing stakeholder engagement and continuous improvement.

As a Principal Quality Assurance and Testing (QAT) Delivery Owner, you’ll be critical to overseeing QAT projects, dealing with risks and issues, setting the direction for QAT and implementing QAT approaches.

You will be expected to provide technical leadership and assurance on improving the way things are done, providing advice and direction to others within the QAT community. You will work with senior delivery partners to make sure QAT is embedded by default into the development approach.

To help the QAT practice thrive, you will call on your expertise in emerging tools and approaches and apply these to help the organisation deliver better success.

Working across multiple complex project teams, you will promote quality outcomes and values across the organisation. You will further develop your leadership skills with a focus on helping the project team deliver high quality outcomes at pace.

You will work with business stakeholders, understanding their needs and translating them into a QAT approach. Within the DDaT community, you will lead on sharing and collaborating with others to promote the value of QAT.

There is an outstanding opportunity to lead the delivery of QAT services for our mission-critical DDaT Migration and Borders Technology Portfolio (MBTP). MBTP is an award-winning delivery partner in the Digital, Data and Technology (DDaT) directorate. They drive digital ambitions, design appropriate solutions, and deliver digital services quickly and effectively. Their work makes a real difference in helping the Home Office achieve its ambitions to keep citizens safe and the country secure.

MBTP’s work has a major impact on some of the most critical systems and services in the UK in a high-profile area attracting huge interest from ministers, wider government, the media and the public. Some recent delivery successes include the Future Borders and Immigration System (FBIS), EU Settlement Scheme, Passenger Health Locator Form, the Access UK application service and Atlas casework system.

Supporting MBTP there are two roles to lead the delivery of QAT services into large-scale portfolios, playing a critical part in providing Digital, data and technology services to the Home Office, supporting vital national infrastructure and Home Office services.

Location

QAT base locations are primarily in Croydon, with a small number of roles in Central London. All QAT roles require flexibility of location, including working from supplier sites and other business locations across the UK and occasionally abroad. Flexible, hybrid working arrangements apply with a minimum requirement of 40% time to be based in the workplace(s).

Recruitment and Retention Allowance (RRA):

This post is eligible for a DDaT RRA. Successful Candidates with exceptional skills and experience will attract RRA up to a maximum of £12,000. This allowance is subject to an initial review within six months of taking up the post and thereafter an annual review in line with departmental priorities. Please note that the amount of RRA could be reduced or withdrawn at any time.

Responsibilities

Your main day to day responsibilities will be (but not limited to):

Setting the portfolio level strategy for the initiation, delivery and development of QAT solutions, working towards delivery using product lifecycle management approaches.

Working in collaboration with senior delivery partners in QAT, DDaT and more broadly across the organisation or wider industry, to ensure that effective and efficient QAT capabilities are developed and fully integrated into the software development process.

Establishing and maintaining effective commercial partnerships, working with a diverse range of specialist QAT service providers to build multi-disciplined teams.

Providing technical leadership and assurance on the wider application of QAT solutions, influencing the effectiveness and delivery of quality practices throughout the portfolio.

Leading QAT teams throughout the delivery process through the influential provision of technical leadership and guidance.

Delivering a refreshed QA Strategy across the portfolio to align with the Portfolio's Target Operating Model.

Identifying and driving forward the development of QAT capabilities within the QAT organisation, including continuous professional development and exploitation of new and emerging industry leading technologies.

Essential Criteria

You’ll have a demonstrable passion for QAT Delivery, with the following skills or strong experience in:

• Defining QAT strategies at department or organisational level, aligning to business goals and delivery approach (including within modern continuous integration/release and Agile environments).

• Ensuring critical activities including automation, performance, security, accessibility and acceptance are embedded within the QAT/development approach.

• Translating strategies into practical, risk-based plans, including test and assurance activities across the delivery lifecycle and coordinating technical dependencies, schedules, and cost/resource profiles.

• Working at senior leadership level, establishing and maintaining extensive stakeholder networks and actively engaging other senior leaders to communicate and agree complex strategies and technical plans.

• Working in a highly technical environment, requiring a broad range of internal and external integration, ensuring the deployment of a broad range of tools and test environment options including open source technologies, automation frameworks and modern platforms.

• Designing, building, deploying and improving QAT capabilities (people, process and technology) which support the implementation of QA, Testing and Software Development strategies.

• Leading a large QAT service or team of multi-disciplined QAT professionals.

The skills listed above are reflective of the Home Office DDaT Profession Skills and Competency Model (based on the industry standard SFIA framework). Please see below for the relevant skills required for your role:

Strategy and Architecture

Strategic Planning (ITSP) – Level 5

Test Analysis, Design and Execution – Level 4

Automation and Tooling – Level 4

Performance Testing – Level 4

Integration and Assurance – Level 5

Technical Breadth – Level 4

Desirable Criteria

You may also hold the following desirable qualifications or have equivalent experience:

• ISTQB - Advanced Test Manager

• BCS Agile Practitioner

• ISQi Certified Agile Tester

• CITP Level Membership

Behaviours

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Communicating and Influencing
• Making Effective Decisions
• Seeing the Big Picture