Quality Assurance Automation Engineer

Role: Automation QA Engineer

Location: London or Newcastle – Hybrid Office & Home

Who Are We?

mkodo builds world class apps, middleware and digital products in the global lottery, betting, and gaming space.

We have an open, supportive, dynamic culture where talented people are trusted to contribute to the team and company by carrying out their roles in a professional, collaborative, and skilled manner. We value the expertise of our team members and offer opportunities for personal development and career progression within the company.

Acquired in February 2020, by Pollard Banknote Limited (PBL), a major supplier to the global lottery industries, brought mkodo strong financial security, access to resources and clients at a global level.

About the role:

A fantastic opportunity has arisen for an enthusiastic experienced Automation QA Engineer to join our growing team, based in either our Newcastle office on Dean Street or our London office in the city. This is an important role for the company as we have to ensure that we provide outstanding quality products to the thousands of customers who use them every day. The ideal candidate will have extensive hands-on Web testing experience and mobile native and web apps for both iOS and Android, including integration and acceptance testing.

The Automation QA Engineer in Test is a coder who is primarily responsible for creating automated tests and improving code testability. You are passionate about software quality and enjoy refactoring an automation framework to make it more efficient. You enjoy working as a team to identify which areas of the application to focus our automation efforts and increase code coverage.

Main responsibilities are:

• Actively participate in continuous application improvements by developing automated tests
• Coordinate with developers, QA analysts and product owners to produce stable, maintainable, and reliable automated tests.
• Ensure automated tests are effectively covering new product features and associated requirements.
• Analyse automated test results and improve automated test coverage to maintain product quality.
• Create intuitive, robust, and reusable test and automation interfaces using modern frameworks.
• Improve and implement automation framework code to expand automated test coverage.
• Be adaptable in learning new methodologies and technologies to improve the automated testing processes.
• Continually expand manual and automated tests by documenting test cases and increasing automated code coverage by creating automation scripts that assist in functional and regression testing.
• Proficient in being part of a scrum team, flushing out acceptance criteria along with creating and executing test cases.
• Be part of and contribute to the QA Team to consistently improve deliverables and quality.
• Estimate testing tasks in a timely manner.
• Logging, prioritising, and retesting bugs found.
• Ability to think outside the box of basic requirements and put yourself in the user’s shoes.
• Recommend improvements in software to enhance user experience.
• Motivate the development process for efficiency and performance.
• Work together with the software developer to enhance and improve deliverables.
• Maintain updated knowledge of industry trends and advancements for QA.
• Support mkodo in the implementation and ongoing maintenance of its ISO27001 Information Security Management System (ISMS).
• Adhere to all relevant mkodo ISO27001 Information Security Management System (ISMS) policies, procedures, and requirements at all times.
• Complete any reasonable tasks relating to the mkodo ISO27001 Information Security Management System (ISMS).

Key Skills & Attributes:

• University degree in Computer Science or related field
• 5+ years of experience in automation development.
• Proficiency in OOP using any of the following: JavaScript, C#, Java, Python, Ruby, with the ability to accommodate other programming languages as needed.
• Experience in writing maintainable code and creating automated test scripts for web and mobile.
• Proficiency with SQL and relational databases.
• Strong communication skills and ability to work in a team with minimal supervision.
• Experience in Agile development environments and the software development life cycle.
• Hands-on experience with version control systems like Git or Bitbucket.
• ISTQB Foundation or above qualified.
• Experience with BDD frameworks like Cucumber or SpecFlow; understanding of TDD.
• Experience with API testing tools like Postman or SoapUI.
• Understanding of CI/CD principles and managing tests in automated pipelines.
• Be able to coach colleagues in QA best practice.
• Online Betting/Gaming experience is an advantage.

Technical Skills:

• Strong skills in browser automation and backend API testing. For example, Cypress with JS.
• Experience with automation frameworks and tools such as Node.js, WDIO, Selenium WebDriver, Appium, Puppeteer, Playwright, TestNG.
• Experience with CI/CD tools like Jenkins.
• Understanding of performance/load testing tools like JMeter or similar.
• Familiarity with test management tools such as Jira or Redmine.

Benefits:

mkodo is a great place to work, along with a competitive renumeration package we offer excellent benefits comprising:

• Hybrid Working
• Generous Holiday Allowance (increasing with service)
• Gifted day over Christmas period
• Birthday off!
• Performance Bonus & Profit Share Scheme
• Quarterly team events
• Group income protection
• Life Insurance
• Charity/Volunteer Day
• Tech Loan Scheme
• Cycle to Work Scheme
• Contributory Pension
• Employee Assistance Programme
• Home working expense payment when joining
• Relevant individual training budget.
• Digital Nomad Policy
• Generous refer a friend scheme.

We encourage growth and progression because we value our colleagues and know that we best succeed when achieving and developing together. If this is the opportunity you have been waiting for, to work in a fast-paced company with innovative products and cutting-edge technology, please apply now.

PLEASE NOTE THE CANDIDATES MUST HAVE THE RIGHT TO WORK IN THE UK.