Senior Test Engineer (£44,241 - £58,793)

Posting date:	03 March 2026
Salary:	£44,241 per year
Additional salary information:	As this role is GDAD an additional allowance of up to £14,552 can be applicable.
Hours:	Full time
Closing date:	13 March 2026
Location:	Newcastle-upon-Tyne
Company:	Government Recruitment Service
Job type:	Permanent
Job reference:	451183/5

Summary

The Strategy, Policy, Digital & Technology Directorate plays a central role in delivering DVSA’s digital services that support road safety and compliance across the UK. The Test Engineering team sits within this directorate and is responsible for ensuring high-quality, reliable, and scalable digital products. Working closely with product, delivery, and engineering teams, the group embeds quality from the outset of development, balancing manual and automated testing to provide confidence in delivery. The team drives improvements in testing practices, builds reusable frameworks, and promotes a culture of collaboration, early engagement, and continuous improvement to meet both user needs and DVSA’s strategic goals.

Joining our department comes with many benefits, including:

• Employer pension contribution of 28.97% of your salary. Read more about Civil Service Pensions here
• 25 days annual leave, increasing by 1 day each year of service (up to a maximum of 30 days annual leave), plus 8 bank holidays a privilege day for the King’s birthday
• Flexible working options where we encourage a great work-life balance.

Read more in the Benefits section below!

Find out more about what it's like working at Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency - Department for Transport Careers

Your responsibilities will include, but aren’t limited to:

• Leading the planning, execution, and reporting of testing activities using appropriate test tools and frameworks.
• Applying and optimising existing test tools, frameworks, and reusable assets to improve test efficiency and coverage.
• Embedding quality from the start by defining acceptance criteria and promoting early engagement in testing activities.
• Collaborating with cross-functional teams to align testing priorities with user needs, business value, and product risk.
• Providing expert guidance on defect management, test analysis, and continuous improvement of testing practices.
• Driving consistency in testing approaches, standards, and ways of working across delivery teams.
• Using data insights and defect trends to recommend changes that improve quality outcomes and reduce escaped defects.
• Mentoring and coaching colleagues to strengthen testing capability, confidence, and shared ownership of quality.

Great line management is important to us as an organisation, and we will equip and support line managers to develop the skills they need. We aim to empower line managers to create teams where people can flourish and deliver excellent outcomes for the public.

For further information on the role, please read the attached role profile. Please note that the role profile is for information purposes only - whilst all elements are relevant to the role, they may not all be assessed during the recruitment process. This job advert will detail exactly what will be assessed during the recruitment process.

Open Sessions: Would you like to find out more about the role, the team and what it’s like to work in our department? If so, we are organising an open session where you can virtually 'meet the team' on the 5th March 2026 – invite link here

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About Disability Confident

A Disability Confident employer will generally offer an interview to any applicant that declares they have a disability and meets the minimum criteria for the job as defined by the employer. It is important to note that in certain recruitment situations such as high-volume, seasonal and high-peak times, the employer may wish to limit the overall numbers of interviews offered to both disabled people and non-disabled people. For more details please go to Disability Confident.