QA Engineer

Ecotricity, a pioneering green energy company, seeks a QA engineer to enhance its digital services and quality assurance capabilities. The role involves creating automated tests for a distributed system using AWS and microservices, collaborating closely with developers in a Scrum team. Candidates should have experience with automated integration tests, testing native apps, and a passion for sustainability is beneficial. The company offers flexible working hours, healthcare benefits, and a focus on employee development. Ecotricity's mission is to transform energy production in Britain by prioritising renewable sources and sustainable practices.

*About The Role*
Ecotricity is a company with a vision to make Britain green. We’ve been named in The Times 2016 top ten most disruptive organisations.
As part of our vision we don’t just supply energy we also generate energy, run the world’s first UN certified carbon neutral & vegan football club, operate a nationwide electric vehicle changing network, to name just a few – and our Technology and Transformation team works across it all.
Our entire business relies on digital channels but the truth is we’re only getting started. As we reimagine our digital services from the ground up, we know we need to build out our quality assurance capabilities, so we continue to provide a great service for our customers, both external and internal.
You’ll be working across all our technologies either in our Bristol Tech Hub or HQ in Stroud, collaborating with developers, QAs, product owners and project managers.
We’re well on our way with creating a distributed system utilising much of what AWS offers. Utilising cloud-based architecture and microservices, we’re able to focus on using the right tools for the job but this can come with some interesting challenges when it comes to testing. You’ll have real input on the technology and tool choices we make.
You’ll be working as part of a Scrum team, ensuring the features we’re delivering maintain our high standards. This will require you to create stable and trusted automated tests (functional, integration, end-to-end) andwork closely with the development team to ensure we’re using automation in our tests correctly.
We’re innovating at a rapid pace, making use of Serverless technologies and creating greenfield native apps using Kotlin and Swift. This is a role for a forward-thinking QA engineer who would rather focus on automation than manual testing.
Experience creating automated integration tests that work with distributed microservice architectures and functional tests that work with both iOS and Android is a must.
*About You*
We’re heavy users of AWS, Node.JS and Serverless technologies, but we recognise that not every company has the same stack and really value choosing the right tool for the job. If you don’t have experience with testing software built using our specific stack, that’s okay. We’re looking for someone who will help us make the right technology choices and has experience testing native apps, web, and distributed systems.
Part of choosing the right tool means we aren’t afraid to use the latest services on offer to provide the best solution – so you shouldn’t be afraid to try (andsometimes fail & learn from) new tools, services, frameworks and methodologies.
As a disruptive company wanting to make ‘Britain Green’, a passion for sustainability and environmental issues is a bonus.
We love to see the Github profiles of candidates (don’t worry, we’ve all got unfinished side-projects and non-production code on ours). If you have any cool projects or Open Source software in the wild, we’d love to hear about that too.
*What you will do*
You’ll be helping us build out our QA capabilities – we’re moving on from QA being a side job performed by Product Owners and business representatives to QA having and equal footing between our Customer, Services and Business development teams that make up our Software Engineering department.
You will lead the development of automated tests that are fully integrated into our CI/CD pipeline and work with the rest of the scrum team to maintain tests and crucially ensure that tests written by others are written following the best practices and are testing the right things.
No one wants to be running repetitive manual tests, but we also know automation isn’t the right solution everytime.You’ll work with the whole team to define when and how to automate and when to take a different approach.
As the role of a formal QA is new to Ecotricity, the team is small, so you’ll have plenty of opportunities to work across multiple teams, technologies and projects and learn new skills.
We want to move the whole team’s knowledge forward so we love pairing and sharing our knowledge and experience, so you will spend some time working with other developers and planning knowledge sharing workshops.
We also want you working at your best so we are flexible on working hours (core hours around 09:30 – 16:30, 7.5 hours Monday to Thursday and we finish an hour early on Friday) and we are very open to some working from home.
*About Us*
*What’s in it for you…*
Healthcare plan, life assurance and generous pension contribution
Volunteering Day
Hybrid Working
Various company discounts (including shops, gyms, days out and events)
Holiday of 25 days (plus bank holidays) & ability to buy/sell days
Cycle to work scheme, car pooling and onsite parking available
As a valued member of the team, you will be supporting the Group Environmental Policy and its associated sustainability objectives and targets.
*Flexibility statement*
The fast moving nature of the company’s business means that from time to time you may be asked to perform duties or tasks outside of your original job description on an ad hoc basis. This allows the company to use its people in the best possible way at all times and helps the employees to make their contribution in a changing environment.
Ecotricity is Britain’s greenest energy company. When we started back in 1995, we were the first company in the world to provide a new kind of electricity – the green kind.
Our mission was, and remains, to change the way energy is made and used in Britain – by replacing fossil fuels with clean, renewable energy.
We don’t just supply green energy, we use the money from our customers’ bills to make it ourselves too – we build windmills, sun parks and green gasmills in Britain. We call this turning ‘bills into mills’. Some of our biggest achievements to date include building Britain’s first megawatt windmill and the country’s first grid-scale sun park, as well as building our first green gasmill, generating 100% green gas from a source that we will never run out of grass.
We don’t just focus on energy though- we built the Electric Highway, Britain’s leading network of electric vehicle charging points; we helped Forest Green Rovers become the greenest football club in the world; and we launched Britain’s greenest mobile phone service, Ecotalk, where they use the money from their customers’ bills to protect and regenerate Britain’s lost rainforests.
_Ecotricity is an equal opportunities employer and is committed to providing equality for all._
Job Types: Full-time, Permanent
Application question(s):
* Ecotricity offers hybrid working. Are you able to reliably commute to our Stroud office 2/3 days per week?
* Will you now or in the future require sponsorship for employment visa status?
Work authorisation:
* United Kingdom (preferred)
Work Location: In person
Reference ID: 2408