Senior Test Automation Engineer

Senior Test Automation Engineer , ACT, Baseline, 12 months +12 months

Estimated start: 1 January 2027

Level: APS6 equivalent

Senior Test Automation Engineer for a federal government engagement in Canberra. You will design, build and improve automated testing solutions across complex digital and legacy environments, combining strong software engineering skills with risk-based testing and quality assurance.

This opportunity is available to candidates based in ACT or willing to relocate to Canberra for the engagement. Any hybrid arrangement is subject to approval and requires the ability to attend onsite when needed.

Key responsibilities

• Design, develop and maintain scalable automation frameworks, reusable libraries and test suites covering API, UI, integration, system and end-to-end testing.

• Develop risk-based test approaches, plans, regression packs, acceptance criteria and quality gates, maintaining traceability across requirements, tests, defects and results.

• Integrate automated testing into CI/CD pipelines, source control and release processes, including smoke testing, regression testing and deployment verification.

• Establish repeatable test data and environment configurations, using synthetic or masked data where appropriate.

• Investigate test failures, incidents and defects, perform root cause analysis and translate recurring production issues into automated regression coverage.

• Assess automation suitability, maintainability, risk and value.

• Report on automation coverage, reliability, defect trends, quality risks and measurable improvements.

• Review automation code and test designs, mentor staff and strengthen testing standards and practices.

• Collaborate with developers, architects, business analysts, operations teams and business stakeholders.

• Manage competing priorities and escalate material quality, delivery, security and operational risks.

Essential skills and experience

• Demonstrated experience designing, coding, implementing and maintaining scalable test automation frameworks and reusable test suites.

• Strong programming or scripting skills in Java, C#, Python, JavaScript/TypeScript or an equivalent language.

• Practical experience automating API, integration, UI and end-to-end testing using contemporary tools and engineering practices.

• Experience integrating automated testing with CI/CD pipelines, source control, branching strategies, automated quality gates and actionable reporting.

• Strong capability in risk-based test design, defect investigation, root cause analysis, test data and environment management.

• Demonstrated application of maintainable, reliable and secure engineering practices.

• Strong stakeholder engagement, mentoring and continuous improvement skills.

• Relevant tertiary qualifications, industry certifications or equivalent demonstrated experience in software engineering, testing or quality engineering.

Desirable experience

• Software development experience covering application design, coding, code reviews, debugging, secure development and application lifecycle management.

• Experience across modern digital platforms and legacy enterprise systems.

• Development of reusable software components, supporting utilities and automation frameworks.

• Conversion of production incidents and recurring defects into targeted regression tests.

• Experience with enterprise API testing tools, test management platforms and DevOps tooling.

• ISTQB or equivalent testing, software engineering, DevOps or quality engineering certifications.

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