Lead Test Engineer (Principal SDET)

We're looking for a Lead Test Engineer for our public sector client with locations across Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham and Newcastle on an initial 12-month contract, paying up to £640 per day (Inside IR35). This role requires 60% office attendance per week.

Responsibilities:

• Hands‑on technical leader with an automation‑first mindset, setting direction and rolling up sleeves to deliver.
• Define and embed a scalable test strategy across multiple delivery teams, supporting a major transition from monolithic systems to modern microservices architecture.
• Lead or Principal level influence; coach engineers across multiple teams and influence stakeholders.

Qualifications:

• Proven experience designing and implementing end‑to‑end test strategies for microservices environments.
• Hands‑on automation using Java, Selenium and Rest Assured across unit, integration, contr...