Software Engineer in Test Automation at Financialtimes33

About us The Financial Times is one of the world’s leading news organisations, globally recognised for its authority, integrity and accuracy, with a mission to deliver quality information and services worldwide. At the FT, curiosity thrives and ambitious thinking is rewarded. Together, we help audiences stay better informed and deepen their understanding of the world around them. Our Product & Tech teams drive us forward in an ever-evolving digital landscape, delivering cutting-edge products to over one million digital subscribers daily. Our growth relies on a diverse, dedicated and dynamic group of product, tech, delivery and data specialists. With a supportive culture, entrepreneurial spirit and opportunities at every turn, there are no limits to where your FT career can take you. Build a newsworthy career at the FT. Our commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion We believe in the power of unique perspectives and want all voices in our organisation to be heard, respected and valued. A supportive workplace is one where employees feel they can be themselves and operate to their full potential. We are committed to removing barriers for everyone, with a focus on addressing those faced by underrepresented groups. The Role We’re looking for a Software Engineer in Test Automation who is passionate about engineering scalable quality systems and automated guardrails that ensure confidence in every deployment of FT”s award-winning digital products. You’ll join the Mobile Apps team, a multidisciplinary, cross-functional group focused on delivering an outstanding mobile experience for our world class news. You’ll collaborate closely with engineers, product managers, business analysts and designers and QA Engineers to build scalable automation frameworks, integrate with CI/CD systems, and ensure high confidence in every deployment across our web and mobile platforms. What You’ll Do Test Automation, Tooling & Quality Systems • Design, develop and maintain robust, reusable, and scalable automated test frameworks using tools like Selenium, Cypress, Appium or Playwright. • Integrate automated tests in CI/CD pipelines to support rapid, reliable delivery • Optimise test suites for speed, stability, and clarity of failure • Maintain infrastructure and tooling for distributed and parallel test execution (e.g Sauce Labs, BrowserStack, AWS Device Farm) Test Strategy & Quality Practices • Analyse user stories and system architecture to define effective and proportionate test coverage • Design and implement functional, regression, smoke, and integration test scenarios • Collaborate with teams to shift quality left by identifying risks early and integrating testability into software design • Drive test data strategy and support deterministic, data-driven testing • Make pragmatic trade-offs between delivery speed, risk, and quality Monitoring, Troubleshooting & Collaboration • Investigate flaky tests, failures, and false positives contributing to root cause analysis and resolution • Collaborate effectively with teams to improve pipeline stability and feedback loops • Contribute to the broader test engineering community, sharing learnings and evolving best practices • Support teams to deliver quality software without reliance on central QA What You’ll Bring Essential • Proven experience designing test strategies, not just writing tests (unit, integration, E2E, and trade-offs between them) • Experience designing and implementing automated guardrails that protect platform quality at scale • Experience defining and using quality signals to support release decisions (e.g. test results, failure patterns, platform health metrics) • Experience enabling multiple teams to deliver quality software without central QA dependency • Experience building and maintaining automated quality gates in CI/CD pipelines (e.g. GitHub Actions, CircleCI) • Ability to define and improve test coverage, reliability, and signal quality (e.g. reducing flakiness, improving feedback loops) • Strong programming skills (JavaScript/TypeScript, Java, or Python) with the ability to build maintainable, scalable test and quality tooling • Hands-on experience testing web and mobile applications (iOS and Android) • Strong analytical skills with the ability to diagnose issues across code, test, and environment • Clear communication skills across engineering and non-technical stakeholders Desirable • Experience defining platform-level quality standards, guardrails, and release criteria across multiple teams • Experience improving or replacing flaky E2E test strategies with more effective approaches • Knowledge of testing in production practices (feature flags, canary releases, rollback strategies) • Familiarity with observability and production monitoring (e.g. Splunk, Grafana) and using these as quality signals • Experience supporting or coaching teams to improve testing practices and confidence • Experience influencing engineering practices across teams without direct authority • Experience designing quality dashboards or reporting that provide actionable insights (not just coverage or pass rates) • Familiarity with cloud-based device farms (e.g. BrowserStack, Sauce Labs, AWS Device Farm) What’s in it for you? Our benefits Our benefits vary by location but we are committed to providing best-in-class perks across all our offices. These include generous annual leave, medical cover, inclusive parental leave packages, subsidised gym memberships and opportunities to give back to the community. Full details of our benefits are available here. We’ve embraced a 50% hybrid working model (averaging two to three days onsite) that fosters trust and remote adaptability while encouraging in-person camaraderie and peer learning. Additionally, we are open to accommodating specific flexible working pattern requests for all roles where feasible. Accessibility We are a disability confident employer and Valuable 500 signatory. Please let us know if you require any reasonable adjustments/personalisation as part of the application process or to enable you to attend an interview. If you would like to discuss your requirements or have any questions, email [Upgrade to PRO to see contact] and a member of our team will be happy to help. Further information At the FT, we embrace innovation and the use of technology and appreciate that individuals may leverage AI tools as part of their job application process. Whilst we are happy for you to use AI to assist with your application, it is essential that all information provided is authentic and accurately represents your skills, experience, and qualifications. Candidates should be aware that the use of AI throughout the application process may be monitored to ensure a fair and transparent hiring process for all.