Lead QAT Analyst

Details
Reference number

434214

Salary

£60,300 - £70,730

National: £60,300 - £66,330. London: £64,300 - £70,730.

New entrants to the Civil Service will start their role on the salary band minimum: £60,300 for National Roles. £64,300 for London Roles.

Recruitment Retention Allowance (RRA): Up to £6,000 is available for candidates who demonstrate exceptional skills and experience evidenced at interview stage.

A Civil Service Pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%

GBP

Job grade

Grade 7

Contract type

Permanent

Business area

HO - Digital Data and Technology - Quality Assurance & Testing (QAT)

Type of role

Digital

Information Technology

Quality

Working pattern

Flexible working, Full-time, Part-time, Compressed hours

Number of jobs available

1

Contents

• Location
• About the job
• Benefits
• Things you need to know
• Apply and further information

Location

2 Ruskin Square, Croydon CR0 2WF; Soapworks, Manchester M5 3LZ, Vulcan House, Sheffield S3 8NU.

About the job
Job summary

The Quality Assurance industry is at a critical juncture as part of the Digital age and the next wave of disruptive technological advances, and we are looking for people who are passionate about Quality Assurance and Testing to join our community led team embedded across all the Home Office's business areas.

Do you want to be part of the award-winning Home Office Quality Assurance and Testing Team (QAT) within Home Office Digital?

Quality is at the heart of everything we do. We provide a large-scale shared service, delivered through 750 QA professionals. It supports services that are essential for the UK

A strong continuous improvement culture underpins the way we work, making advancements on how quality is delivered and assured in groundbreaking DevOps environments, including cloud platforms. We are a well-established, well-knit team of quality specialists and among the best in the industry

We won the Testing Team of the Year at the 2024 European Software Testing Awards and were also re-certified at TMMi (Test Maturity Model Integration) level 5, receiving the best score globally.

Job description

As a Lead QAT Analyst, you will lead of the delivery of quality assurance across your project. You will take a user centred approach to Quality Assurance and Testing (QAT) and develop and implement QAT approaches to help meet user needs. You will work in collaboration with delivery partners to make sure QAT is embedded by default into the development approach. To help the QAT practice thrive, you will develop expertise in new and emerging tools and approaches and apply these to help the organisation deliver better success.

Working within a programme team, you will promote quality outcomes and values across the organisation. You will further develop your own delivery management and leadership skills with a focus on helping the programme team deliver high quality outcomes at pace whilst honing stakeholder engagement and continuous improvement skills.

You will work with business stakeholders, developing an understanding of their needs and translating them into a QAT approach. You will also work with industry partners to leverage the best of new and emerging tools and approaches. As part of the Home office Digital community, you will lead on sharing, collaborating and promoting the value of QAT.

Your tasks and responsibilities will include (but not limited to):

• Taking a user centred approach to implementing team or sprint level quality assurance and testing activities, providing practical, risk-based solutions including formal test analysis, design and exploratory or experience-based methods.
• Applying QAT practices to different technical delivery environments and delivery lifecycles including agile teams and continuous release pipelines.
• Working in collaboration with delivery partners in QAT, Home Office Digital and more broadly across the organisation, to ensure that effective and efficient QAT capabilities are developed and integrated into the software development process.
• Driving forward the development of QAT capabilities within the QAT organisation, including continuous professional development and identifying new and emerging industry leading technologies.
• Providing technical advice and assurance on the wider application of QAT solutions, influencing the effectiveness and delivery of quality practices throughout the team or sprint level.

Person specification

Essential criteria

You'll have a demonstrable passion for Quality Assurance and Testing, with the following skills or some experience in:

• Translating complex or programme level QAT/Development strategies into practical, risk-based quality assurance and testing activities across the delivery lifecycle, ensuring delivery against user needs, technical dependencies and organisational standards.
• Analysing a range of highly complex user needs, business requirements and technical designs at project or service level, identifying or assuring test goals, test case specifications and acceptance criteria.
• Working in a highly technical environment, requiring a broad range of internal and external integration, ensuring the deployment of a broad range of tools and test environment options including open source technologies, automation frameworks and modern platforms and accessibility compliance standards.
• Applying deep knowledge and experience of technical and business domains to a range of complex quality assurance and testing activities.
• Facilitating relationships at senior delivery level, including technical and non-technical stakeholders.

Behaviours

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Working Together
• Communicating and Influencing
• Changing and Improving

Technical skills

We'll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:

• Strategic Planning (ITSP) – Level 4
• Test Analysis, Design and Execution – Level 4
• Automation and Tooling – Level 3
• Performance Testing – Level 3
• Integration and Assurance – Level 4
• Domain Experience – Level 4

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £60,300, Home Office contributes £17,468 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

You'll also have access to the same benefits available to all civil servants in the Home Office:

Why work for us...

• A highly competitive pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%
• 25 days annual leave on appointment rising 1 day per year up to 30 days, plus 8 days public holidays and 1 day for the King's Birthday.
• Flexible working options to enable you to achieve the work life balance that is right for you including; Full time, part-time, flexi time, compressed hours and job sharing.
• A hybrid working model of a minimum 60% of your contracted hours in the workplace and 40% remote.
• Training and development opportunities tailored to your role, including access to technical and professional accreditations.
• Access to funded qualifications (subject to approval)
• A capability allowance reviewed annually.
• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity.
• Enhanced parental leave schemes.
• Annual performance-based bonus and recognition awards.

This link is to a short guide to employee benefits: Benefits - Home Office Careers.

Why join our QAT Community in the Home Office?

The QAT Testing Team won the best Team of the Year at the 2024 European Software Testing Awards This prestigious win reflects our dedication to excellence and innovation in Quality Assurance and Testing.

This is a huge opportunity to be a part of our growth journey and build your capability and expertise.

Quality Assurance and Testing (QAT) is an important part of the Home Office mission. Everyone is responsible for quality, and we have a team of skilled people who make sure quality is delivered in the most effective way. This means getting fast feedback, understanding how a service performs, and helping the development team to make more informed decisions. We value automating as much of the test effort as possible allowing our team of specialists and domain experts to undertake better evaluations.

You can see more here Quality, Assurance and Testing - Home Office Careers

There is a link to how it feels to work in QAT on our GOV.UK site here: Day in the life of a QAT'er

Things you need to know
Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles , and will assess your Behaviours, Experience and Technical skills.

As part of the application process, you will be asked to complete:

A CV, detailing job history, relevant qualifications and skills.

A Personal Statement of suitability (Max 1000 word limit).

Please note your CV and Personal Statement should include all relevant experience that relates to our Essential skills criteria listed in the advert and role description. Use STAR format in your examples.

Remove information that identifies you (for example your name, age or place of education) so that you will be judged on merit alone and not your personal background, circumstances, race or gender.

(Do NOT include e-mail addresses or links to online profiles, resumés, or prior work, either personal or business. Active links or e-mail addresses will result in your application being rejected).

Please ensure that all examples provided in your application are taken directly from your own experience and that you describe the examples in your own words. All applications are screened for plagiarism, copying, and generating of examples/ answers from internet sources including Artificial Intelligence. If detected, the application may be withdrawn from the process.

Further action, including disciplinary action, may be considered in such cases involving civil servants. Providing false or misleading information would be contrary to the core values of honesty and integrity expected of all civil servants.

Sift Stage

The sift will be held on the CV and Personal Statement. Please read the Essential skills for this position carefully. We will only consider those who meet the listed requirements.

In the event of a high number of applications, the sift will be conducted on the Personal Statement only.

Interview Stage

Candidates reaching the required standard will then be invited to attend a final interview. The interview will assess your Technical Skills (SFIA Framework) and experience using technical and experience-based questions.

You will be assessed on the core behaviour skills listed above.

We often have similar roles available at different grades. If a candidate is suitable for a similar role, we may offer the candidate that role without the need to go through a further selection process providing the role has the same behaviours and essential skills.

Sift and interview dates

1. Sifts will be conducted from 11th November 2025.

The sift will be held on the CV and the Personal Statement of suitability.

1. Interviews will be held from 2nd December 2025.

If you are successful at sift stage, you will be invited to an interview where you will be asked questions based on:

Behaviours and Technical Skills listed in the job advert.

Interviews will be conducted remotely. Candidates will be required to have access to:

• A laptop (personal or work) with a working webcam.
• Good internet connection
• Microsoft Teams

We will try to meet the dates set out in the advert. There may be occasions when these dates will change. You will be provided with sufficient notice of the confirmed dates.

Further Information

We value diversity and inclusion and welcome applications from the widest diversity of backgrounds, cultures, and experiences. We particularly encourage applications from women, people with disabilities and LGBT+ as they are currently under-represented in the Home Office at this grade level. Appointments will be made on merit on the basis of fair and open competition.

Where business needs allow, some roles may be suitable for a combination of office and home-based working. Where this is the case, employees will be expected to spend a minimum of 60% of their working time in the office. Applicants can raise any queries to the email address at the bottom of the advert.

Please read the Essential skills for this position carefully. We will only consider those who meet the listed requirement.

If you have previously made an unsuccessful application for a role with the same essential skills and are not able to demonstrate how you have developed these skills since your last application please reconsider applying as your application is unlikely to be successful.

Reserve list

A reserve list of successful candidates will be kept for 12 months. Should another role become available within that period you may be offered this position.

UK residency and security requirements

You need to have lived in the UK for the past 5 years. This is because this post requires the successful candidate to have Security Check (SC) clearance and individuals need to have lived in the UK for a sufficient period of time to enable appropriate checks to be carried out and produce a result which provides the required level of assurance. These checks will only take place after the job offer has been accepted.

You should normally have been resident in the United Kingdom for the last 5 years for SC clearance.

Visa Sponsorship

We are unable to sponsor any individuals via Skilled Worker Sponsorship / Tier 2 (General) work visas as we do not hold a UK Visa & Immigration (UKVI) Skilled Worker License.

Capability Allowance

This post is eligible for a Home Office Digital Recruitment Retention Allowance. Successful candidate with exceptional skills and experience may apply for a Recruitment and Retention Allowance. This allowance is subject to an initial review within six months of taking up the post and thereafter an annual review in line with the departmental priorities and could be reduced or withdrawn at any time.

Job offers to this post are made on the basis of merit. We often have similar roles available at different grades. If a candidate is suitable for a similar role or a lower grade than they have applied for, we may offer the candidate that role without the need to go through a further selection process providing the role has the same competencies and essential skills.

Working at the Home Office

Every day, Home Office civil servants do brilliant work to develop and deliver policies and services that affect the lives of people across the country and beyond. To do this effectively and fairly, the Home Office is committed to representing modern Britain in all its diversity, and creating a welcoming, inclusive workplace where all our people are able to bring their whole selves to work and perform at their best.

We are flexible, skilled, professional and diverse. We work to recruit and retain disabled staff and area Disability Confident Leader. We are proud to be one of the most ethnically diverse departments in the civil service. We are a Social Mobility Foundation top 75 employer.

New entrants are expected to join on the minimum of the pay band.

Applicants who are successful at interview will be, as part of pre-employment screening, subject to a check on the Internal Fraud Database (IFD). This check will provide information about employees who have been dismissed for fraud or dishonesty offences. This check also applies to employees who resign or otherwise leave before being dismissed for fraud or dishonesty had their employment continued. Any applicant's details held on the IFD will be refused employment.

For further information please see the attached notes for candidates which must be read before making an application.

Existing Civil Servants should note that some of the Home Office terms and conditions of employment have changed. It is the candidate's responsibility to ensure they are aware of the Terms and Conditions they will adopt should they be successful in application and should refer to the notes for candidates for further details.

Transfer Terms: Voluntary.

If you are invited to an interview, you will be required to bring a range of documentation for the purposes of establishing identity and to aid any pre-employment checks.

Please see the attached list of Home Office acceptable ID documents.

Any move to the Home Office from another employer will mean you can no longer access childcare vouchers. This includes moves between government departments. You may however be eligible for other government schemes, including Tax Free Childcare. Determine your eligibility at

In order to process applications without delay, we will be sending a Criminal Record Check to Disclosure and Barring Service on your behalf. However, we recognise in exceptional circumstances some candidates will want to send their completed forms direct.

If you will be doing this, please advise Government Recruitment Service of your intention by emailing Pre- stating the job reference number in the subject heading.

If you are invited to an interview, you will be required to bring documentation for the purposes of establishing your identity.

You will need to meet the nationality requirements for this role and obtain the necessary security clearance to take it up.

For meaningful security checks to be carried out, individuals need to have lived in the UK for a sufficient period of time. Learn more on our website. Security Checks - Home Office Careers

For further information on National Security Vetting please visit the Demystifying Vetting website.

Reasonable Adjustments

If a person with disabilities is at a substantial disadvantage compared to a non-disabled person, we have a duty to make reasonable changes to our processes.

If you need a change to be made so that you can make your application, you should:

• Contact Government Recruitment Service via as soon as possible before the closing date to discuss your needs
• Complete the "Assistance Required" section in the "Additional Requirements" page of your application form to tell us what changes or help you might need further on in the recruitment process. For instance, you may need wheelchair access at interview, or if you're deaf, a language service professional

If you are experiencing accessibility problems with any attachments on this advert, please contact the email address in the 'Contact point for applicants' section.

Feedback

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.

Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check .

See our vetting charter .

People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles .

The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.

The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.

Diversity and Inclusion

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the Civil Service People Plan and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy .

Apply and further information

This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans initiative.

Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Contact point for applicants
Job contact :

• Name :
• Email :

Recruitment team

• Email :

Further information

If you feel that your application has not been treated in accordance with the Civil Service recruitment principles and you wish to make a complaint, then contact the Government Recruitment Service via If you are not satisfied with the response that you receive, then you can contact the Civil Service Commission.

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