About us

At National Grid, we keep people connected and society moving. But it’s so much more than that. National Grid provides the environment to make it happen. As we build momentum in the energy transition for all, we don’t plan on leaving any of our customers in the dark. So, join us as a Lead QA Engineer, and find your superpower.

National Grid is hiring a Lead QA Engineer to join our Technology team. This role can be based at our Warwick, Bristol, or Cardiff offices, with hybrid working, and you’ll also have access to our London co‑working space if that fits your working pattern. Every quarter you’ll attend a 2–3 day in‑person planning event held at one of our office locations.

You’ll play a key role in leading quality assurance practices and ensuring the delivery of secure, scalable, and high‑quality systems and platforms that support critical operations across our enterprise.

About The Role

Reporting to the Head of QA Engineering, the Lead QA Engineer will play a pivotal role in shaping and leading quality across our technology landscape. You’ll take full ownership of QA delivery, driving high standards across automated and non‑functional testing — including performance, security, accessibility, cross‑browser, and usability testing — ensuring our systems are robust, scalable, and trusted.

You’ll be hands‑on in designing, building, and maintaining high‑quality test automation frameworks, championing clean, reliable automation code and continually raising the bar for engineering excellence. Alongside this, you’ll act as a mentor and coach, supporting junior QA Engineers and manual testers to adopt modern testing practices, strong engineering principles, and effective configuration management.

Working closely with fellow Lead QA Engineers, you’ll help set direction and ensure consistent governance, design, and code quality aligned with Group software standards and long‑term technology strategy. You’ll also take on line management responsibilities, inspiring your team, fostering growth, and creating a culture where quality is owned, valued, and embedded from day one.

This is an opportunity to lead, influence, and make a real impact at scale — placing quality at the heart of everything we build.

What You'll Do

• Take full ownership of the test automation codebase across the programme, supporting delivery throughout the entire project and change lifecycle while meeting agreed standards for cost, quality, and timescales.
• Collaborate closely with peer Automation Engineering Leads to ensure QA engineering practices, standards, and tooling are applied consistently and effectively across projects.
• Design, create, and maintain robust test scenarios and test cases aligned to both functional and non‑functional requirements.
• Lead the analysis of non‑functional requirements — including performance, accessibility, usability, cross‑browser compatibility, and security — and translate them into meaningful, effective test scenarios.
• Create, maintain, and own full traceability from requirements through to automated test cases, scripts, regression packs, and supporting test assets.
• Partner with delivery teams and stakeholders to ensure test data is prepared, accurate, and available ahead of test execution.
• Analyse test outcomes and provide clear, insightful reporting on progress, risks, defects, and overall quality across the project.
• Ensure defects are logged to a high standard, with clear reproduction steps, test data, environments, screenshots, and supporting evidence captured in the defect management tool.
• Act as a frontline problem‑solver, investigating issues across applications and environments and supporting or leading their resolution.
• Be a strong advocate for quality, quickly flagging risks or concerns at any stage of delivery and escalating where necessary to protect outcomes.
• Own and drive the resolution of testing blockers and issues through active participation in Agile ceremonies and delivery forums.
• Lead by example as a collaborative, engaged team member who champions best practice across QA and engineering.
• Mentor and support junior QA Engineers and manual testers, helping develop their technical capability, confidence, and career progression.

About You

• Strong, demonstrable experience programming in Java and/or Python, with a focus on building clean, maintainable automation solutions.
• Hands‑on expertise using modern automation frameworks such as Selenium or Playwright.
• Proven experience in accessibility testing, ensuring inclusive and compliant digital experiences.
• Solid experience planning and executing performance testing, using tools such as JMeter, k6, or similar.
• An excellent understanding of Behaviour Driven Development (BDD) and how to apply it effectively within delivery teams.
• Strong experience testing APIs, including REST‑assured, and tools such as Postman or SOAP UI.
• A deep understanding of non‑functional requirements, with the ability to translate them into effective test strategies.
• Experience working with build management tools and integrating testing into CI/CD pipelines.
• A clear grasp of Test‑Driven Development (TDD) principles and how they complement modern QA practices.
• Strong knowledge of security testing approaches and risks within enterprise systems.
• Exposure to cloud platforms such as AWS and/or Azure and testing within cloud‑based environments.
• Extensive experience working in Agile teams, contributing actively to ceremonies and continuous delivery.
• The confidence and capability to lead teams, work autonomously, and thrive in a dynamic, changing environment.
• Hands‑on experience with software engineering tools including Maven, IntelliJ/Eclipse, and static code analysis tools such as SonarQube.

What You'll Get

• Competitive Salary: circa £72,000 – £89,000 per annum (based on capability, and experience)
• Annual performance incentive: Earn up to 30% of eligible earnings through our performance‑related bonus scheme
  

Additional benefits:

• 28 days’ holiday plus 8 statutory bank holidays, with the option to buy additional leave and swap up to 3 bank holidays to better fit your personal needs.
• A generous pension scheme with double matching up to 6% of your salary each month. For every £1 you contribute, we’ll contribute £2 — meaning a 6% personal contribution becomes an 18% total pension contribution.
• Life insurance cover of 10x your basic salary, plus employer contributions towards the cost of your Private Medical Insurance.
• Flexible benefits such as a cycle scheme, share incentive plan, technology schemes
• Access to apps such as digital GP service for round the clock access to GP video consultations and NHS repeat prescriptions, wellbeing app to support your health and fitness
• Access to Work + Family Space, providing support and resources for work and family life, including paid emergency childcare and eldercare
  

More Information

• This role can be based at our Warwick, Bristol, or Cardiff offices, with hybrid working - and you’ll also have access to our London co‑working space if that location suits your working pattern.
• Every quarter, you’ll attend a 2–3 day in‑person planning event held at one of our office locations.
• This role is offered on a full time basis.
• This role closes on 6th May however we strongly encourage candidates to submit their application as early as possible.

** Please note that in most cases, National Grid is unable to offer sponsorship for employment under the UK points-based immigration system. As such, applicants must have the legal right to work in the UK without requiring sponsorship now or in the future under the UK points-based immigration system. However, in exceptional circumstances where there is a clear and demonstrable need for specialist skills that cannot be sourced from the local labour market, National Grid may consider offering sponsorship. All applications are welcome from candidates who meet these requirements, regardless of race, nationality, or ethnic origin.**

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Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

National Grid is an equal opportunity employer that values a broad diversity of talent, knowledge, experience and expertise. We foster a culture of inclusion that drives employee engagement to deliver superior performance to the communities we serve. National Grid is proud to be an affirmative action employer. We encourage minorities, women, individuals with disabilities and protected veterans to join the National Grid team.