Staff Software Test Architect

About the Company

Every minute of every day, Smiths Detection's threat detection and security screening technology helps to protect people and infrastructure, making the world a safer place. Smiths Detection is a global leader in the development, manufacture and management of security and detection solutions designed to make the world a safer place. Our technology provides threat detection and screening solutions for customers in our key markets: aviation, ports and borders, defence, and urban security.Our expertise spans 21 global offices, seven manufacturing sites and five R&D centres, with a global network of 3,000 dedicated colleagues contributing towards over 40 years at the frontline of advances in safety and security. This results in careers built on variety and the opportunity to work on a range of state-of-the-art solutions, where you can develop your knowledge and experience every day.

About the Role

To ensure delivery of reliable, secure, and high‑quality software by leading test strategy and automation, driving CI/CD integration, and strengthening collaboration across global teams to achieve impactful results.As per company policy, this role requires presence in the office 4 days per week.

Responsibilities

Test Strategy:

• Develop a robust test strategy.
• Guide and drive senior engineers to develop and execute comprehensive test cases that align with test strategy driven by the project requirements, ensuring thorough testing of software functional, non-fucntional and security requirements.
• Communicate the strategy to get the consensus from the stakeholder and provide an understanding to the executors.

Automation Strategy:

• Design, architect and deliver a robust automation strategy to test the product with the required coverage and within the acceptable cycle time.
• Communicate the strategy to get the consensus from the stakeholder and provide an understanding to the executors.
• Contribute to the development and maintenance of automated test scripts and frameworks.
• Guide in enhancing test automation coverage for both system-level and front-end applications.

Issue Identification & Documentation:

• Identify, track, and document software defects, functionality issues, and performance problems, working closely with developers to reproduce, debug, and resolve issues.

Collaboration & Communication:

• Work closely with cross-functional teams, including developers, product owners, and senior testers, to ensure alignment on testing goals and priorities.
• Communicate findings and progress effectively.

Test Reporting & Metrics:

• Contribute to the preparation of test reports and define-track-monitor-analyze key testing metrics to assess test coverage, defect resolution, and overall testing progress.

Support in Test Planning:

• Provide inputs to test planning activities, contributing to discussions about scope, approach, and strategy for different types of testing, such as functional, regression, and integration testing.

Version Control & Configuration Management:

• Utilize version control systems (e.g., Git, Subversion) for maintaining test scripts, test cases, and related artifacts.

CI/CD Integration:

• Define and implement the CI/CD strategy helping in integrating test scripts into Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) pipelines to ensure that automated tests are executed as part of the development process.

Innovation and Lean Initiatives:

• Identify the innovation opportunities, ideas and improvements in the test group to drive large-scale test and automation transformations.

Continuous Improvement:

• Have a keen eye on the processes and practices in the test group and provide feedback on testing processes and practices, suggesting improvements and applying lessons learned from past testing cycles to enhance efficiency and test effectiveness.

Mentoring and Coaching:

• Mentor and coach the engineers by helping them with problem statements on the job which help in the overall upskilling of the team and increases the multifaceted nature of the engineers leading to enhanced quality and there by the customer experience.

Qualifications

• A bachelor's degree or equivalent in Computer Science, Electronics & Electrical Engineering, Information Technology, or a related field.

Required Skills

• 12-15 years of Hands-on experience with automated testing frameworks, including the ability to design, implement, and maintain test automation solutions.
• Strong expertise in automated testing frameworks such as Robot Framework and Python for service‑level and end‑to‑end testing across backend and consumer‑facing applications
• Hands‑on experience with containerisation technologies (Docker) and orchestration platforms (Kubernetes), including deployment validation and scalability testing.
• Proficient in coding and modifying complex automated software testing programs, both at the system level and front-end applications.
• In depth understanding of Linux operating system internals
• Knowledge of system controllers (scanners preferred) working, development and testing is desirable
• Good experience with Atlassian suite of products including JIRA, Bit Bucket, Confluence, Test Management tools like TestRail and Version Control Systems such as Git, Subversion, and integration tools like Jenkins.
• Good understanding of software development processes and testing methodologies, with the ability to collaborate effectively across development and testing teams.
• Familiarity with continuous integration (CI) and continuous deployment (CD) pipelines for automated testing.
• Ability to work with various testing tools, including Robot Framework, TestNG, Python, C, C++ and other relevant test automation libraries.
• Experience in writing clear, detailed test cases and maintaining accurate documentation of test results.
• Effective communication skills at all levels of the organization and collaborative abilities
• Excellent communication skills particularly in English (fluently spoken and written) in addition to any local language spoken at the place of work.