Overview

Position Title: Principal Test Engineer

Company: ASOS.com

Location: Sheffield, UK

Job Description:

The Principal Test Engineer role is one of the keystones in the delivery of business solutions and the advancement of our technology. As a Principal Engineer, you will work alongside a small, select group of peers who are collectively responsible for defining the tooling, processes, patterns and practices in use across the ASOS software development life cycle. This is an open-ended task which is less about outlining a one size fits all approach and more about identifying, nurturing and playing to, the strengths of each individual team.

Responsibilities:

  • Work with peers in the Principal group, as well as QAs & Engineers on the ground to identify and implement tools, technologies or working practices which could be leveraged to improve the quality and productivity of ASOS Test Engineering, both at the team level and at the department level.
  • Take pride in being considered a go to person or technical authority, happy to help teams and individuals in their endeavours to deliver & test software, whether it be in your provision of general guidance and advice, problem solving, discussing and underwriting a technical design, or as a point of escalation in resolving and overcoming the day-to-day challenges of test engineering.
  • Be a prominent force in defining and driving (while continually refining) good test engineering practices across the whole engineering community, either by honing existing approaches or by recommending new ways of working and subsequently engaging with the appropriate parties, where necessary, to transform new or theoretical approaches into productive test engineering processes.
  • Work with QAs and software engineering teams to ensure the software being released into Production is of the appropriate standard. Taking accountability for ensuring software is fully tested, is of an acceptable quality, is observable and is always monitored to verify it is reliable and requirements are met.
  • Establish and maintain an open and collaborative relationship with Lead QAs & Lead Software Engineers and the wider engineering community, to the point where as much as you may be viewed as a figure of technical authority, people treat you as someone they can feel comfortable in sharing their ideas, thoughts and experiences with and are actively encouraged to do so.
  • Be a versatile and efficient problem solver who is able to bring to bear years of experience and expertise in order to help teams resolve and overcome technical challenges of any size or complexity, to the point where, if the situation and circumstances dictate, you willingly immerse yourself into a team to accelerate problem resolution or provide more general hands-on guidance and direction.
  • Commit to helping deliver high quality, well tested software and to lead those around you to do the same, by ensuring the people around you are continually challenged, motivated, mentored and supported where necessary.
  • Develop and foster strong relationships with Business Stakeholders, Platform Leads, Heads of Tech, Engineering Managers and Product Owners/Business Analysts to ensure that the software delivered by teams is tested and reliable enough to meet the requirements of the business.
  • Keep up to date on the industry, seek out and actively promote ideas and techniques in the community, both within ASOS and externally, through blogs, events. Encourage communities to form and drive ideas forward.

Requirements:

  • Deep technical knowledge of patterns, practices, principles, tooling and techniques around Testing and Software Engineering as a whole
  • Excellent business presentation, communication and collaboration skills
  • Be diplomatic in nature, open and honest and seamlessly fit in whether you are working within a development team or presenting a technical solution to C-Level Executives.
  • Strong proactive leadership skills.
  • Excellent multi-tasking and strong communication skills
  • Team development and mentoring skills
  • Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills
  • Understand when to test (and when not to) plus how to coach others to make that decision appropriately
  • Proven experience of working with 3rd party systems and organizations

About ASOS.com

At ASOS our 4,000+ employees are immersed in the creative worlds, live on their mobiles and have a truly entrepreneurial attitude. As a company, we’re not trying to mimic or profit from youth culture – we are part of that culture.