Senior QA Engineer

Music is UniversalIt's the passionate and dedicated team at Universal Music who help make us the world's leading music company. From A&R to finance, legal to digital, sales to marketing, Universal Music is the place to grow and develop your career within a truly commercial and innovative business that leads in everything it does.Everyone is welcome to apply for our roles, and we are determined to ensure that no applicant or employee receives less favourable treatment because of gender, race, disability, sexual orientation, religion, belief, age, marital status, background, pregnancy, or caring responsibilities. We also recognise the importance of diversity of thought within our teams and are fully committed to embracing the talents of people with autism, dyslexia, ADHD, and other forms of neurocognitive variation.We will always seek to make appropriate adjustments to recruitment, workplaces, and work processes to be fully inclusive to people with different needs and working styles. If you need us to make any reasonable adjustments for you from application onwards, including alternatives to the online form or to disclose a neurocognitive condition, please email SkillsA senior QA engineer should act as a quality leader, mentor, and strategic contributor across delivery teams.Strong ownership of overall product or platform qualityAbility to define QA strategy, test approach, and release quality standardsExcellent analytical and critical-thinking skillsStrong communication with technical and non-technical stakeholdersAbility to influence engineering teams without relying on authorityConfidence challenging requirements and delivery plans where quality risks existStrong risk-based decision-makingAbility to balance delivery speed with quality, maintainability, security, and scalabilityMentoring and coaching of junior and mid-level QA engineersAbility to lead defect triage, root-cause analysis, and continuous improvement activitiesStrong stakeholder management across product, engineering, architecture, DevOps, and delivery teamsAbility to translate business requirements into testable acceptance criteriaStrong facilitation skills in refinement, planning, retrospectives, and release readiness discussionsProactive approach to identifying gaps in process, tooling, environments, and automation coverageAbility to promote a shared quality mindset across the teamStrong documentation skills for test strategies, automation standards, release risks, and quality reportsComfortable making pragmatic trade-offs in complex delivery environmentsAbility to support high-quality delivery of solutions that are fit for purpose, maintainable, robust, scalable, and secureTechnical SkillsTest Automation & StrategyStrong experience designing, building, and maintaining test automation frameworksAbility to select appropriate tools for UI, API, integration, contract, performance, and end-to-end testingStrong programming ability in C#, JavaScript, TypeScript, or another relevant automation languageDeep understanding of automation patterns such as Page Object Model, Screenplay, API client abstraction, test fixtures, reusable test data builders, and service mocksAbility to design automation that is scalable, maintainable, reliable, and suitable for CI/CDExperience reducing flaky tests and improving automation execution speedAbility to define automation standards, coding guidelines, and review test codeUI TestingGood understanding of web application testing, especially Angular-based applicationsExperience testing UI behaviour, forms, validation, routing, authentication flows, and browser compatibilityAbility to write or maintain automated UI tests using tools such as Playwright, Cypress, Selenium, or similarBasic understanding of HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and browser developer toolsAbility to define frontend test coverage across unit, component, integration, UI, and end-to-end layersExperience testing complex user journeys, state management, routing, validation, authentication, and accessibilityAbility to advise on testability improvements in frontend codeAPI TestingExperience testing REST APIsStrong knowledge of REST API testing, including authentication, authorisation, routing, middleware behaviour, configuration, validation, and error handlingGood understanding of C# and .NET application architectureAbility to test service boundaries, integrations, retries, failure modes, and resilience patternsAbility to contribute to test strategy for micro-services and distributed systemsAbility to use tools such as Postman, Swagger, Insomnia, or REST-assured-style frameworksAbility to validate API contracts, error handling, edge cases, and integration pointsExperience with contract testing, service virtualisation, mocking, and stubbingCloud, DevOps, CI/CD & Version ControlExperience using cloud platforms such as AWS, Azure, or Google CloudAbility to test applications deployed to cloud-based environmentsUnderstanding of configuration differences across dev, test, staging, and production-like environmentsStrong experience integrating automated tests into CI/CD pipelinesAbility to define quality gates in GitHub Actions, Azure Pipelines, AWS pipelines, or similarFamiliarity with Docker and Kubernetes from a testing and deployment perspectiveDatabase, Data TestingStrong SQL skills for test data setup, validation, and investigationExperience testing systems that use Redis, Elasticsearch, or other NoSQL technologiesAbility to test caching, indexing, search accuracy, data consistency, and data migration scenariosAbility to design robust test data strategies across integrated environmentsQuality Engineering PracticesStrong understanding of test design techniques, including boundary value analysis, equivalence partitioning, decision tables, and exploratory testingAbility to create clear test cases, test scenarios, and acceptance criteriaUnderstanding of Agile delivery and working within Scrum or Kanban teamsAbout UMG UKWe are Universal Music Group UK - the UK's leading music-based entertainment company. We exist to shape culture through the power of artistry. We help UK artists produce, distribute and promote the most critically acclaimed and commercially successful music to inspire and entertain fans at home and around the world.Bonus Tracks: Your BenefitsGroup Personal Pension Scheme (between 3% and 9%)Private Medical Insurance25 paid days of annual leaveInterest Free Season Ticket LoanHoliday Purchase schemeDental and Travel Insurance optionsCycle to Work SchemeSalary Sacrifice CarsSubsidised Gym MembershipEmployee Discounts (Reward Gateway)Just So You Know The company presents this job description as a guide to the major areas and duties for which the jobholder is accountable. However, the business operates in an environment that demands change and the jobholder's specific responsibilities and activities will vary and develop. Therefore, the job description should be seen as indicative and not as a permanent, definitive, and exhaustive statement.Job Category:Universal Music Group