Job Description

Details

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Reference number

410975
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Salary

45,974 - 54,431
WRA operates incremental progression, after 4 years and subject to performance, you'll reach the top of the pay scale of 54,431, plus a pensionable DDAT allowance of between 3150 and 6143.
A Civil Service Pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%
GBP
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Job grade

Senior Executive Officer###

Contract type

Permanent###

Business area

WRA - Strategy###

Type of role

Digital###

Working pattern

Flexible working, Full-time, Job share###

Number of jobs available

1

Contents

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

Location

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We encourage flexible and hybrid working but although this role can be based anywhere, some office attendance is required depending on business need. This role is based in Cardiff office.

About the job

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Job summary

We're responsible for Land Transaction Tax and Landfill Disposals Tax. Our work raises revenue to support public services, like the NHS and schools, in communities across Wales. But that's not all, we're also involved with and support future tax design for Wales.

Join a place with purpose

You'll join a team of 100+ talented people from across 14 different professions. Our culture is best described as innovative, collaborative and kind.


By working together, we'll deliver a fair tax system for Wales.

You'll be working with

Our people come from a wide range of backgrounds and experience. From Operations, Policy, Digital and Data, HR, Communications to Finance - there's a place for you in our friendly team.

You'll be our greatest asset

When you join us, you'll be part of a fair and inclusive team where you can thrive, be rewarded and heard.


We've consistently featured in the top 3 for people engagement in the Civil Service People Survey. Inclusion and fairness are our most strongest scoring areas - see our latest People Survey results.


And we're recognised for our innovation as a digital 'cloud-based' organisation that supports hybrid and flexible working that enables a great work-life balance. More about working for us, our roles and our corporate plan 2025-2028 .

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Job description

This is a key in the Digital team within WRA, and is aligned with UK Government Digital and Data Profession.


"This is a great opportunity for an experienced Test Engineer with strong test and quality assurance experience who can lead QA activities in a small but growing Digital team focused on building critical new services and solutions using an agile approach".

Anthony Pritchard, Chief Digital Officer

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Person specification

Test Engineering:

Communicate the strategic vision for quality assurance. Foster a culture of innovation within the testing team, encouraging new ideas and approaches. Collaborate with development, service teams, and others to promote shift-left practices. Design comprehensive test plans and test cases, ensuring adherence to established test standards and best practices. Champion the objective to automate testing for key operational use cases, driving innovation in test automation; write test automation scripts using established tools and languages. Review test engineers' scripts to establish good practices. Plan and schedule testing activities, ensuring timely execution and resource allocation. Leverage statistical data to inform test coverage and drive data-driven decision-making. Lead and manage a team of test engineers, setting performance goals and conducting performance reviews. Regularly communicate with stakeholders to report on testing progress, issues, and risks. Drive continuous improvement in testing processes and methodologies

Quality Engineering and Assurance:

Adopt a risk-based approach to target test engineering resources, expanding testing coverage in line with risk. Provide strategic leadership on high-level test scenarios, addressing challenges, risks, resources, and test estimates. Advocate for comprehensive analysis of requirements to develop thorough test scenarios. Ensure service consistency across devices, browsers, and operating systems. Perform manual testing to ensure thorough and effective testing practices. Innovate in developing test infrastructure tools for web, mobile, and desktop platforms. Promote robust change management of automated test scripts, ensuring adherence to proper change control processes.

Other:

Foster and develop test engineers, providing guidance, training, and career development opportunities. If required, participate in Agile meetings throughout development cycles, contributing to continuous improvement. Create and maintain comprehensive test documentation for reference and reporting. Mentor and coach teams/organisations in test analysis techniques and practices. Identify and mitigate risks related to testing and quality assurance. Manage relationships with stakeholders and vendors, ensuring alignment with quality standards, processes, and project goals. ###

Languages

The following list of language requirements represents an objective assessment of the Welsh language skills required to undertake the duties of this post:


Welsh language skills Welsh skills are desirable but not essential for this role





Welsh desirable means that having Welsh language skills would be useful in this role, but it is not an assessment criteria so it won't put you at any disadvantage during recruitment if you aren't a Welsh speaker. We support all staff to learn or improve their Welsh language skills once they join us.

Benefits

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Alongside your salary of 45,974, Welsh Revenue Authority contributes 13,318 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.31 days annual leave + Bank Holidays, and 2 Privilege days Flexible and hybrid working Generous employer contribution pension schemes of 28.97% Time off for wellbeing activities Green car scheme Cycle2Work and season travel tickets Access to subsidised sports groups Generous family-friendly leave policies Free Welsh language courses and time off to learn Access to a range of staff diversity networks Free counselling and support service via our Employee Assistance Programme Programme a highly engaged and collaborative culture - see

our People Survey results

Things you need to know

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Selection process details

We recruit using success profiles. Our

success profiles guidance

will help you in completing your application.


In brief, this approach means:

we look for evidence of what you have done and what you can do. This means we look for the behaviours, strengths and ability needed to do the job where necessary or relevant, we also consider experience and technical knowledge this approach starts at application stage and continues throughout the recruitment process we may only look for some things at certain stages. We'll always be clear what we're looking for and when

You can find information and videos on how to apply for Civil Service roles here: About the application process , Civil Service Careers (civil-service-careers.gov.uk)


You should highlight evidence from the table below during the recruitment process. You may also wish to refer to the main tasks mentioned above.


Whilst the use of Generative AI (GenAI) isn't prohibited, it must be used truthfully and your application must be factually accurate. It should be noted that presenting ideas and experience generated by artificial intelligence as your own, may be considered plagiarism.


A reserve list may be used for this role should another role become available in the next 12 months we may contact you.

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Behaviours

Criteria

Assessed in personal statement and CV

Assessed during interview or assessment

Managing a Quality Service

Deliver customer and user service objectives with professional excellence, expertise and efficiency, taking account of diverse customer needs. Establish ways to find and respond to feedback about the services provided

.

Yes



Yes

Delivering at Pace

Take responsibility for delivering timely and quality results with focus and drive.



No



Yes

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Strengths

Criteria

Assessed in personal statement and CV

Assessed during interview or assessment

Preventer

You think ahead to anticipate, identify and address risks or problems before they happen



No



Yes

Problem Solver

You take a positive approach to tackling problems and find ways to identify suitable solutions.



No



Yes

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Experience

Criteria

Assessed in personal statement and CV

Assessed during interview or assessment

Demonstrate practical knowledge and experience of full lifecycle testing leadership including unit, functional, end-to-end, acceptance and performance testing to provide assurance of quality.



Yes



Yes



Experience of coordination across multiple teams, platforms, and complex environments to produce quality-driven test reports and ensure functional and non-functional requirements are embedded in solutions.



No



Yes

Technical Knowledge

Assessed during interview or assessment

Assessed in personal statement and CV

Assessed during interview or assessment

Demonstrate strong technical knowledge of good practice Test Engineering

methods

(e.g. test planning, test automation, CI/CD pipelines, security testing, accessibility testing) and

test tools

(e.g. Selenium, Cypress, Playwright, Jira, ADO).



Yes



Yes

Qualifications

Criteria

Assessed in personal statement and CV

Assessed during interview or assessment

Current certifications relevant for Test Engineering leadership and/or relevant degree qualification (e.g. CFTL, ISTQB Advanced Certifications such as CTEL-TM, Software Engineering)



Yes



No

Candidate Information Session

We'll be holding virtual information sessions on

18 June 2025 at 12.30pm & 4.00pm

on Microsoft Teams. This will be an opportunity for you to find out more about the role and what it's like to work at the WRA. Please register for the session

here:

18 June - 12.30pm -

Business Wales Events Finder - Candidate Information Session - Test Manager

18 June - 4.00pm -

Business Wales Events Finder - Candidate Information Session - Test Manager

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
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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

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The Civil Service welcomes applications from people who have recently left prison or have an unspent conviction. Read more about prison leaver recruitment (opens in new window).
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

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Job contact :

Name : WRA Recruitment Team Email : Recruitment@wra.gov.wales Telephone : 03000254000
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Recruitment team

Email : Recruitment@wra.gov.wales ###

Further information

The law requires that selection for appointment to the Civil Service is on merit on the basis of fair and open competition. See the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles where this is set out.


If you feel your application has not been treated in line with the recruitment principles, and you wish to complain, you should contact the Head of HR.


Email: hr@wra.gov.wales


If you're not satisfied with our response, you can contact the Civil Service Commission.