Automation Test Engineer at Coltech, Sheffield, £Contract Rate

Automation Test Engineer – IAM & Cloud Security

Location: Hybrid / Sheffield

Type: Contract

Sector: Identity & Access Management (IAM) Transformation

Overview

We are seeking an experienced Automation Test Engineer to join a major enterprise Identity & Access Management (IAM) transformation programme within a large-scale global banking environment.

This role will focus on validating secure, scalable IAM workflows across cloud-native and event-driven architectures, with a strong emphasis on API automation, identity orchestration, graph validation, and policy-based access controls.

You will work closely with Cloud Security, DevOps, IAM Engineering, and Platform teams to build robust automated testing solutions supporting modern identity services, access governance, and cloud security operations.

The environment is highly technical, fast-paced, and engineering-led, requiring strong Python automation skills and hands-on experience testing distributed systems, APIs, IAM controls, and event-driven platforms.

Key Responsibilities

• Build and maintain reusable automated test frameworks using Python and PyTest
• Develop automated validation for:
• REST APIs
• Event-driven services
• IAM workflows
• Graph-based data platforms
• Execute functional and non-functional testing aligned to technical requirements and architecture specifications
• Validate IAM access control models including:
• RBAC
• ABAC
• ReBAC
• PBAC
• Test policy-as-code decision logic and access enforcement controls
• Perform API contract testing, replay/reprocessing validation, and event lineage verification
• Validate graph database relationships, node integrity, and traversal logic
• Create and manage Jenkins pipelines supporting CI/CD-based automated testing and reporting
• Log, track, and manage defects through to resolution using JIRA and Zephyr
• Collaborate with Security, Engineering, and DevOps teams to improve testability, observability, and overall platform quality
• Produce test evidence and governance artefacts to support audit and regulatory requirements

Required Skills & Experience

Automation & Coding

• Strong Python development skills
• Hands-on experience building automation frameworks using PyTest
• Experience developing reusable test utilities and automation libraries

API & Integration Testing

• Strong REST API testing experience
• Hands-on use of:
• Postman
• Insomnia
• Apidog
• Experience testing API Gateways and service integrations

Event-Driven & Messaging Systems

• Experience testing Pub/Sub or message queue architectures
• Understanding of:
• replay/reprocessing
• idempotency
• event sequencing
• retry handling

IAM & Security Testing

• Good understanding of Identity & Access Management concepts:
• authentication
• authorisation
• RBAC / ABAC / ReBAC / PBAC
• Experience testing identity lifecycle processes:
• Joiner / Mover / Leaver
• human and non-human identities
• Understanding of policy-as-code validation approaches

CI/CD & DevOps

• Jenkins pipeline creation and maintenance
• Experience integrating automated tests into CI/CD pipelines
• Shift-left testing mindset

Test Governance

• Functional and non-functional test traceability
• Test planning, coverage analysis, and defect lifecycle management
• Experience with JIRA and Zephyr

Desirable Skills

• Neo4j or GraphDB testing experience
• Cypher query validation
• OPA/Rego policy testing
• Playwright or TypeScript exposure
• Observability tooling awareness:
• Grafana
• logs/metrics/traces
• Containerised testing approaches
• Performance testing tools:
• JMeter
• Gatling
• NeoLoad
• Identity protocols and ingestion standards:
• SCIM
• LDAP
• OIDC
• CSV-based identity feeds
• Experience within banking, financial services, or highly regulated environments

What’s on Offer

• Opportunity to work on a large-scale enterprise IAM transformation programme
• Exposure to modern cloud-native security and identity platforms
• Highly collaborative engineering environment
• Long-term programme with significant technical complexity and enterprise impact
• Opportunity to shape automation strategy within a global IAM landscape