Software Development Engineer

Senior Software Development Engineer in Test (£44,241 - £58,997)

CAPTION:

• Company: Government Recruitment Service
• Salary: £44,241 to £58,997 a year
• Hours: Full-time
• Location: Swansea
• Job type: Permanent
• Posting date: 19 Oct 2026
• Closing date: 1 Nov 2026

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Summary

Are you experienced in building test automation for both web-based user interfaces and APIs?

Is your attention to detail thorough?

Are you passionate about Software Development Engineer in Test (SDET) principles with a good comprehension of Automation Testing?

If so, we'd love to hear from you!

Joining our department comes with many benefits, including:

• Employer pension contribution of 28.97% of your salary. Read more about Civil Service Pensions here
• 25 days annual leave, increasing by 1 day each year of service (up to a maximum of 30 days annual leave), plus 8 bank holidays and a privilege day for the King's birthday
• Flexible working options where we encourage a great work-life balance.

Read more in the Benefits section below!

Find out more about what it's like working at DVLA - Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency - Civil Service Careers.

At the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA), we take testing very seriously and we automate as much as we can. Our SDETs are building best-in-class test automation software so that we can build products quickly and safely.

You will be a critical part of a squad following a behaviour-driven design approach (ATDD). You will love to code and to test in equal measure and challenge us to increase the scope of our Continuous Testing.

The DVLA is at the cutting edge of cloud-first technologies. We use Cucumber with Ruby for most of our testing. Our systems under test are usually Dockerised or Serverless applications.

In this dynamic role you will be part of an engineering team accountable for continually driving all aspects of quality improvements. You will be working in one of our delivery teams or as part of the dedicated independent testing team.

Our automation frameworks primarily use Cucumber with Ruby, and the systems we test are typically Dockerised or based on serverless architectures.

This is a dynamic position where you will contribute to an engineering team committed to improving all aspects of software quality. You may work within one of our delivery teams or as part of our dedicated independent testing function.

Responsibilities

• Plan and lead development on sets of related stories
• Coach and mentor more junior colleagues
• Understand and be proficient in different types of testing
• Write clean, maintainable automated testing code

For further information on the role, please read the attached role profile. Please note that the role profile is for information purposes only - whilst all elements are relevant to the role, they may not all be assessed during the recruitment process. This job advert will detail exactly what will be assessed during the recruitment process.

#s1-Gen

Are you experienced in building test automation for both web-based user interfaces and APIs? Is your attention to detail thorough? Are you passionate about Software Development Engineer in Test (SDET) principles with a good comprehension of Automation Testing?

The DVLA is at the cutting edge of cloud-first technologies. We use Cucumber with Ruby for most of our testing. Our systems under test are usually Dockerised or Serverless applications. In this dynamic role you will be part of an engineering team accountable for continually driving all aspects of quality improvements. You will be working in one of our delivery teams or as part of the dedicated independent testing team. Our automation frameworks primarily use Cucumber with Ruby, and the systems we test are typically Dockerised or based on serverless architectures. This is a dynamic position where you will contribute to an engineering team committed to improving all aspects of software quality. You may work within one of our delivery teams or as part of our dedicated independent testing function.

• Employer pension contribution of 28.97% of your salary. Read more about Civil Service Pensions here
• 25 days annual leave, increasing by 1 day each year of service (up to a maximum of 30 days annual leave), plus 8 bank holidays and a privilege day for the King's birthday
• Flexible working options where we encourage a great work-life balance.
Read more in the Benefits section below! Find out more about what it's like working at DVLA - Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency - Civil Service Careers. At the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA), we take testing very seriously and we automate as much as we can. Our SDETs are building best-in-class test automation software so that we can build products quickly and safely. You will be a critical part of a squad following a behaviour-driven design approach (ATDD). You will love to code and to test in equal measure and challenge us to increase the scope of our Continuous Testing.