Principal QA Engineer

About the role

• We're hiring a hands-on Principal Quality Engineer to take technical ownership of how we test the Hyperlayer platform, orchestration engine and HyperJar.

• This role has two halves: designing, extending and rebuilding our automation frameworks in the codebase (Java, REST Assured, Postman/Newman and internal tooling), and lifting the technical capability of the QE team through example, code review and shared standards.

• You'll lead the setup of contract testing across our services, so teams can release independently without breaking each other or our clients.

• You'll be the most technical quality voice in the room: in planning, design reviews and incident postmortems.

• This is a senior individual contributor role. You'll report into the Head of Solution Architecture & QA and work closely with engineering, product, release engineering and client implementation teams.

• This role is predominantly office-based in Paddington, London.

What you'll do

• Own our test automation frameworks and tooling, keeping them maintainable, fast and trusted by the engineers who depend on them.

• Design and build new frameworks where gaps exist, such as data-driven test harnesses and non-functional testing tooling.

• Set up and own contract testing across services with Pact (Pact JVM, Pact Broker or PactFlow), including provider verification and can-i-deploy gates in CI/CD.

• Decide which testing runs at each pipeline and certification stage, balancing coverage, speed and flake tolerance.

• Set framework standards and conventions, and review designs and code so pod quality engineers follow them.

• Partner with engineering leads on test architecture for new services, so quality is designed in rather than bolted on.

• Work with Product and Client Implementation so what we test reflects what clients actually do, especially for payment flows.

• Drive down flakiness and runtime, with clear metrics on suite health, coverage and reliability.

• Lead how we use AI in testing: evaluate tools, set guardrails and roll out what works.

• Raise the team's technical bar through pairing, code review and training, including helping manual testers grow into automation engineers.

Qualifications

Essential

• 8+ years in test automation and quality engineering, including time as a technical lead or principal-level engineer.

• A clear track record of building and evolving automation frameworks from scratch, not just maintaining someone else's.

• Deep API automation expertise with REST Assured (or equivalent) and Postman/Newman.

• Hands-on experience setting up contract testing with Pact or similar, including a broker, provider verification and CI/CD gates.

• Strong Java skills (or another JVM language, or Golang), writing production-quality framework code.

• Solid grasp of CI/CD pipelines, test environments and test data, and how to keep large suites fast and reliable.

• Direct experience in fintech, payments or another regulated financial services environment.

• Comfortable setting standards, pushing back on shortcuts and bringing the rest of the team along without direct authority.

• Willing and able to be in our London office four days per week.

Desirable

• Non-functional testing experience: performance (Gatling, JMeter, k6), fuzz and security testing.

• UI automation (Playwright, Selenium, Cypress) where it complements an API-first strategy.

• Experience working with third-party clients or vendor QA teams.

• Familiarity with payment schemes, ISO 20022, card processing or open banking.

• Practical experience using AI tools in testing, including their limits.

How to apply

Please click on the 'Apply' button, you will be asked to provide an updated CV and answer some questions. For further information about this vacancy, you can contact us at: recruitment@hyperlayer.com.

We will not be offering UK work visa sponsorship for these roles. Candidates will need an existing non-sponsored right to work in the UK.

Working at Hyperlayer

At Hyperlayer we are proud of our in-office culture. It makes a real difference to the working atmosphere and maximises collaboration in and across teams. This is critical to how we work and learn. Also, we think it makes for a great workplace!

We value our team and are proud to offer some great benefits:

• A performance-based employee bonus scheme.

• 25 days annual leave plus bank holidays, a day off on your birthday, and an additional day per year of tenure to a maximum of 30.

• Critical illness and life insurance cover.

• AXA PPP Health Insurance, including gym offers.

• Cycle-to-work scheme.

• Referral bonus scheme.

• Workplace nursery scheme.

Equity, diversity, and inclusion

Hyperlayer's mission is to make a positive impact on people's lives, making it easier for everyone to manage their money.

Hyperlayer's commitment to equity, diversity, and inclusion is a key part of this; it helps us better serve our customers, employees, and business partners from every background.

We are constantly learning and striving to do better, and we expect all staff to actively take part in this process.

Data Privacy

As part of our recruitment process, Hyperlayer Limited collects and processes personal data relating to job applicants.

We are committed to being transparent about how we collect and use this data and to meeting our data protection obligations. To read more click here.