QA Engineering Lead

Tender description

Summary of the work Support the Head of Engineering Practice establish the quality assurance engineering capabilities within the Engineering Practice, and to recruit new engineering talent into BPDTS. There is currently a need to increase senior capacity within the Engineering Practice to shape and drive activities to establish the required momentum across the business. Specialist role Programme manager Expected Contract Length A minimum of six months Latest start date Monday 16 July 2018 Who Speclialist Work With The specialist will support the Head of Engineering Practice to establish the quality assurance engineering capabilities within the Engineering Practice, and to recruit new engineering talent into BPDTS. There is currently a need to increase senior capacity within the Engineering Practice to shape and drive activities in these two areas to establish the required momentum across the business. The specialist will work with counterparts in DWP to build cross-community ways of working, support the organisation’s strategy to increase digital capability and assure delivery of digital services. What Specialists Work On 1. Support the Head of Engineering Practice to establish the Quality Assurance Engineering community. 2. Work with counterparts in DWP to build cross-community ways of working which support the organisation’s aims to increase digital capability and assure the delivery of digital services. 3. Work with DWP counterparts to develop a deep understanding of customer needs both now and in the future to establish a longer-term view of service demand. 4. Undertake effective knowledge transfer and handover to BPDTS personnel at the end of the assignment. Skills & Experience • Demonstrable experience of forming and leading quality assurance teams in a digital environment. • Collegiate in approach and able to build a vision and momentum for change. • Familiar with professional services business models and associated business processes. • Significant experience of assuring the quality of large-scale digital solutions in both Agile and Waterfall environments to time, budget and quality. • Experience of quality assuring solutions within a continuous delivery environment. • Able to demonstrate experience of challenging organisational processes to reduce complexity and optimise delivery flow. • Extensive experience of leading and continuously improving quality assurance processes, tools and teams within a complex, multi-disciplinary environment. • Good practical working knowledge of a broad range of technologies (open source and proprietary) used over the last 20 years. • Extensive and deep experience of assuring the quality of full stack system developments. • Able to communicate effectively with and understand quality assurance practitioners. • Able to build credible relationships at senior levels within a complex organisation. Nice to Haves • Experience of contributing to and influencing organisational transformation. • Working knowledge of assuring solutions using relevant technologies, such as AWS, Terraform, Ansible, Linux, Nexus, GitLab CI, Puppet, Red Hat, Centos, Checkmarx and Blackduck • Experience of Government Digital Service (GDS) design principles and service standards. • Experience of technical services business development. • A member of a relevant professional body. Work Location London, Newcastle or Blackpool. The specialist can be based at any of these locations. There will be extensive travel required between sites. Working Arrangments Onsite 5 days a week with significant travel between London, Newcastle and Blackpool. Maximum, of £1,000 per week limit on expenses, which must be pre-approved and adhere to BPDTS Ltd Expenses Policy. Security Clearance Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS) required No. of Specialists to Evaluate 3 Cultural Fit Criteria • Work with counterparts in DWP to build cross-community ways of working • Support BPDTS’s strategy to increase digital capability • Define service outcomes offered and what excellence looks like • Assure delivery of digital services and provide direction and coaching. • Deploy people and services to ensure capability and solutions offered by the service practice align with customer need. Evaluation Weighting Technical competence 65% Cultural fit 15% Price 20% Questions from Suppliers 1. Can you give more information about what the focus will be for the QA Engineering Lead in supporting the Head of Engineering Practice to establish the Quality Assurance Engineering community? The specific focus will be in the following key areas:a. Developing the quality assurance engineering practice community and ways of working.b. Identifying capability gaps to determine development and recruitment needs.c. Attracting new talent to the organisation and leading recruitment campaigns.d. Developing career pathways to facilitate career progression.e. Providing direction and coaching to members of the quality assurance engineering practice.f. Implementing new processes and tools within the practice to support demand management, resource allocation, practice communications, learning and recruitment.g. Developing a service catalogue with target service levels for each quality assurance engineering service. 2. Is this role assessed as inside or outside of the IR35 regulations? This role is out of scope of IR35 3. Is there a current incumbent? No there is not an incumbent in the role 4. Are you able to give more information as to which of the 'Assessment Methods' you will be using? We will be using Presentations. It is anticipated these will be on Tuesday 17th July in Leeds. Presentations to address the key areas of:1. Support the Head of Engineering Practice to establish the Quality Assurance Engineering community, focusing on:a. Developing the practice communityb. Identifying capability gapsc. Attracting new talent to the organisation and leading recruitment campaigns.d. Developing career pathways e. Providing direction and coaching f. Implementing new processes and tools2. Work with counterparts in DWP to build cross-community ways of working and a deep understanding of customer needs 4. Undertake effective knowledge transfer 5. Whats the maximum day rate for this role? As per the published advertisement BPDTS Ltd has not set a Day rate / Budget range for this role. 6. In this role, what does Quality Assurance mean? It means continuous delivery / development in areas such as test automation, toolsets, ways of working, increasing Agile / DevOps. 7. What do you mean by 'collegiate in approach'? We mean supporting and helping colleagues, acknowledging that some staff need more help than others. Recognising the complex environment with DWP and working in a professional and respectful way. 8. What capability is already in place in BPDTS Ltd? Currently there are approximately 550 resources across BPDTS Ltd and the majority of these are in the live service area. Over the next 12 to 18 months it is planned that there will be significant permanent recruitment and this includes an anticipated recruitment of another 1,000 resources in the Engineering Practice, hence us building up the Engineering Practice leaders roles now. 9. Amendment to Q4 re location of supplier Presentations Please note the Presentations will be held on the 17th July but will be in Newcastle and not Leeds