Quality assurance
testing

A quality assurance test analyst investigates digital services to find problems that users might face  You design and run tests. You report what you find so we can fix issues before they reach the public. 

You’re involved throughout a project, not just at the end. You work with developers, business analysts, and designers from the start. You will help shape requirements, question how things will work in practice, and think through what could go wrong.

You might suit this role if you:

• like working out why something is not behaving the way it should
• notice details that other people do not see
• want to understand how something could fail, not just how it works

Where you could start

There’s no single route into this role. 

You could start your career through a digital apprenticeship or graduate scheme. You could also apply after studying a digital or IT subject. 

Others have moved into QAT analysis from related roles, where they’ve built up an understanding of how systems work and what users need. These include customer service, IT support, or manual testing.

Where it can lead

From here, you can move up into more senior testing roles like senior test analyst, test lead or test manager. 

You can also specialise, for example, in automation, performance, or security testing. 

Some people use the system-wide view the role gives them to move across into business analysis, product management or software development roles.

As a test engineer, you’ll help keep digital services reliable as they change. You’ll design, build and automate tests that help to catch problems before users see them.

You’ll also build and maintain the testing tools your team uses, work out what’s gone wrong when tests fail, and help set the standards that other testers work to.

You might suit this role if you:

• enjoy understanding how things work, and where they might break
• like using software to solve practical problems
• want to make things more reliable, not just make them work

Where you could start

You would usually start as an associate test engineer, where you’ll learn about engineering and testing practices and standards. But there is no single route into this role. 

You could start your career through a digital apprenticeship or graduate scheme. If you have a background in logical problem solving, you’ll be a good fit as a test engineer. 

Where it can lead

With experience, you could move up to senior test engineer and then lead test engineer. In senior roles, you could guide other testers and shape how testing works across a team or organisation. 

Test engineers can also move across into related roles like test manager or QAT analyst.