Test Specialist

We are looking for Test Specialist at Sheffield, UK – 3 days per week Onsite Role purpose • Support end to end testing activities for UK payments change initiatives, ensuring solutions are delivered safely, compliantly, and meet agreed quality standards. You will contribute to test planning and execution across functional, integration, UAT support, and nonfunctional testing activities. Key responsibilities • Contribute to the definition of test approach and test plans for payments projects • Support test estimation, scheduling, and status reporting, including defects and risks • Execute and support the end to end test lifecycle: test design, data preparation, execution, defect tracking, and test closure • Perform testing across payments domains such as Faster Payments, CHAPS, Bacs, SWIFT, ISO 20022 messaging, payment gateways, and reconciliation processes • Support system integration testing across multiple applications, APIs, middleware, and third-party systems • Assist in test data management (including masking/anonymisation where required) and environment readiness • Identify, log, and track defects; support triage and resolution with development teams • Support UAT activities, including preparation of scripts, execution support, and defect tracking • Contribute to non-functional testing activities (performance, resilience, security) where required • Follow and support quality practices, including automation, CI/CD quality checks, and continuous improvement • Ensure adherence to internal controls, audit requirements, and relevant UK regulatory expectations Stakeholder management • Work with Product Owners, BAs, Developers, Ops, and business SMEs to ensure clear understanding of requirements and test coverage • Coordinate with internal teams and third parties to support testing activities and resolve dependencies • Provide updates on testing progress, defects, and risks to the delivery team Required experience & skills • Proven experience delivering testing in payments within banking/financial services • Strong knowledge of UK payments schemes (FPS/CHAPS/Bacs/SWIFT) and processing flows • Hands-on experience in integration testing across distributed systems, APIs, and messaging architectures • Solid defect management and ability to support cross-team resolution • Experience with tools such as Jira/Confluence, ALM/Zephyr, reporting dashboards • Understanding of test automation concepts and tools (Selenium/Cypress, API testing tools, CI/CD pipelines) • Comfortable with SQL/data validation and message formats (XML/JSON/ISO 20022) • Strong communication skills