QA Analyst

About Us

Here at Travel Counsellors, our customers, communities and colleagues lie at the heart of everything that we do - and that’s what makes us special. For us, relationships come before transactions, and we are there for our customers, connecting with them on a deeply human level through the moments that matter.

We’ve been changing lives for over 28 years as the leading travel marketplace for self-employed travel entrepreneurs, empowering over 1,900 global independent travel agents to run successful leisure and corporate travel businesses. We pride ourselves in remaining a company that truly cares and one that has never wavered from its purpose; to redefine what personal means for a travel business.

Our Travel Counsellors are supported by a team of over 250 super talented people in our Support Offices to help them create unique, inspiring, and exciting experiences for their customers, building lasting personal relationships that brings them back to us, time and time again.

Our unique approach within the workplace – as well as towards customers – has seen us receive numerous awards and accolades, including being named as The Best Place to Work in Travel at the 2022 TTG Travel Industry Awards, as well as being the first travel company to be awarded the Queen’s Award for Enterprise in the Innovation category!

We are currently expanding at a phenomenal rate – on the back of what is our record year in terms of revenue (over £800m) and so are looking for like-minded individuals to join our dedicated Head Office team, to help the company continue to flourish.

Role Summary and Core Responsibilities

The role of QA Analyst is to ensure, ensure that new and amended systems, configurations, packages, or services, together with any interfaces, perform as specified, and that the risks associated with deployment are adequately understood and documented. Planning, design, management, execution and reporting of tests, using appropriate testing tools and techniques, and conforming to agreed process standards and industry specific regulations.

You will provide confidence to internal management and external bodies, such as customers or regulators, that quality requirements will be fulfilled. Quality assurance may relate to any area where quality standards are applied, including products, data, services, and business processes.

YOUR RESPONSIBILITIES WILL BE:

• To review requirements and specifications and define test conditions.
• Actively participate in planning, estimation, and prioritisation processes to ensure successful execution of testing activities.
• Design, develop, and contribute to our automation framework
• Design test cases and test scripts under own direction, mapping back to pre-determined criteria, recording, and reporting outcomes.
• Identify and report test issues and risks associated with own work.
• Create and maintain appropriate test environment for automation, ensuring it is constantly efficient.
• Coordinate and manage planning of the system and/or acceptance tests, including software security testing, within a development or integration project or programme.
• Manage all risks associated with the testing and takes preventative action when any risks become unacceptable.
• Conduct formal audits or reviews to ensure compliance with organisational standards for activities, processes, data, products or services.
• Determine the risks associated with findings and non-compliance and proposes corrective actions.
• Provide advice and guidance in the use of organisational standards. Performs quality assurance reviews of suppliers and throughout the supply chain.

CORE VALUES AND BELIEFS:

• You will have a great customer facing attitude and a strong interest in IT and the ability to learn quickly.
• You will be a role model for our business values using your personality and behaviours and act with integrity 100% of the time – what we say is what we do
• You will have a willingness to go the extra mile and always strive to seek job satisfaction
• You always bring your authentic self to work
• You pride yourself on building loyal and mutual trusting relationships with colleagues, candidates and supplier partners
• You will respect and value diversity, creating an environment that is inclusive of all
• You will be focused on your own personal development as well as the future of our business, participating in the ongoing success of the business and contributing with new and innovate ideas and ways of working
• You actively seek out opportunities and find meaningfulness at work
• You will not be afraid to use your voice to challenge or reinforced the status quo, guided by our values and behaviours

EXPERIENCE AND QUALIFICATIONS

• Working knowledge of the software development lifecycle
• Exposure of Agile Requirement designing
• Experience in Test Plan preparation, estimation, and status reporting
• Experience scripting automated, browser-based, end-to-end functional tests using the Selenium WebDriver (APIs, as opposed to record/playback IDE)
• Experience in Manual testing (UAT/System/Regression)
• Good understanding of HTML, CSS and Java, basic coding skills
• Selenium WebDriver experience
• Familiar with CI/CD, microservices
• Good understanding of API testing (BDD using SpecFlow preferred)
• Good understanding of Component testing (Angular applications)
• Experience of working within a fast-paced IT services environment
• Experience with Dev/QA collaboration to derive Test Cases/ Scenarios
• Knowledge of testing Micro Services and the different types needed including Base, Unit, Integration, Load, Stress, Security, resiliency testing (Experience preferable)
• You will work well under pressure, alongside colleagues to support the business community
• Working knowledge of Cloud computing
• Proven track record of extensive work experience in a similar role
• 2 + years’ experience in a QA Analyst / testing position
• Preferably ISEB or ISTQB accredited (Desirable)
• Preferably accredited with a cloud provider (Desirable)
• Any experience of supporting the travel industry (Desirable)

SKILLS & PERSONAL ATTRIBUTES

• Ability to pick up new languages and processes
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Ability to build rapport and engage with all types of individuals
• Exceptional communication skills with the ability to nurture relationships
• Strong problem-solving skills and a motivation to provide the best possible service to the user throughout the support process
• Strong commitment to quality and a thorough approach to responsibilities
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Good attention to detail with a focus on quality and continuous improvement
• Excellent time management and planning and organisational skills
• Excellent interpersonal skills
• Good problem-solving skills and the tenacity to stay with an issue until it is resolved
• Excellent team-working skills
• Self-motivated, proactive, enthusiastic, and committed to a testing career path
• You will take pride in your appearance and personal brand and possess a charismatic personality
• Comfortable operating in fast paced environments with informal ways of working
• Naturally ambitious and hardworking with a flexible and positive approach to work
• Possess a great work ethic, positive mindset, and limitless thinking
• Self-motivated, proactive, enthusiastic, and committed to a testing career path
• Keeps up to date on the latest industry trends and has an interest in keeping abreast of current trends in software development and testing
• Strong commitment to quality and a thorough approach to responsibilities

Our Benefits

Working here at Travel Counsellors, we value the hard work and effort that our colleagues put in. Because of this, you can expect a wide range of employee benefits including:

• A competitive basic salary + annual company bonus
• Flexible hybrid working model (2 days home, 3 days office)
• Career development and promotional opportunities
• 25 days holidays (increasing to 28 after 5 years of service)
• A Moments That Matter day (annually)
• Enhanced Maternity / Paternity pay
• Holiday buy and sell (up to 5 days per year)
• 3 paid days charity leave
• Company events, socials, and incentives
• 3x annual salary death in service benefit
• Company Pension scheme
• Costco Membership
• Salary sacrifice, company car scheme
• Cycle to Work Scheme
• Employee Assistance Programme
• Free breakfast, fruit, and hot/cold beverages
• Referral scheme
• Employee discount
• Private Medical Insurance (taxable benefit) or Healthcare Cash Plan (costs incurred by employees)