Engineer - Data Test & Assurance

Job purpose

As a Data Test & Assurance Engineer, you will operate as a senior technical subject matter expert providing cross-platform data test assurance practice leadership across Homes England’s Azure Databricks Platform.

You will define, embed, and assure automated data and platform testing practices end-to-end across data engineering, analytics, and Data Science / AI‑enabled workloads, ensuring solutions are reliable, secure by design, ethical, and auditable.

The role carries delegated technical leadership responsibility and may require leading and directing the work of contractors and external specialists through technical authority rather than formal line management.

Engineering Community of Practice, mentoring teams and embedding modern ways of working.

This role is crucial to providing the technical leadership and governance required for the Agency to deliver consistent data services, mature its data culture, and respond effectively to strategic and operational priorities.

Key accountabilities and responsibilities

• Cross-Platform Test Strategy and StandardsDefine, own, and continuously evolve the Data Platform Test Strategy, ensuring consistent assurance across infrastructure, CI/CD pipelines, data ingestion, transformation, analytics, and AI/ML workloads. Establish secure‑ by‑design testing standards and patterns adopted across internal teams and suppliers.
• Leadership of Contractors and External ResourcesLead, direct, and quality‑assure the work of contractors and external suppliers delivering data testing, platform assurance, and AI/ML validation capabilities. Set technical direction, review deliverables, and ensure outputs meet Homes England and DDaT standards.
• Automated Data, Analytics, and AI AssuranceDesign and implement automated tests for ETL/ELT pipelines, data models, analytical outputs, and machine learning artefacts, including validation of feature engineering, model inputs and outputs, data drift, and reproducibility using Python and SQL‑based frameworks.
• CI/CD, Secure-by-Design, and Environment AssuranceEmbed quality and security gates into Azure DevOps CI/CD pipelines. Validate environment parity across Dev, Pre‑Prod, and Prod, and apply secure‑by‑design principles including identity and access management, secrets handling, data masking, and least‑privilege access.
• Quality, Observability, and ComplianceImplement data profiling, anomaly detection, and assurance evidence to support governance, audit, GDPR, responsible AI, and regulatory compliance.
• Delivery Tracking and definitionMaintaining and processing the data test engineering and assurance backlog in collaboration with the product and delivery managers as part of the data service offered to our customers.
• Data Community of PracticeActively participate and contribute to the Data Analytics Community of Practices from the Data Engineering perspective.

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

To apply please follow the links to our careers page.

Security

Successful candidates must pass a disclosure and barring security check.

For more information on the role, please see the attached Job Description.

Successful applicants will be advised of the outcome of their application and interviews held as soon as practical after the closing date. Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment. We would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your interest in this role and Homes England.

Please note – Homes England has a responsibility to ensure compliance with HMG Baseline Personnel Security Standard to address the potential problems of identity fraud, illegal working and deception generally. To ensure compliance we will carry out a pre-employment Personal Identity and Vetting Report through Experian to meet the standard and you will therefore be asked to provide certain information in order that the verification check can be carried out if you are successful in your application.

Homes England are an equal opportunities employer and positively encourages applications from suitably qualified and eligible candidates. We are proud to be an equal opportunities employer that values and respects the people who work for us. Our aim is to be an employer of choice, enabling everyone to reach their full potential.

Homes England is committed to protecting the privacy and security of your personal data. For further information please refer to our Privacy Notice which can be viewed here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/homes-england/about/personal-information-charter

Nationality requirements

Open to UK, Commonwealth and European Economic Area (EEA) and certain non EEA nationals. Further information on whether you are able to apply is available here.

Working for the Civil Service

Please note this Post is NOT regulated by the Civil Service Commission.

The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equality of opportunity. There is a guaranteed disability confident interview scheme for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.

Further information

Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Contact point for applicants

Name: Recruitment Team

Email: recruitmentinfo@homesengland.gov.uk

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.