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Software Development Engineer in Test (SDET)

Rowden

Job Location:

Bristol - UK

Yearly Salary: GBP 50000 - 70000

Posted: 11 November 2026 (5 hours ago)

Application Deadline: 8 February 2027

Vacancies: 1 Vacancy

Department:

Engineering

Job Summary

Were creating the UKs next-generation engineering powerhouse delivering critical technology that strengthens national security and resilience.

We turn advances in sensing AI and communications into operational capability at the edge where connectivity may be limited or unavailable. Our work accelerates technology deployment improves frontline decision-making and protects people and critical assets in demanding environments.

Based in Bristol Rowden currently employs around 200 people and operates more than 20000 square feet of engineering and manufacturing facilities. With a growing international presence we are one of Europes fastest-growing engineering businesses.

The role

Were growing our team and looking for a Software Development Engineer in Test (SDET) to enable us to continue to build out our test frameworks tooling and emulated environments that underpin assured software across complex missioncritical systems.

Youll take responsibility for software quality within your projects playing a key part in ensuring Rowdens software is robust reliable and meets the standards expected by our mission-focused customers.

This is an engineering role as much as a testing one. Youll design and build new automation frameworks from the ground up and develop our emulated test capability such as network and link emulation simulated devices and nodes and stand-ins for cloud services so that we can test distributed data-synchronising systems repeatably and under realistic degraded conditions without needing the full hardware estate.

Youll work across a diverse set of projects including bespoke mobile applications geospatial tooling cloud platforms sensing and provisioning systems. Many of these integrate closely with hardware so experience working across software and hardware ecosystems is essential.

Youll operate confidently across multidisciplinary environments contribute to complex deliveries and help shape how we approach quality in challenging real-world conditions. You will play a pivotal role in delivering our next generation of critical technologies that bridge the gap between frontline operators and the commercial advancements they need to succeed.

While this role offers hybrid working options it requires a minimum of 3 days per week on-site at our Bristol HQ with occasional travel to support integration and testing activities.

Candidates must be eligible for SC clearance.

More information about security clearance is available here: Key areas of responsibility

As a Software Development Engineer in Test you will:

Design and build test frameworks: Design build and maintain test automation frameworks and shared tooling from the ground up choosing appropriate architectures languages and libraries and treating test code as production-quality software.
Develop emulated capability: Build and evolve emulated and simulated test environments (for example network and link conditions devices nodes and cloud services) to enable repeatable testing of distributed data-synchronising systems under degraded or intermittent connectivity.
Embed automation in delivery pipelines: Integrate automated tests into CI/CD owning pipeline reliability reporting and the management of flaky tests.
Drive quality through best practice: Following and promoting consistent test standards applying sound judgement and effective risk management.
Coaching & Mentoring: Support and coach peers on automation practice and use of the frameworks you build.

Key skills experience and behaviours

We are seeking passionate and driven individuals who thrive on technology and actively invest in their technical skills and abilities. Relevant and transferable industry experience is a bonus when applying for this role but not essential. This role offers significant opportunities to grow and gain valuable experience and were looking for someone who already brings:

Essential

3 years test automation or software development experience.
Strong software development skills in at least one language used for test tooling (for example Python TypeScript or Java) with sound engineering practice including version control code review modular design and testing your own test code.
Proven experience designing and building test automation frameworks from scratch not simply writing tests into existing frameworks.
Use of modern tools and frameworks (e.g. Playwright PyTest UI Automator).
Experience of Git and building running and maintaining automated tests in CI/CD pipelines such as GitHub Actions.
Experience in working with APIs and integration test automation.
Solid understanding of networking and distributed-system fundamentals (for example latency packet loss partitions offline-first behaviour conflict resolution and eventual consistency) and how to test for them.
Experience translating requirements and user stories into comprehensive test suites including consideration of accessibility usability and mobile best practices.

Desirable

Experience building emulators simulators mocks or service virtualisation or network and fault-injection tooling.
Experience testing Android-based systems.
Experience testing software with connected hardware and troubleshooting integration and interoperability issues.
Experience setting up running and maintaining CI runners including physical runners (for example Raspberry Pi NUCs).
Networking experience (for example USB serial network switching) and scripting (e.g. Bash) for device control.
Knowledge of security performance resilience load and other non-functional testing areas.
ISTQB or equivalent certifications.
Understanding of how AI can be best-utilised across the software test lifecycle.
Experience working within assurance-driven safety-critical or highly regulated environments.

About you

The ideal candidate will have a thorough understanding of the software testing craft and be comfortable navigating their way through complex environments. You will:

Work with a high degree of autonomy taking responsibility for the quality of your own work and the design of the test solutions you build and making sound evidence-based decisions in fast-moving environments.
Approach problems like an engineer with a pragmatic delivery-focused mindset that balances robust design with the need to move at pace.
Work effectively across multidisciplinary teams collaborating daily with fellow engineers product and operational stakeholders.
Contribute to ways of working supporting consistency and continuous improvement with a proactive approach to solving problems.
Share knowledge and support the development of automation amongst peers.
Operate confidently in customer-facing environments supporting integration and test activities and facilitating discussions around quality.

Working at Rowden

We are committed to building a flexible inclusive and enabling company. Our aim is to create a diverse team of talented people with unique skills experience and backgrounds so please apply and come as you are!

We also recognise the importance of flexible working and support this wherever we can. We typically operate a flexible hybrid-working model with an average 3 days in the office each week (dependent on the role). We welcome the opportunity to discuss flexibility part-time working requirements and/or workplace adjustments with all our applicants.

Rowden is a Disability Confident Committed company and we actively encourage people with disabilities and health conditions to apply for our roles. Please let us know your requirements early on so that we can make sure you have everything you need up front to help make the recruitment process and experience as easy as possible.

Finally if you feel that you dont meet all the criteria included above but have transferable skills and relevant experience wed still love to hear from you!

Required Experience:

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About Company

Rowden

Rowden designs and builds systems, infrastructure, and applications to deliver mission advantage to those working to protect the security of the UK and its allies. We are setting a new standard in government technology provision: hyper-efficient engineering, better customer relationsh ... View more

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