QA / Test Engineer – Data (Outside IR35 Contract)
Chroma Recruitment
Department: Data & Technology
Location: Manchester (Hybrid – 3 days per week onsite)
Reporting to: Engineering Delivery Lead
Contract Type: Outside IR35 - 6 months initial
Day rate: £350-375 per day
Direct Reports: None
About the Business
Our client is a well-established international consumer brand operating across multiple global markets, serving millions of customers every year through a high-volume retail and digital ecosystem.
As part of a significant business-wide transformation, they are investing heavily in modernising their data estate to become a more customer-centric, digitally enabled organisation. This is a key opportunity to join during a major phase of growth and transformation.
About the Programme
This role sits within a large-scale data modernisation programme focused on replatforming and transforming enterprise-wide reporting and analytics capabilities.
Over the next 9–12 months, the business is migrating from legacy on-premise data warehouses to a modern cloud-based architecture built around Snowflake, dbt, Fivetran, and Azure. The programme spans multiple international markets and is business-critical, with strong visibility from senior leadership.
The environment is fast-paced, highly collaborative, and focused on delivering a scalable, reliable data platform.
The Role
The QA / Test Engineer will play a key role in ensuring the accuracy, reliability, and integrity of the new data platform.
This is a specialist data testing role rather than traditional application or UI testing. The focus is on validating data pipelines, transformations, reconciliations, and automated quality frameworks across a modern cloud stack.
Working closely with Data Engineers, Business Analysts, and stakeholders, you will design and implement robust testing frameworks covering dbt models, data reconciliation, regression testing, and CI/CD integrations.
The fixed-term route will focus heavily on parallel running and migration cutover activities.
Key Responsibilities
- Design and execute testing strategies across the modern data platform, including unit, regression, reconciliation, and data quality testing.
- Build and maintain dbt test frameworks (generic, singular, and custom tests).
- Develop automated reconciliation suites comparing outputs between legacy warehouse environments and new cloud-based outputs at row, column, and aggregate levels.
- Embed testing into CI/CD pipelines to prevent defects reaching production.
- Define and own the wider data quality framework, including monitoring, alerting, and remediation processes.
- Translate business requirements into testable and automated validation criteria.
- Investigate and document data quality issues identified through monitoring or business users.
- Maintain regression coverage for critical business reporting datasets.
- Promote testing best practices across engineering teams, improving test coverage and code quality.
- Support release sign-off and contribute to go/no-go deployment decisions.
- Partner with business stakeholders during UAT cycles to ensure successful delivery.
- 3+ years’ experience in QA, Test Engineering, or Data Quality Engineering within data platform environments.
- Strong SQL skills, including complex query writing for reconciliation and validation.
- Experience building automated testing frameworks in modern data stacks (e.g. dbt, Great Expectations, Soda, Python-based frameworks).
- Hands-on experience with at least one modern cloud data warehouse (Snowflake preferred).
- Experience integrating tests into CI/CD pipelines (GitHub Actions, Azure DevOps, or similar).
- Strong understanding of data validation, transformation testing, and reconciliation methodologies.
- Comfortable working with Git-based workflows and pull request processes.
- Strong written communication and defect documentation skills.
- High attention to detail with a pragmatic, delivery-focused mindset.
- Must have the right to work in the UK without sponsorship.
- Experience supporting data migration or modernisation programmes.
- Background in reconciling legacy warehouse platforms (MSSQL, Oracle, Teradata) with cloud-based platforms.
- Python for test automation.
- Experience testing downstream BI outputs (Power BI or similar).
- ISTQB or equivalent certification.
- Exposure to data observability tools (Monte Carlo, Bigeye, Elementary).
- Experience in retail, hospitality, e-commerce, or other high-volume transactional environments.
- Genuine opportunity to own and shape data quality within a major transformation programme.
- Work with a modern data stack: Snowflake, dbt, Fivetran, Azure.
- High-impact work supporting critical reporting for finance, operations, and commercial teams.
- Opportunity to influence engineering best practices in a growing data function.
- Competitive salary and benefits package.
- Hybrid working model based in Manchester.
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