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 the past 30 years as the leading travel marketplace for self-employed travel entrepreneurs, empowering over 2,000 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 400 super talented people in our Support Offices to help them create unique, inspiring and exciting experiences for their customers, whilst building lasting personal relationships that bring 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, placing in the Sunday Times Best Places to Work list 2023 and 2024 (Large Company) 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 £930m) - and so are looking for outstanding individuals to join our dedicated Head Office team, to help the company continue to flourish.
Role Description
We are looking for an experienced QA/Automation Engineer to join our growing technology team in Manchester, UK. Working as part of our dynamic technology function, you will directly contribute to an award winning digital platform that supports over 2000 entrepreneurial travel businesses.
You will play a critical role in ensuring the quality and reliability of our technology platform through comprehensive testing methodologies with a focus on automation. You will work closely with cross-functional teams to understand requirements, develop test strategies, and implement automated test scripts to validate functionality, performance, and scalability across our product portfolio.
Principal Accountabilities
1. Collaborate with product owners, developers, and other stakeholders to understand requirements and define test strategies
2. Design, develop, and execute automated test scripts using industry-standard testing frameworks and tools
3. Implement and maintain automated test suites for functional testing, regression testing, and performance testing
4. Identify, document, and track software defects using issue tracking systems and work closely with development teams to resolve them
5. Perform manual testing as needed, including exploratory testing, usability testing, and ad-hoc testing
6. Continuously improve testing processes and methodologies to enhance efficiency, reliability, and test coverage
7. Participate in code reviews, sprint planning, and release management activities to ensure high-quality software releases
8. Stay updated on emerging trends and best practices in software testing and automation
Required Experience
9. Strong C# coding skills
10. Experience writing automated, browser-based, end-to-end functional tests using the Selenium WebDriver, preferably with C# (APIs, as opposed to record/playback IDE)
11. Hands on experience in API testing (Postman, BDD using SpecFlow preferred)
12. Capability to cross test on various devices including laptops and mobile devices
13. Experience in Test Plan preparation, estimation, and status reporting
14. Experience writing performance tests identifying areas of improvement across a platform
15. Experience writing Component and Integration tests to identify issues earlier in the SDLC Life Cycle
16. Proficiency in Git for version control
17. Working knowledge of the software development lifecycle
18. Exposure of Agile Requirement designing
19. Experience in Manual testing (UAT/System/Regression)
20. Good working knowledge of HTML, CSS and JavaScript
21. Working knowledge of CI/CD / Blue Green Deployments
22. Experience of working within a fast-paced IT services environment
23. Experience with Dev/QA collaboration to derive Test Cases/ Scenarios
24. Working knowledge of testing Micro Services and the different types needed including Base, Unit, Integration, Load, Stress, Security, resiliency testing
25. You will work well under pressure, alongside colleagues to support the business community
26. Working knowledge of Cloud computing (AWS)
27. Proven track record of extensive work experience in a similar role
28. Any experience of supporting the travel industry (Desirable)
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:
29. A competitive basic salary + annual company bonus
30. Flexible hybrid working model (2 days home, 3 days office)
31. Career development and promotional opportunities
32. 25 days holidays (increasing to 28 after 5 years of service)
33. A Moments That Matter day (annually)
34. Enhanced Maternity / Paternity pay
35. Holiday buy and sell (up to 5 days per year)
36. 3 paid days charity leave
37. Company events, socials, and incentives
38. 3x annual salary death in service benefit
39. Company Pension scheme
40. Costco Membership
41. Salary sacrifice, company car scheme
42. Cycle to Work Scheme
43. Employee Assistance Programme
44. Free breakfast, fruit, and hot/cold beverages
45. Referral scheme
46. Employee discount
47. Private Medical Insurance (taxable benefit) or Healthcare Cash Plan (costs incurred by employees)