Software Development Environments Controller

About the role A dedicated, experienced individual to join the Operations Test function as the Software Development Environments Controller. We have an ambitious and busy change agenda resulting in a need for multiple IT programmes and projects to develop solutions in parallel, efficiently and with dependencies controlled and managed. Management of our software development test environments is critical to this being achieved. The responsibilities of the Environments Controller will be to help us organise and manage the way our projects work with our suite of existing test environments. The role holder will also develop a view of our future needs and improve our strategy and delivery capability for environments. To facilitate this, we are looking for someone to own the management and reorganisation of our test environments, as well as to help design and implement processes and controls around how the environments are created, maintained and used by colleagues. Within this role you will work closely with our colleagues in IT Infrastructure, IT Development and Testing communities as well as Business Analysts and Project Managers. The role will also require liaising with some 3rd party partners for mobile and web based solutions. The Environment Controller will build and maintain good relationship with all internal stakeholders and external stakeholders. To be successful at this role you should demonstrate a persistent focus on quality, strong data management and analysis and a willingness to own and resolve issues and contentions. Key aptitudes include being well organised and able to work under pressure. You will have a strong drive to successfully define and to continuously improve. You will communicate concisely, clearly, and constructively at all levels of the organisation to ensure strong engagement in environment activity. Most importantly, you’ll enjoy collaborating brilliantly with colleagues to find the best possible way forward. Key deliverables will be

• A Test Environment Inventory accessible to all relevant stakeholders
• A transparent Test Environment Schedule with a clear booking process
• An Environment Self-service for giving more autonomy to non-technical people

You will ensure that we set up and managing the necessary resources such as hardware resources, databases, user stores, operating systems, browsers, test data, and configurations for accurate and reliable testing. By doing this effectively, you will help speed up testing, improve the quality of software, and reduce the cost of delivering change. To succeed you’ll need: A good appreciation of the development and testing lifecycle required to support successful technology change delivery (this will ensure context around how testing will use the environments Experience of working in a multi project / multi environments set up recognising the competing needs of projects and an ability to understand, support and challenge test environment needs from projects Experience of setting up environment utilisation processes to help optimise usage, define controls to support this and avoid proliferation of environments Demonstrable experience in good environment management practice recognising costs and impacts if this is not done well. Proven ability to quickly develop understanding of technology stack which underpins testing (helps provide contextual knowledge and show that they will be able to work with IT Infra and Dev teams around supporting the needs of the projects) Strong stakeholder management skills with ability to work across several programmes/projects with sometimes competing priorities and a proven ability to negotiate positive outcomes Qualifications and skills

• Strong management of the software development lifecycle, with a focus on testing activity
• Knowledge of APIs
• Defect management experience
• Previous work involving multiple test environments with their own requirements
• Previous work involving implementation of controls
• Experience of Jira (or a similar package) and the core Microsoft Office suite

Scottish Friendly Values We would like you to demonstrate the Scottish Friendly values in your role: WE’RE IN THIS TOGETHER We collaborate and value each other’s opinion We’re a small team with a big impact We support each other to thrive and grow WE CARE ABOUT OUR CUSTOMERS Our customers are at the heart of everything we do We’re committed to doing the right things for our customers We listen to and learn from our customers WE KEEP MOVING FORWARD We always see change as an opportunity Our progress is based on careful management of our risks We have the courage to test new ideas and learn from them