Senior Test Engineer

Join the NATO IT Modernization (NITM) Programme and contribute to a high-impact international mission delivering secure, next-generation private cloud capabilities within NATO-secured environments. The Senior Test Engineer provides hands-on test engineering expertise for the verification and validation of enterprise infrastructure and cloud capabilities supporting a private cloud Software-Defined Data Center (SDDC).

The position develops, automates, executes, and documents testing across Enterprise Core Services (ECS), Client Provisioning Services (CPS), Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), DevOps, and Service Management Control (SMC). Working closely with the Test Director, Chief Engineers, Platform, Network, Firewall, Backup & Recovery, DevOps, and product engineering teams, the Senior Test Engineer validates both physical and automated implementation of integrated solutions against functional, performance, security, interoperability, and customer acceptance requirements.

The position is expected to be onsite 5 days a week at the Customer Site in The Hague, Netherlands, with frequent travel to NATO sites supporting integration, deployment, testing, and customer acceptance activities.

Primary Responsibilities

Develop, automate, execute, and document test procedures supporting private cloud SDDC modernization initiatives.

Perform functional, system integration, interoperability, regression, performance, security, resiliency, and customer acceptance testing.

Translate system, architecture, and engineering requirements into test cases, acceptance criteria, test procedures, and requirements traceability documentation.

Develop and maintain automated test capabilities using scripting, APIs, infrastructure automation, and test automation technologies.

Work with Platform, Network, Firewall, Backup & Recovery, IaaS, DevOps, and product engineering teams to validate end-to-end enterprise capabilities.

Validate physical and automated implementation of enterprise infrastructure, including compute and virtualization, networking, security, storage, backup/recovery, platform services, and associated automation workflows.

Execute testing of VMware-based private cloud infrastructure and associated SDDC technologies, validating configuration, integration, availability, performance, resiliency, and security requirements.

Validate infrastructure automation and Infrastructure as Code (IaC) workflows to ensure automated deployments produce consistent, repeatable, and compliant configurations.

Configure and maintain representative test environments supporting system integration, technical validation, regression testing, and customer acceptance.

Identify, document, reproduce, and troubleshoot defects and integration issues, working collaboratively with engineering teams through resolution and retest.

Perform root cause investigation to help distinguish defects associated with physical infrastructure, network connectivity, platform configuration, security controls, automation, software, or integration dependencies.

Manage test cases, execution results, defects, requirements traceability, and supporting evidence using Jira and enterprise test-management tools.

Develop and maintain test plans, procedures, test cases, Requirements Traceability Matrices (RTMs), defect reports, test evidence, and test completion documentation.

Participate in Agile activities including backlog refinement, sprint planning, technical reviews, sprint reviews, release planning, and defect prioritization.

Support establishment and enforcement of programme testing standards, methodologies, quality gates, and engineering processes.

Analyze test results, defect trends, test coverage, and quality metrics to identify technical risks and opportunities for improvement.

Coordinate with engineering and site deployment teams to ensure test prerequisites, environments, configurations, data, access, documentation, and other dependencies are ready before formal test execution.

Travel to NATO sites to perform system integration testing, technical validation, troubleshooting, customer demonstrations, formal acceptance testing, and deployment support.

Capture test and deployment lessons learned and provide feedback to engineering teams to improve solution designs, automation, test coverage, documentation, and future implementations.

Ensure testing activities comply with NATO security policies, programme quality standards, and engineering governance requirements.

Basic Qualifications

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering, or related discipline with 8–12 years of relevant experience, or Master's degree with 6–10 years of relevant experience.

Active NATO Secret clearance (or higher).

Demonstrated hands-on experience performing test engineering or quality assurance for large-scale infrastructure, cloud, systems integration, or technology modernization programmes.

Experience performing system integration, interoperability, regression, performance, security, resiliency, and/or customer acceptance testing.

Experience testing integrated enterprise infrastructure across multiple technology domains such as compute/virtualization, networking, firewalls/security, storage, backup/recovery, cloud, and automation.

Experience developing test plans, procedures, test cases, acceptance criteria, test evidence, and requirements traceability documentation.

Experience with test automation, scripting, APIs, or automated testing frameworks.

Working knowledge of infrastructure automation and Infrastructure as Code (IaC), including technologies such as Ansible, Terraform, PowerShell, Python, APIs, or equivalent tools.

Strong understanding of enterprise infrastructure, cloud platforms, virtualization, networking, cybersecurity, backup/recovery, and system integration principles.

Experience identifying, reproducing, troubleshooting, and documenting complex infrastructure and integration defects.

Experience using Jira and test/defect-management platforms such as Xray, Zephyr, Azure DevOps Test Plans, or equivalent.

Experience working within Agile, SAFe, or DevSecOps delivery frameworks.

Strong analytical, troubleshooting, communication, documentation, and cross-functional technical collaboration skills.

Experience supporting defence, government, mission-critical, or highly regulated environments.

Ability and willingness to travel internationally to NATO locations as required to support integration, deployment, testing, troubleshooting, and customer acceptance activities.

Preferred Qualifications

ISTQB or equivalent test engineering certification.

Experience supporting NATO environments and compliance frameworks.

Experience testing VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) or equivalent private cloud/SDDC infrastructure.

Experience testing VMware vSphere, vCenter, ESXi, vSAN, NSX, or associated enterprise virtualization technologies.

Familiarity with Cisco networking, Palo Alto Networks, enterprise storage, backup/recovery, and associated data-center technologies.

Hands-on experience with infrastructure automation technologies including Ansible, Terraform, PowerShell, Python, APIs, or equivalent tools.

Experience with automated testing frameworks, API testing, infrastructure testing, performance testing, security testing, and resiliency testing tools.

Experience developing Requirements Traceability Matrices (RTMs), verification cross-reference matrices, and formal test evidence supporting customer acceptance.

Familiarity with continuous testing, CI/CD pipelines, and automated quality gates.

Experience supporting formal customer site acceptance, infrastructure commissioning, and technical validation activities.

Experience supporting large-scale, geographically distributed infrastructure modernization and enterprise systems integration programmes.

Experience improving test method