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Consortia
Consortia
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Engineering

Test and SDET Recruitment

Specialist test and SDET recruiters working across the US, UK, EU and UAE.

Trusted by tech teams from start-ups to globally recognised brands

  • eBay
  • Ocado
  • Sainsbury's
  • Bose
  • LexisNexis
  • Entain
  • babylon
  • Paymentsense
  • FNZ
  • Auto1
  • Synthace
  • PokerStars
  • eConsult
  • Lloyds Pharmacy
Five-star review
“Every candidate they sourced was an exact match, which saved us real time. More of a trusted partner now than a recruiter.”

Mark T. · Director of Engineering, HR-tech platform

5.0 on Google from 200+ reviews

Overview

How Consortia recruits test and SDET specialists

Consortia recruits across the testing spectrum: manual and exploratory testers, QA engineers, test automation engineers and software development engineers in test (SDETs), who build the test tooling other engineers rely on.

The titles blur, so we pay attention to what someone actually does. An SDET writing test tooling in the product's own language is a software engineer with a quality specialism, and is hired like one. Automation is now expected inside most QA engineer and SDET roles. Purely manual roles are fewer, though strong exploratory testers remain valued in complex products.

We assess automation depth, how comfortable a candidate is with build and release pipelines and the harder skill of knowing what is worth testing.

We approach proven automation engineers directly, through the engineering network we have built since 2010, and shortlist against the brief. Pay is settled early. SDETs are often paid like software engineers, and a role pitched too low tends to stall hiring. We recruit test and SDET specialists on permanent and contract terms across the UK, Europe, the US and the UAE.

Customer Stories

How we've helped

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Salary guide

Test and SDET salaries

These ranges reflect what employers are advertising right now. Accepted offers can look different. Speak to a consultant about what's actually getting accepted.

We track what UK employers are advertising for this role. Ask us for the current ranges.

Work email only, we send guides to hiring teams.

Live jobs

Live Engineering jobs

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Candidates

Engineering candidates available now

Anonymous profiles of people we represent today. Ask about one and a specialist consultant will come back to you with the full picture.

  • PermanentActive

    Senior Product Engineer

    Media, publishing and broadcast

    United Kingdom · Hybrid · £120,000

    Senior Product Engineer (Backend & Platform focussed) with 9+ years’ experience across MarTech, Media and SaaS, combining hands-on development with architecture and technical leadership. Strong in TypeScript, Node.js, Python, AWS, Docker and Terraform, with experience building multi-tenant analytics platforms, backend APIs and cloud-based processing systems end-to-end. Has led engineering teams, owned cloud architecture and delivered infrastructure modernisation projects that improved performance, reliability and reduced costs. Previously managed a 9-person engineering team as a hands-on Technology Director, remaining actively involved in coding, system design and product delivery.

    Ask about this candidate
  • ContractActive

    Senior Product Engineer

    Technology and software

    United Kingdom · Hybrid · £750 a day

    Senior Product Engineer / Forward Deployed Engineer with 11+ years’ experience building end-to-end products across eCommerce, automotive, logistics and AI. Frontend-leaning Full Stack Engineer with strong hands-on, AI-native development experience, working with TypeScript, JavaScript, Node.js, Vue, React, SQL and PostgreSQL. Has architected and built large-scale eCommerce platforms, logistics and operational management systems, improving business efficiency, scalability and customer experience. More recently focused on building AI-powered customer-facing products and multi-agent development workflows, combining strong technical ownership with a commercial product mindset and experience delivering solutions from concept through to production.

    Ask about this candidate
  • PermanentActive

    Senior Product Engineer

    Technology and software

    United Kingdom · Hybrid · £120,000

    Senior Product Engineer with 10 years’ experience delivering scalable products across cybersecurity, financial services, SaaS and AdTech. Strong in Go, React, TypeScript, Node.js, PostgreSQL and ClickHouse, with experience building real-time integrations, event-driven systems, analytics platforms and customer-facing applications. Has led the development of new products from scratch, improved platform performance and scalability, and delivered commercially successful SaaS features, alongside strengthening automated testing and engineering quality. Brings strong end-to-end product ownership, from technical architecture and backend development through to frontend delivery, with a focus on building reliable products that solve real customer problems.

    Ask about this candidate
  • PermanentActive

    Product Engineer - Backend

    E-commerce and retail

    United Kingdom · £110,000

    Senior Backend-focused Product Engineer with 12+ years’ experience, combining hands-on engineering with a strong product mindset and end-to-end ownership, including experience as a dedicated Technical Product Manager. Strong in Python, FastAPI, PHP/Laravel, PostgreSQL, OpenSearch, AWS and Kubernetes, with experience leading complex search platform migrations, architecting marketplace pricing and automation services, and improving system performance and infrastructure efficiency. Has also built eCommerce subscription platforms from scratch, including payments, APIs and internal tooling. Brings experience in a small marketplace scale-up alongside technical leadership, architecture and delivering products from concept through to production.

    Ask about this candidate
  • PermanentActive

    Senior Product Engineer

    Fintech and payments

    United Kingdom · Hybrid · £120,000

    Senior Product Engineer with 8+ years’ experience building end-to-end products across FinTech, Web3, SaaS and digital marketplaces, alongside startup experience helping early-stage founders take MVPs from concept to production. Strong in TypeScript, Node.js, Next.js, NestJS, Go and AWS, with hands-on experience across frontend, backend, architecture and deployment. Has led the development of blockchain-based platforms, built digital marketplace infrastructure supporting large user bases and delivered complex data migrations and customer-facing SaaS products. More recently focused on banking and payment integrations, with a strong product mindset and experience shaping technical direction, translating business requirements into working products and owning delivery end to end.

    Ask about this candidate

Related roles

Other roles our Engineering recruiters fill

FAQs

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between a QA engineer, a test automation engineer and an SDET?

A QA engineer focuses on quality across the product, which can include manual and automated testing. A test automation engineer builds and maintains automated tests. An SDET, or software development engineer in test, is a software engineer who specialises in quality, building test frameworks and tooling in the product's own language. Titles blur, so we look at the work.

Do we still need manual testers?

Fewer teams hire purely manual testers than a few years ago. Strong exploratory testers are still valued, especially in complex or regulated products where understanding how real users behave matters. Many teams now combine automation for repeated checks with skilled exploratory testing for everything else.

Should SDETs be paid like software engineers?

Often, yes. An SDET writes production-quality code and is hired like a software engineer, so pay tends to sit closer to engineering levels than to manual testing roles. Pitching the role too low is a common reason these searches stall. We benchmark each role against what comparable engineers are accepting.

Which test automation tools should we ask for?

Name the main tools you use, such as Playwright, Cypress or Selenium, but do not make them the deciding factor. Coding ability, experience with build and release pipelines and knowing what is worth testing matter more. Strong automation engineers usually pick up a new tool quickly.

How do I start working with Consortia?

Clients can get in touch to discuss a brief, and candidates are welcome to register their interest. The quickest route is our contact page or a call to +44 203 397 4565, and one of our consultants will pick things up from there.

For clients

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