QA Automation Engineer - Playwright / Cypress (Contract)

We're hiring a QA / Test Automation Engineer to own automated testing across a large regulated UK organisation's platform, building quality in from the start rather than catching problems at the end.

You'll be the person who stops broken code reaching production on services thousands of people depend on.

What you'll do:

• Build and maintain automated test suites with Playwright and Cypress.

• Wire tests into CI so quality is checked on every change.

• Work with engineers to build testing in from the start, not bolt it on at the end.

• Help set the quality bar across the programme.

What we're looking for:

• Strong hands-on Playwright and Cypress.

• Solid JavaScript or TypeScript.

• Experience running automated tests inside CI pipelines.

• A sharp eye for where things break.

• Comfortable using AI-assisted tools to speed up test authoring and widen coverage.

Bonus points for accessibility testing and regulated-environment experience.

About hedgehog lab:

We're hedgehog lab, a digital product and engineering consultancy. For nearly 20 years we've embedded engineers inside the teams of well-known organisations in regulated, high-trust sectors, from financial services to the public sector.

We're a certified B Corp.

We're also serious about AI-assisted engineering. We've built our own agentic tooling and cut time-to-merge by around 60% on recent work, and our people get to use that on real projects.

The details:

• Contract, outside IR35.

• 3 to 6 months, with strong potential to extend.

• Hybrid. You'll work from the client's London, Bristol or Edinburgh office a couple of times a week.

Apply below and I'll be in touch.