Salary:  National ranging from £51,200 to £60,000 and London £56,400 to £62,000 per annum – Salary offered will be based on skills and experience

Are you interested in joining a team that will help shape and deliver the FCA’s Handbook?

We are currently redesigning the FCA Handbook website (www.handbook.fca.org.uk) to ensure that it is accessible, navigable and clearer for its users. As part of this critical work, we have an exciting new opportunity for a detail-oriented and experienced individual to take on a fixed-term user acceptance testing (UAT) role in the FCA Handbook Team. The ideal candidate will be an experienced UAT tester with a strong manual testing background.

The team/department

The Cross-Cutting Policy Department is responsible for FCA policy initiatives that apply across most, if not all, of the markets we regulate. In addition to the FCA Handbook Team, the department covers governance and remuneration and the future of regulation. The department’s goal is to maintain a regulatory framework that clearly sets out the standards we expect of all firms and individuals in UK financial services in order to prevent harm to consumers and markets.

The FCA’s Handbook Team contributes towards this goal by:

• Leading on a high-profile project to redesign the FCA’s Handbook of Rules and Guidance

• Maintaining editorial oversight of the FCA Handbook

• Delivering the Handbook-related work linked to the Future Regulatory Framework review, which will see the transfer of responsibility of certain firm-facing requirements to our rulebook

• Driving other critical policy initiatives that arise

This high-impact work ensures that the more than 60,000 firms we regulate and the key individuals that run them have clear rules and guidance setting out our expectations. This work also ensures that we provide a Handbook that is fit for purpose for the fast-paced and dynamic UK financial services industry.

What you will be doing

As part of the Handbook Team, you will be responsible for managing our user acceptance testing of the new FCA Handbook website. This is critical work to ensuring that the website is updated, accurate and meets all agreed design requirements.

A strong understanding of the FCA Handbook is desirable but not essential.

The key responsibilities will include: 

• Executing all user acceptance testing of the new Handbook website, alongside the wider Handbook team

• Manage the day-to-day testing plan and schedule

• Complete test plans in line with all testing activity - in an agreed, clear and consistent format

• Provide developer feedback/support throughout the testing process for any areas requiring further attention, rework, bugs found, etc.

• Re-executing test cases/plans to confirm any issues are resolved satisfactorily

• Collaborate with development teams and stakeholders to identify root causes and provide feedback for improvements

• Contribute to the improvement of UAT processes and methodologies, ensuring best practices are followed

• Provide regular, clear & concise progress updates, pro-actively highlighting any impacts to the project plan

What will you get from the role?

Our competitive flexible benefits scheme gives you the opportunity to create a personalised benefits package, tailored to suit your lifecycle. You can use this allowance to purchase additional benefits such as dental or cycle to work or you have the option top up your base salary by taking this as cash. 

Core benefits that you will receive as standard are: 

• 25 days holiday per year plus bank holidays

• Private healthcare with Bupa 

• A non-contributory Pension of at least 8% of basic salary each month (there are several contribution levels that increase depending on your age – up to 12% a month once you reach age 35) 

• Life assurance of eight times your basic salary 

• Income protection 

We support hybrid working which means you will be able to work from home up to 60% of the time over a month with the remainder of your time in one of our three office locations.

The skills and experience you will have  

We are a signatory to the Government’s Disability Confident scheme. This means that we will offer an interview to disabled candidates entering under the scheme, should they meet the minimum criteria for a role.

Minimum

• Proven experience as a UAT website tester, particularly within financial services or compliance environments

• Experience with test management tools (ie, DevOps)

Essential

• Experience with Agile development practices

• Experience bridging technical and non-technical stakeholders, manage expectations and supporting wider communication

• Ability to clearly articulate and present risks, issues, and analysis of data

• Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills, with a keen eye for detail

• Ability to work collaboratively in a fast-paced environment

About the FCA 

The FCA regulates the conduct of 45,000 firms in the UK to ensure our financial markets are honest, fair and competitive. We do this to make sure markets work well for individuals, businesses and the economy as a whole. For more information on what we do, our three-year strategy can be found here. 

The FCA's Values & Diversity 

Our ambition is to cultivate a culture of inclusion for all employees that respects their individual strengths, views, and experiences. We believe that our differences and similarities enable us to be a better organisation – one that makes better decisions, drives innovation, and delivers better regulation.

The FCA is committed to achieving greater diversity across all levels of the organisations. Given this, we particularly welcome applications from women, disabled and minority ethnic candidates for our senior associate role.  

Flexible working  

We welcome applications from candidates who are looking for flexible arrangements.  Many of our staff work flexibly including working part-time, staggered hours, and job shares.  We can’t promise to give you exactly what you want but we won’t judge you for asking. 

Multilocation

As part of the FCA’s on-going commitment to develop our national presence, most of our vacancies are now open to working in our Edinburgh, Leeds, or London offices.  This means that as part of the application process you will be able to select your preference of which office location you would like to work from.  

Useful information  

Applications for this role close at midnight on 4th November

This role is graded as senior associate - regulatory 

What to expect from our interview process  

The process will involve the below stages:

• Candidates will be required to complete a case study and a competency based interview

Your Recruiter will discuss the process in detail with you during screening for the role.

Recruitment Timetable   

Advert closing Date: 4th November

First Round interviews & Assessment: 14th, 15th & 18th November

Please make the recruiter aware if you are going to be unavailable for any date during this time.

Got a question?  

If you are an external candidate and you are interested in learning more about the role, please contact Chhavi Bartaria on [email protected]

If you are an internal candidate and you are interested in learning more about the role, please contact Lucy Matthews on [email protected]

Please note that all applications must be submitted through our online portal before the closing date, applications sent via email will not be accepted.

Application support

We want to remove any possible barriers and are committed to providing a wide range of reasonable adjustments so that you can keep the focus on your conversations and be at your best.   

If you have an accessibility requirement, disability, or condition that means you might require changes to the recruitment process, please contact your recruiter to discuss this further. Our aim is to make your application as easy and comfortable as possible, and your recruiter will be happy to work with you to make any necessary arrangements where possible.