Lead IaC Test Engineer - Newcastle - 6 month contract

I am workign with a consutlancy feeding into the Public sector looking for an Lead IaC Test Engineer to join a contract.

6 month
Inside IR35
60% of the week travel to Newcastle 

Key Responsibilities

Strategy and Leadership: Define and lead the IaC test automation strategy for the PDU, championing quality and best practices.
Framework Development: Design, build, and maintain scalable and resilient automated testing frameworks for infrastructure as code using industry-standard tools.
End-to-End IaC Testing: Lead the automated testing of Terraform, Ansible, and other IaC scripts to ensure correct resource creation and configuration, performance, and operational stability.
Security & Compliance: Drive the integration of security and compliance testing into the CI/CD pipeline, ensuring all deployments adhere to internal policies and government standards.
CI/CD Integration: Take ownership of integrating and optimising automated tests within our CI/CD pipelines (e.g., GitLab CI) for continuous validation and rapid feedback.Essential Skills and Criteria

IaC Expertise: Extensive experience with a major cloud provider (AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud) and expert-level, hands-on experience using IaC tools, such as Terraform or Ansible.
Test Automation: A proven track record of designing, building, and leading automated testing strategies and frameworks for both infrastructure and application layers.
Experience using specific IaC testing frameworks, such as Terratest, InSpec, or Gherkin.
Scripting & Programming: Senior-level proficiency in multiple scripting or programming languages relevant to test automation (e.g., Python, Bash, or JavaScript).
Cloud Architecture: A deep and comprehensive understanding of cloud principles, architecture, networking, security, and identity and access management.
Agile/DevOps Practices: A strong background in modern agile and DevOps methodologies, with a demonstrable ability to integrate and improve CI/CD practices (e.g., GitLab CI).
Communication & Leadership: Exceptional communication, collaboration, and stakeholder management skills, with a proven ability to provide technical leadership and mentor colleagues.
Experience with containers and orchestration tools (e.g., Docker, Kubernetes).
Extensive knowledge of monitoring and observability tools (e.g., Prometheus, Grafana).
A strong background working with large-scale digital transformation projects in the public sector