MERITUS are recruiting for a QA and Test Automation Engineer (SFIA 4) to join a leading Central Government defence organisation in Portsmouth, supporting the assurance, automation, and validation of complex, mission critical software systems.QA and TEST AUTOMATION ENGINEER (SFIA 4) - PORTSMOUTH - PERMANENT - UP TO £80,000 - ACTIVE DV CLEARANCE REQUIRED - 3 DAYS ONSITEThis role sits within a highly regulated engineering environment where software quality is critical to operational confidence and system reliability. You will be responsible for designing and maintaining automated test frameworks, strengthening regression coverage, and ensuring that every release is supported by clear, repeatable and auditable validation evidence. The work is hands on and technical, requiring a strong understanding of both functional and non functional testing in complex software environments.Key Responsibilities Own and maintain automated regression test suites across key system components Design and implement functional and non functional testing approaches including robustness and results verification Support user acceptance testing readiness aligned to agreed operational use cases Ensure defects are clearly reproducible, properly tracked, and verified through to closure Strengthen release confidence through structured test reporting and clear documentation Embed quality assurance practices across the software lifecycle including testing, verification and validation standards Ensure outputs ..... full job details .....