We build ground-breaking games and content for some of the world’s biggest publishers including Microsoft, Sony, Apple and Sega. Sumo Newcastle joined the Sumo Digital family in January of 2018. As a former CCP Games studio, we have a solid history of cutting-edge development, and now with Sumo, a spectacular future of ‘AAA’ game development for some of the biggest and best publishers in the world.
It’s an exciting time to be part of Sumo, winners of the Develop: Star Awards 2019 Best Studio and GI Biz 2020 Best Places to Work; big things are on the horizon and we want you to be part of our continued journey. Join us!
Sumo Newcastle is made up of a diverse mix of fantastic people, although sometimes, some groups are still under-represented. We are working to remove obstacles that can make it difficult for those groups to progress their careers in the games industry. We welcome applications from under-represented people in the gaming industry, including, but not limited to BAME, LGBQT+, women, people with physical disabilities, neurodiversity or mental health issues, and parents or carers.
Who are we?
Sumo Digital’s Newcastle studio is currently working on Hood: Outlaws & Legends and are looking to recruit an experienced and dedicated Senior QA Tester working in an embedded capacity to bolster the current QA testing team.
What’s the role?
Working in the heart of the development environment, the successful candidate will play a key part in upholding and championing the game’s quality daily, whereby they’ll be responsible for testing to report on the quality of a variety of game systems; engine technologies; and content pipelines. This will be done both verbally and in writing, in collaboration with the dev team and the rest of the QA team.
Additional responsibilities for this role include creating and executing test plans; specifying and executing smoke tests of the game and its supporting tools; troubleshooting issues during the development life cycle; working with our external partners; and monitoring and maintaining bugs in the bug database.
What do we want?
We’re looking for candidates with excellent knowledge and experience of QA processes, tools, and workflows. As part of the QA team, you must be used to working to a high standard whilst maintaining and helping improve efficiency in the team. A proven track record with a minimum of 3 years’ experience in games dev QA is crucial, preferably with some of this time spent in a senior role.
Experience of shipping AAA titles on current-gen console platforms is really important to us, and knowledge of platform compliance guidelines (XRs/TRCs) and how they are implemented is also desired. Any experience of next-gen console testing would be a bonus.
A proven ability to understand and discuss technical game development terminology and implementation, and to understand the testing implications of the implementations is a key part of the role. If this includes knowledge of using game editors, that would also be beneficial!
As this is a Senior role, strong teamwork, proactivity, and communication are essential, and experience of owning the testing of key game areas would be desirable as well.
What we Offer:
Sumo Digital is one of the UK's most prolific game developers, enjoying over fifteen years of stability and growth. We have UK studios in Sheffield, Newcastle, Nottingham, Leamington Spa, The Chinese Room in Brighton and Red Kite Games in Leeds, along with Sumo Video Games in Pune, India.
We offer a superb benefits package including generous holidays and flexi-time. We care about our people, with an emphasis on the work/life balance and out of office events such as our legendary annual Sumo ‘Big Day Out’, plus epic Christmas parties and much more! Our regular studio Game Jams are a highlight - winning concepts can go on to commercial release, so far including Snake Pass and the upcoming Spyder for Apple Arcade.
We are proud to be in the North-East of England in the Northern Design Centre on the Quayside next to the River Tyne, and will soon move into purpose-built, state-of-the-art facilities nearby. Newcastle was voted the number one place that travellers should visit in 2018 by Rough Guide and has everything that a major European city has to offer; culture, heritage, lively bars and fantastic retail. It is an exciting cosmopolitan city while also boasting plenty of beautiful outdoor space including several beaches less than an hour’s drive away.
Our environment is relaxed, friendly and built on every team member having the opportunity to shine and have real, meaningful input into the games that we create. We pride ourselves on our positive atmosphere and sociable team who regularly partake in shared interest groups, lunchtime and after-work clubs, and charity fundraising events.
