Graduate QA Engineer 2022

Hawk-Eye Innovations have built a suite of different technologies that have transformed the world of sport.  Ranging from computer vision solutions to video replay solutions, we have developed a variety of technologies used for officiating, data insights, broadcast, entertainment and more.

About the role

Each of these technologies requires different approaches to testing.  As a QA Engineer, you will be part of a new centralised team created to establish consistent testing processes for the Engineering Team, while also working closely with Product Managers, Product Engineers and UX.UI professionals.

We have already established a number of testing processes, ranging from software, system and regression testing to more practical operational testing, in both offline and live scenarios.  We are looking for someone to challenge and extend on this in order to improve our overall output and efficiency.

We will introduce a systematic QA process to our sports data platforms initially, led by the QA team.  Here, we have built a variety of client and user-focused solutions that require vigorous quality control.  In the future, we will extend this process to other areas of the team, adapting according to the technology and use cases, where some pragmatism is required.

Due to the nature of sports, it is important that you can work in a fast-paced environment when required, ensuring our products run smoothly during key sporting events.  You will also proactively work to identify areas of improvement and share with the wider business to action and progress.

Key responsibilities

This is a unique opportunity to sit across a broad set of technologies.  As the business and team have grown rapidly, so has the emphasis on creating robust and innovative solutions and products.  As QA Engineer, you will be at the core of making this happen.

The key responsibilities are:

• Help implement robust testing strategies and processes for the data team and eventually the wider multi-disciplined engineering team;
• Ensuring testing is implemented in a robust and consistent manner;
• Identifying and implementing the most effective automation processes and use of tooling;
• Building strong relationships, collaborating with Product, Operational and Engineering teams;
• Supporting Black Box (retrospective & postmortem) sessions.

Skills, knowledge and expertise

• Excellent organisational skills, including attention to detail and multi-tasking skills;
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to build strong and effective relationships;
• An understanding of real-time technologies, including Computer Vision, Machine Learning (although, these aren’t essential);
• Enjoy solving difficult problems and working in an environment where you will be challenged;
• Agile software development processes;
• JIRA or similar for task/ticket management;
• API testing;
• JSON data structures.

Competent with

• Implementing test strategies in one or more of the following technology disciplines:
  • Cloud-based solutions
  • Computer vision & Real-time solutions
  • Machine learning
  • Data delivery platforms
  • Front and back end web development solutions
  • Video processing and video-based solutions
• GIT usage and code management
• CI/CD tools

Our Development team

Our Development team at Hawk-Eye Innovations is multi-faceted.  It is responsible for building technology that unpins all of the services delivered by the wider operational business.  We have expertise in a variety of engineering disciplines, including:

• Computer Vision
• Machine Learning
• Video content management and streaming
• Cloud data platforms
• Web technologies
• Computer Graphics
• Data Science

Each of the above teams collaborates closely to deliver technologies across a number of sports, products, and services.  One of our core services is ball and player tracking in sports such as tennis, cricket, football, and US sports like major league baseball.  We build end-to-end solutions - real-time tracking, data warehousing, low latency data streaming, and broadcast enhancements, including automated officiating (e.g. Hawk-Eye Live, Tennis).

Our VAR system is used to help officiate in the biggest football competitions in the world, including the top leagues in England, Germany, Spain, Italy, France, and the USA, the UEFA Champions League, and the FIFA World Cup. Outside of football, our products are used in almost every major sport in the world, including the Olympics, American football, baseball, basketball, ice hockey, cricket, tennis, and golf.

In addition to officiating, we are also used as a broadcast tool, providing the ability to add replays and graphics to TV productions. This ranges from working with massive productions like the Master's golf tournament (where we won a Sports Emmy for our product that allowed viewers at home to view every shot of the tournament at the click of a button) to smaller events on the tennis tour where we provide the entire production, including cameras which we remotely control to follow the play.

Ultimately, we are flexible in our approach to software development.  We do all of this with the support of the Product team, who facilitate projects and product development while delivering the technology into the hands of our operational teams.

We actively balance the focus of product development and innovation, appreciating that both are extremely important to the success of our business.  While we adopt a robust approach to software development we are aggressive with our innovation - this includes regular Hack-Days, creating opportunities to experiment, initiating creative ideas, and embracing failures (but failing fast).

As part of our Development Team, you will be part of creating software that is integral to some of the biggest sporting tournaments, leagues, and federations in the world.  You’ll be able to see the results of your work on live TV, along with billions of sports fans around the world whose experience will be augmented by our software.

Our Development team culture

Our Development team at Hawk-Eye is built on a culture shaped by openness and honesty, along with a desire to push the boundaries of technology and innovation. We are constantly learning so that we can keep up to date with modern ways of doing things, and we use our code review process to challenge each other to improve and work in the best way possible, regardless of seniority in the team. We have areas that specific individuals are responsible for, but we always work collaboratively so that everyone can gain knowledge across our codebase, and areas of responsibility change over time as team members progress. We are agile and strive for the highest quality in everything we produce, whilst always ensuring that the code we write is clear and maintainable.

Our Tech Stack

At Hawk-Eye Innovations, we continue to push the boundaries of innovation in global sport.  As part of our team, you will work closely with exceptional people and the most cutting-edge technologies.

Our teams work with the following tech stack:

• C++/Computer Vision:
  • Primarily modern C++ (C++17 and soon C++20);
  • Production software targets Windows 10;
  • Tools: Git, CMake,, JIRA, Confluence, Slack;
  • Libraries: Qt, ElasticSearch, Boost, ZeroMQ, FFmpeg, OpenGL
• Web:
  • JAVA, Node JS;
  • Web service development (RESTful APIs);
  • JUnit & mocking frameworks;
  • Microservice architecture.
• ML:
  • Python;
  • TensorRT
• General:
  • Git;
  • AWS (EC2, ECS, S3, RDS, etc.);
  • Docker;
  • CI/CD (Jenkins, Team City).

Reward, benefits and wellness

In addition to being a part of a great team, working in a fun and creative environment and learning from the best technical minds in the sports industry, we offer:

• 25 days annual leave in addition to 8 public holidays;
• Enhanced pension scheme (with 5% matching);
• Flexible working
• Optional private healthcare
• Complimentary Unmind app
• Access to sporting events and tickets 
• Onsite Gym (Basingstoke)
• Sony Group Company Discounts