Lead Developer, GOV.UK App Back-end Services
Government Digital Service
Apply before 11:55 pm on Sunday 6th October 2024
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About the job
Job summary
The Government Digital Service (GDS) exists to make the user experience of the government simple, consistent and welcoming for everyone. To do this, GDS builds, iterates and maintains digital tools and platforms that are part of everyday life in the UK; platforms like GOV.UK - the online home of government information and services. We also work with departments to identify patterns, share learning and create change to make government more efficient.
GOV.UK is now the established digital interface between government and the public. It’s well used - with over 28 billion page views since go-live - and is consistently among the most-visited websites in the country. It's extremely well known according to YouGov, and the signature design and logo is instantly recognisable as the trusted source of government information and services. GOV.UK has become truly essential to living, working and studying in the UK.
Our teams are organised around delivering on our priorities, which are to:
- grow GOV.UK to reach people when and where they need government information
- make GOV.UK more proactive in helping people
- evolve to match user expectations for new technologies
We exist to make it simple for everyone to interact with the government, and we're putting growth at the heart of our strategy. A key part of the strategy is in the development of the first GOV.UK mobile app, creating a personalised and proactive way to support users. The delivery of the GOV.UK App is underway, with a growing team focussed on version 1. This role is an exciting and rare opportunity to join the GOV.UK App programme at an early stage and shape the direction of development.
You can read more about our work on the Inside GOV.UK Blog. To learn more about life at GDS and for some tips on the application process, take a look at our video guides.
Job description
As a Lead Developer on GOV.UK’s App programme, you'll use your engineering skills and experience to support GOV.UK’s drive into the mobile app domain.
You’ll be working within the GOV.UK App programme of work on a day to day basis, as well as working with other senior technologists as part of the GOV.UK Senior Tech team. You will provide technical leadership, set technical direction, build a team and lead implementation. Expect a mixture of hands-on technical work, engineering design and technical strategy. The focus for this role will be to work alongside the lead mobile developer in order to define, develop and release back-end services to support the launch of the mobile app.
As a Lead Developer you’ll:
- lead the design and development of new cloud-based back-end services and infrastructure to support GOV.UK service integration and personalisation for the mobile app
- strengthen engineering culture in your area, supporting continuous improvement, advocating for good practices, good design and code quality, removing toil and drag factors
- help establish a team of engineers who specialise in building high-scale cloud-native services to support the resilience and scale of the mobile client apps
- work with other discipline leads and senior management to proactively plan technical delivery work, making sure to balance long term engineering sustainability with short term delivery pressures, advocating for technical quality and bringing practical considerations to high level designs
- help establish and participate in a new app team out of hours rota to support our operational services
- plan and manage a small number of engineering staff within your area, recruiting civil servants and interim/contractor technologists
- work with cyber security and other security colleagues to deliver secure and operational services
Person specification
We’re interested in people who:
- have software development experience with Node.js
- have experience building serverless (both compute and databases) on AWS
- have experience developing and operating high scale, high performance APIs focused on high volume applications
- have strong experience in AWS security best practices
- have experience of modern software development approaches such as automated testing, test-driven development, continuous integration and continuous delivery
- have experience of leading software development work in multi-disciplinary agile environments
- are experienced in line management, helping colleagues with their career development and coaching more junior staff members
- understand the legal requirements of handling personal and sensitive data and can translate those into technical solutions
Benefits
The benefits of working at GDS
There are many benefits of working at GDS, including:
- flexible hybrid working with flexi-time and the option to work part-time or condensed hours
- a Civil Service Pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%
- 25 days of annual leave, increasing by a day each year up to a maximum of 30 days
- an extra day off for The King’s birthday
- an in-year bonus scheme to recognise high performance
- career progression and coaching, including a training budget for personal development
- paid volunteering leave
- a focus on wellbeing with access to an employee assistance programme
- job satisfaction from making government services easier to use and more inclusive for people across the UK
- advances on pay, including for travel season tickets
- death in service benefits
- cycle to work scheme and facilities
- access to an employee discounts scheme
- 10 learning days per year
- volunteering opportunities (5 special leave days per year)
- access to a suite of learning activities through Civil Service learning
GDS offers hybrid working for all employees. This means that everyone does some working from home and also spends some time in their local office. You’ll agree to your hybrid working arrangement with your line manager in line with your preferences and business needs.
Any move to Government Digital Service from another employer will mean you can no longer access childcare vouchers. This includes moves between government departments. You may however be eligible for other government schemes, including Tax Free Childcare. Determine your eligibility at https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk
Things you need to know
Selection process details
This role is being advertised with Manchester as a location. There is an exception to this, if a current London-based member of staff from GDS applies, and is successful, they would retain their London base for pay and allowance purposes.
The standard selection process for roles at GDS consists of:
- a simple application screening process - We only ask for a CV and for you to answer 3 application questions
- a 20 minute phone screen where you will be asked a few role-related questions to enable us to get to know you better (may not be required depending on the volume of applications)
- a 45 minute pair programming technical exercise - you'll work with a GDS engineer to solve a self-contained programming problem given to you in writing. You'll be asked to discuss the problem with the GDS engineer, devise a plan for solving it, and then to write code to solve the problem. As well as your programming and unit testing skills we'll be evaluating how you communicate and collaborate, and how you break down the problem. You'll use your own development environment for this (conducted over video conferencing)
- a 1.5 hour face-to-face interview (conducted over video conferencing)
Whilst we value the use of AI technology to enhance our daily work, we also value the personal touch and urge applicants to write responses without the use of AI to emphasise their own unique experiences.
Depending on how many applications we get, there might also be an extra stage before the video interview, for example a phone interview or a technical exercise.
In the event we receive a high volume of applications, we will conduct the initial sift against the lead criteria which is:
- Please describe your experience with the required technical skills including developing with Node.js and also building serverless solutions on AWS
In the Civil Service, we use Success Profiles to evaluate your skills and ability. This gives us the best possible chance of finding the right person for the job, increases performance and improves diversity and inclusivity. We’ll be assessing your technical abilities, skills, experience and behaviours that are relevant to this role.
For this role we’ll be assessing you against the following Civil Service Behaviours:
- working together
- changing and improving
- making effective decisions
- leadership
- developing self and others
We’ll also be assessing your experience and specialist technical skills against the following skills defined in the Government Digital and Data Profession Capability Framework for the Lead Developer role:
- development process optimisation
- modern standards approach
- programming and build
- systems design
Candidates that do not pass the interview but have demonstrated an acceptable standard may be considered for similar roles at a lower grade.
A reserve list will be held for a period of 12 months, from which further appointments can be made.
The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the Civil Service People Plan and the Civil Service D&I Strategy.
You may be aware that there are plans for the Government Digital Service (GDS) & the Central Digital & Data Office (CDDO) to move into the Department of Science, Innovation & Technology (DSIT). This move is to bring together the digital transformation of public services into one core department. The move itself will offer huge opportunities whilst allowing DSIT to lead the way and drive forward the new Government's digital agenda.
As the announcement is relatively new, we are awaiting more detailed information. Therefore, we encourage you to apply for this role, and will keep you informed with updated information throughout the application process.
Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.
Security
Nationality requirements
Working for the Civil Service
We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window).
Diversity and Inclusion
Apply and further information
Contact point for applicants
Job contact :
- Name : gds-recruitment@digital.cabinet-office.gov.uk
- Email : gds-recruitment@digital.cabinet-office.gov.uk
Recruitment team
- Email : gds-recruitment@digital.cabinet-office.gov.uk
Further information
If you are not satisfied with the response you receive you can contact the Civil Service Commission by email: info@csc.gov.uk Or in writing: Civil Service Commission, Room G/8 1 Horse Guards Road, London, SW1A 2HQ.
