About the job

Job summary

This is a National Role

Job description

We encourage applications from people from all backgrounds and aim to have a workforce that represents the wider society that we serve. We pride ourselves on being an employer of choice. We champion diversity, inclusion and wellbeing and aim to create a workplace where everyone feels valued and a sense of belonging. To find out more about how we do this visit: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ministry-of-justice/about/equality-and-diversity.

HM Courts and Tribunals Service

Directorate:  Digital Technology Services (DTS)

Pay Band:  Grade 7

Job Title:  3 x Senior Software Developer

Location:

London / National

Successful applicants will be expected to be office based 2 days per week in any HMCTS Office (subject to business availability). The frequency may increase in the future

Term:  Permanent

Interview:  Video conference via Teams

Important salary details:

New recruits to the Civil Service joining MoJ are expected to join at the band minimum.

Existing Civil Servants applying on promotion, will usually be appointed on the salary minimum of the new pay band, or receive an increase of 10 percent on the current base salary, whichever is higher (This is restricted to the pay maximum of the new band).

DDaT:

Roles will be recruited using a combination of the Digital, Data and Technology (DDaT) and Success Profile Frameworks. Using DDaT we will then determine if you will be paid an additional allowance, on top of your basic salary. This role is within the Technical Job Family, is a Software Developer role at Senior Developer level, but carries the title Senior Software Developer within DTS.

Reserve List:

HMCTS run a Reserve List, where candidates who are unsuccessful at interview by only a few points, can be offered other roles, at the same band, for up to 12 months. You will be able to view your status via the application screen. If you have been added to the Reserve List, your status will show either Merit or Reserve list.

Introduction:

These are exciting times at HM Court and Tribunals Service (HMCTS). As an agency of the MoJ, we support the judiciary across England and Wales to deliver justice by running courts and tribunals and processing outcomes, and we are looking for talented people to help us achieve our ambitions. It will be challenging, important and rewarding.

HMCTS Digital and Technology Services (DTS) is a specialist technology directorate which provides support to HMCTS in the use of IT and Digital.

DTS is creating a place in which it is great to do work and part of our offer is brilliant training opportunities and support from expert colleagues. As well as that you’ll find flexible working, an inclusive culture and a place where your opinion is valued.

Please follow the link below for further information about HMCTS. www.gov.uk/government/organisations/hm-courts-and-tribunals-service

The key purpose of the role:

As a Senior Developer you will work with a wide range of stakeholders such as user researchers, product managers, designers, business analysts, content specialists, delivery managers and digital architects, all of whom share a vision for making better government through smarter use of technology. You will innovate to radically transform public services for the better.

The development squad you are placed on will be agreed closer to your start date, but examples of products can be found in our github repositories:

• https://github.com/ministryofjustice
• https://github.com/hmcts
• https://github.com/CJSCommonPlatform

Technologies:

We rely heavily on

• Java and Python to write our backend services
• js and Angular to write our frontend services
• Jenkins for deployment
• Dynatrace for application monitoring
• Kubernetes and Docker to run our services
• Azure for most of our infrastructure
• Postgres and Redis as our databases.
• UK Design System for our web interfaces
• Macs to do all of the above
• In addition, we use a range of other technologies and continue to evolve by employing new technologies that help us deliver better services to our users

We’re happy to help you learn our tech stack once you are part of our team.

Key responsibilities:

• Write, amend, refactor and document code to build complex programs/scripts, and as required leading on these activities. Adhere to internal process and procedures, promoting and advising others which software development standards/processes/procedures apply.
• Constantly seek to learn and further develop your skills as required for your role. Monitor changes in the tech stack you use and alert on any major changes affecting our software. Adhere to industry's best practices, produce well-engineered modern products and guide others to do so in a highly competently manner.
• Ensure that products are secure, engineered to mitigate security threats and have the necessary security controls in place. Ensure that information is handled with confidentiality and integrity, and that products are compliant. Identify and raise risks and support Information Assurance activities.
• Support and maintain software as required, including in the live environment. Use modern tools to effectively and thoroughly identify, troubleshoot and fix faults. Package and deploy software built. Some activities may be outside the core office hours (in-line with the organisation's policy for OOH).
• Plan the development on sets of related stories and coordinate integration tasks across systems. Contribute to selection of the software development approach (plan-driven, iterative/agile etc.) for projects. Identify process optimisation opportunities with guidance and support activities to improve the development process. Choose the most appropriate from a variety of methods of prototyping, actively solicit prototypes with others.
• Define, analyse, plan, forecast, measure, maintain and improve all aspects of the availability of services. Control and manage service availability to meet the needs of the business in a cost-effective manner. This includes managing the capability, functionality and sustainability of service components (for example, hardware, software, network resources and software/infrastructure as a service).
• Design systems characterised by medium levels of risk, impact, and business or technical complexity. Take designs through the required governance. Review designs of others to ensure the selection of appropriate technology, efficient use of resources and integration of multiple systems and technology. Identify, record and escalate tech debt and medium-level risks.
• Define the integration build. Coordinate build activities across systems and undertake and support integration testing activities.
• Take a test-driven approach to software development, write complex automation test scripts and participate in testing. Participate in code reviews of own work and leads code reviews of colleagues' work.
• Guide and advise others on technical areas you have expertise in, modern development standards and approaches to understand user stories. Coach and mentor more junior colleagues. Lead on, and participate in recruitment as required.
• Participate in and lead on procurement activities as required.
• Translate user stories to a proposed design and develop software to meet user needs. Collaborate with user researchers, represent users internally and champion user research to focus on all users.

Skills & Experience:

• Sound knowledge in at least one programming language for development of enterprise and public facing applications, ideally in our core stack but other languages and a desire to learn is acceptable (Java, Python, C#, PHP, Ruby, Go, Rust, C++, VB.NET, JavaScript etc.)
• Sound knowledge of HTTP, at least one web development framework (for example Spring, Django, Rails, Laravel, Razor, Classic ASP) and at least one RDBMS (for example PostgreSQL, SQL Server, MySQL, Oracle)
• Sound knowledge in a wide range of technologies and libraries used in an enterprise, such as logging and monitoring, ORM, authentication/authorisation, cloud hosting environments, systems integration, source control, package management etc.
• Experience of mentoring, coaching or leading other developers (at work or in meetups etc)
• Experience of working with modern tools and techniques
• An understanding of common security issues and how to mitigate them
• You will also want to make a positive impact on the communities we serve
• You are looking for new technical and leadership challenges
• You thrive when you work as part of a team
• You enjoy learning and helping others
• You hold yourself and others to a high standard
• You solve problems in a systematic way

Application process:

The following areas of Success Profile Framework will be used to assess and score your application during the sift, and interview.

• Experience – As demonstrated in your application form.
• Technical – As demonstrated in your application form and interview. Successful sift candidates will be invited to a pre-interview technical on-line test.
• DDaT Assessment – During the interview, you will be assessed against the DDaT framework
• Behaviours – You will be required to provide evidence of the following key behaviours at Level 4
• Behaviours – We will be using the behaviours below.

• Leadership
• Delivering at Pace

Person specification

Please refer to Job Description

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £54,358, HM Courts and Tribunals Service contributes £15,165 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

Things you need to know

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours, Experience and Technical skills.https://justicejobs.tal.net/vx/candidate/cms/About%20the%20MOJ

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check. People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

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). The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria. The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.