About the job

Job summary

The Planning Inspectorate is recruiting for a Senior Developer to join our growing Digital and Data Services team as we expand to meet growing demands from our colleagues, government, and our customers.  

This role is a Senior Developer supporting a Content Management System (CMS). Your primary responsibility is to develop a CMS that facilitates the storage, discovery, and utilisation of knowledge within the organisation. The CMS will be built using Drupal and should align with the Government Design Principles.

The Planning Inspectorate has a long and proud history in ensuring a fair planning system for England. The work we do has a significant impact on people’s lives, the communities where they live and the economy.

We want our colleagues to be able to work more flexibly and more collaboratively, exploring new and innovative ways to improve the way we provide services.

For further information on the Planning Inspectorate, please see the information pack attached. You can also view our careers page at Civil Service Careers

Job description

You’ll be working in a small digital team delivering bespoke products to Operational Teams including Inspectors and Casework Officers. Outside of the team, you’ll be a part of the Developer Community of Practice where you’ll have peer support and opportunities to share both knowledge and problems.

You’ll work as part of a team and should be confident building effective relationships, sharing process improvements, and contributing to organisational performance. You’ll have excellent problem-solving, communication, and interpersonal skills, and enjoy working with customers to deliver high-quality products.

You’ll be the CMS subject matter expert focussed on delivering high quality code in line with project goals and delivery cycles.

You’ll have the ability to understand and work within given constraints and challenge changeable constraints.

You’ll also keep up to date with the latest technologies and trends, whilst delivering working software early and often, learning new languages and frameworks and picking the right solutions.  

Our Tech Stack  

For the CMS, you’ll use:

• Azure for infrastructure and deployment
• UK Design System for web interfaces and design patterns 
• HTML/CSS/JavaScript for web implementation

Drupal (PHP) for the CMS

SQL database for data

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

Check out GitHub for a closer look at the technology we use.  

A typical week in this role will consist of a blend of responsibilities, including:  

• Performing code review.  
• Providing mentoring and coaching to other team members.  
• Prioritisation of work in line with deliverables and project goals.  
• Writing code.  
• Writing unit tests.  
• Offering technical expertise on software architecture and technology choices.  
• Providing guidance to technical and non-technical stakeholders.  
• Identifying and fixing faults.  
• Providing technical assurance. 

For full information on the role and assessment process please refer to the candidate pack attached.

Office Attendance

All of our office-based roles are contractually located at Temple Quay House in Bristol. We encourage office attendance to foster collaboration, conversation, group creativity and employee wellbeing. You will be expected to attend Temple Quay House at least 12 times a year. Depending on your role, you may be required to attend more often than 12 times a year either permanently or temporarily to ensure we deliver our services in the most efficient and effective way for our customers. If you would like to discuss our Office Attendance in more detail, please contact us at PINS.Recruitment@planninginspectorate.gov.uk  

Person specification

Essential Criteria

• Problem solving experience 
• Excellent communication, customer engagement and inter-personal skills 
• Experience of Agile Methodologies 
• Proficiency in HTML, CSS and JavaScript 
• Proficiency in MySQL (or equivalent), and PHP
• Proficiency in git (or equivalent), UI design and Drupal 

Desirable Criteria:

• Relevant degree or professional qualification
• Able to understand and work within the given constraints (including but not limited to technology, policy, regulatory, financial, legal, social user constraints) and to challenge constraints that can be changed.
• Experience of a continuous improvement and agile environment focusing on user needs.

 

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £44,220, Planning Inspectorate contributes £11,984 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.

Application

Complete the online application form on Civil Service Jobs which requires the following information:

• A CV: The CV section is an opportunity for you to detail your career history. It should outline the jobs you have done, the length of time you were employed within each role and a brief description of your role, responsibilities and duties which demonstrate relevance to the role you are applying for against the essential criteria. You will also be asked, in a further section, for more detail about your skills and experience in each role. You must type, or ‘copy and paste’ into the text box called ‘Employment History’ within the online application. You cannot attach a copy of your CV.

We will assess your application on the evidence you have provided against the Essential Criteria detailed in the Person Specification in the candidate pack.

In the event of a large number of applications, a lead sift may take place.  The following point will be used as the lead criteria when shortlisting if this happens, and if you do not meet the minimum standard the rest of your application will not be assessed.

• Proficiency in git (or equivalent), UI design, and Drupal

All shortlisted candidates will be advised of the outcome shortly afterwards.

Interview 

If you are shortlisted, you will:

• Be asked to attend an interview to have a more in-depth discussion about your experience and suitability for the role
• Interviews will be a blend of behaviour, experience and technical questions

Candidates who are successful at shortlist stage will be sent full assessment requirements with their interview invitations.

Other Information

Shortlist Date: w/c 29th January 2024 

Interview Date: w/c 12th February 2024 

Interviews are currently being completed remotely using Microsoft Teams. We would like to reassure candidates that the virtual interview will not be recorded (or retained) within the Planning Inspectorate, other than usual interview protocol and in line with the Civil Service jobs Privacy notice.

We encourage all candidates to make themselves familiar with the role and what we will be assessing you against which is detailed in the Person Specification.

The Planning Inspectorate is committed to finding the right person for the job. We recruit using Success Profiles and consider the criteria you will need to demonstrate to be successful for the role, by doing this we are pushing up performance, diversifying our workforce and creating an inclusive culture.

ID and Documents

If specific qualifications/memberships are essential for the role and you are successful, you will be asked to provide accurate scanned or photographed images of the qualifications/memberships that you listed on your application prior to your start date.

We must check that any successful candidates are allowed to work for the Civil Service before we employ them. If successful, you will be asked to do a right to work check using identity document validation technology (IDVT) through the services of an Identity Service Provider (IDSP), Civil Service Jobs.  If we are unable to confirm your right to work and through the IDVT we will need to do a manual right to work check using original documents with you in person.

Visa Sponsorship

The Planning Inspectorate cannot offer Visa sponsorship to candidates, we do not hold a Visa sponsorship licence.

Disability Confident Interview scheme

The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. We run a Disability Confident Interview scheme for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria for the job.

To be considered for an interview under the scheme you must:

• have a disability defined by the Equality Act 2010
• provide evidence in your application that you meet the minimum criteria in the job description
• meet all of the qualifications, skills or experience defined as essential

While we will endeavour to provide you with all the appropriate information, you are the expert on your specific requirements so if you require any adjustments, you should consider the information provided about the assessment process in the candidate pack and then:

• Complete the “Assistance required” section in the “Additional requirements” page of your application form to tell us what changes or help you might need further on in the recruitment process. The earlier and more clearly you tell us what you need and why you need it, the more likely we are to be able to accommodate you in a timely fashion.

 All Planning Inspectorate colleagues must meet the baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window). This is a series of basic security checks to confirm identity and employment history.

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.