About the job

Job summary

Changes are happening at UK Home Office we are not just about entry gates at Airports or issuing passports. We have over 30 different agencies and public bodies, including Policing and Counter Terrorism and with everyone using digital device's technology is changing massively, we are bringing services in house, and it’s a big challenge.

You could be designing and building solutions to help people prove their identity or apply for visas or working on the critical IT systems that support policing and counter terrorism and help protect UK borders. Our success in this role depends on our ability to exploit the latest technologies to create leading-edge, world class solutions whilst ensuring they are secure and resilient.

Our work is guided by these fundamental principles:

• Put user needs first

• Delivery and outcomes over process

• Make the most of openness: open standards, open source, open data and open markets

We encourage applications from people from the widest possible diversity of backgrounds, cultures, and experiences. We particularly welcome applications from women, people with disabilities and LGBT+ as they are currently under-represented in the Home Office at this grade level. Appointments will be made on merit on the basis of fair and open competition.

Where business needs allow, some roles may be suitable for a combination of office and home-based working. Where this is the case, employees will be expected to spend a minimum of 60% of their working time in the office.  Applicants can discuss any specific questions with the Vacancy Holder.

Job description

We’re passionate about building software that solves problems. We’re home to some of the most important public services in the United Kingdom and are transforming how we use data and technology to improve these. Our software has been used to stop terrorist attacks, ensure applications and delivery of passports is efficient and developing and supporting a wide variety of GOV.UK services such as getting married or forming a civil partnership or applying for a visa.

As a Senior Developer you will be working with modern technologies in cloud -based environments with other skilled people, collaborating and making things work for our end users, in some cases that’s the public and in others our own people who work at the Borders, Immigration or protecting the public.

We develop over 560 services which have millions of users worldwide.

Areas of the work which you may need to get involved with (from a software engineering perspective) include

• Building and maintaining wide variety of gov.uk services you may be familiar with, including getting married or forming a civil partnership or applying for a visa

• Ensuring that the application and delivery of passports is efficient - completing the build of our award-winning digital application system

• Re-developing core policing data systems to ensure they are effective and provide a solid basis for innovation

• Updating tools to ensure that our borders are efficient for both passengers and border officials

• Ensuring that we have a world-class immigration system which is usable by all

If these types of projects excite you, we'd love for you to join us.

What we offer

We know that great software requires great coding practices. Here are some key practices which we insist upon across our teams that allow us to release with speed and quality.

• Agile principles

• Test-driven development with a focus on automation

• Continuous integration and continuous delivery

• Review code via pull requests

• Pairing smartly

• Infrastructure as code

Person specification

This is a really exciting opportunity, you’ll be working on triaging ‘new stuff’, as well as leading the implementation of new systems in a number of really critical areas.

This work will be delivered in an agile manner, working with multi-disciplinary teams and across a variety of business areas.

As a Senior Developer you’ll take ownership over the products, features and services your team looks after, being curious at heart with a desire to make things better. You’ll prioritise the focus on being one team with a passion for nurturing, coaching and sharing your knowledge with others whilst ensuring high quality code is delivered in line with project goals and delivery cycles and thrive using agile methods.

Your key areas of impact will be

• Delivering secure, reliable and scalable software and supporting your team with technical tasks when needed

• Evaluating and advising on design choices and ensuring that software is high quality and balances technical and business considerations

• Defining and documenting test cases for new systems and maintaining live systems to ensure ongoing performance

• Acting as a digital ambassador, supporting recruitment, identifying good practices for Home Office to adopt and sharing experiences, e.g. through blog posts, tech talks at conferences etc.

• Evolving new approaches/solutions with other professions through discoveries, maintain a focus on development and deployment

• Helping prioritise and direct technical tasks across your team, to balance new and live services

This is a senior developer role. You'll work with seniors and principals whilst coaching and mentor mid-level and associate (junior) engineers. You will occasionally be expected to assist with the recruitment process for new colleagues.

Like most businesses we need to maintain our services 24/7, therefore, on occasion there may be a requirement to work out of hours, for which you will be paid

Essential criteria

Home Office really are about investing in people, if you have the coding skills and have experience of a product focussed agile, multi-disciplinary environment then we would be very pleased to hear from you.

You'll be a developer who is confident developing applications, passionate about making a difference and want to be involved throughout the product lifecycle, from idea generation, design, and prototyping to execution, and shipping whilst having experience with:

• Developing Java based micro services

• Designing and developing RESTful APIs

• Databases and DB technology (RDBMS, NoSQL etc.)

• Working practices such as test-driven development (focusing on automation), continuous integration and continuous delivery

• A cloud-based approach, selecting cloud components and defining infrastructure as code to integrate them (Kubernetes, AWS, Azure, and/or Google Cloud etc.)

• Working with an agile environment

• Taking projects from inception through to delivery by being involved in the full software development lifecycle

The skills listed are reflective of the Home Office DDaT Profession Skills and Competency Model (based on the industry standard SFIA framework), please review the attached ‘Role Description’ which highlights the expected technical skills and required levels for this role.

Skills for the information age (SFIA) is the technical framework that sets the standard capability and development of all engineering levels in the Home Office. 

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £57,000, Home Office contributes £16,470 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 Experience and Technical skills.

This gives us the best possible chance of finding the right person for the job, drives up performance and improves diversity and inclusivity.

As part of the application process you will be asked to complete a CV and a 500 word personal statement .

Further details around what this will entail are listed on the application form. 

Your CV and personal statement should include all relevant experience that relates to our Essential criteria listed in the advertisement and role description.

Please note your personal statement should be aligned to explain why you are a good fit for the advertised role aligned to the Essential criteria listed in the role description. 
    
Take this opportunity to highlight and describe past work achievements not covered in your CV.

Remove information that identifies you (for example your name, age or place of education) so that you’ll be judged on merit alone and not your personal background, circumstances, race or gender.

(Do NOT include e-mail addresses or links to online profiles, resumes, or prior work, either personal or business. Active links or e-mail addresses will result in your application being rejected)

Application tips

1. It’s crucial that your application demonstrates how you meet the essential criteria set out in the job advert. Don't just do a list of languages/platforms - do provide context
2. You should include enough information and describe examples that demonstrate your skills and experience.
3. You should give yourself plenty of time. You can start an application and come back to complete it before the job advert closes.

More guidance can be found here – completing you application

Sift Stage

The sift will be held on the CV and personal statement. Please read the Essential skills for this position carefully. We will only consider those who meet the listed requirements.

Candidates who pass the sift, showing the required experience/abilities, will be invited to attend an interview which will be held via MS Teams.

Interview Stage

The interview will assess your technical skills and experience using technical and experience-based oral questions, along with a coding/code review exercise where you will be asked to prepare IDE with Scala 12 (or higher) and to be ready to share IDE screen during the interview.

Sift and interview dates

Sift will be conducted week commencing 28th February 2024

Interviews will be held week commencing 18th March 2024

(Subject to panels operational requirements/priorities)

Interviews will be conducted remotely via MS Teams.

We will try to meet the dates set out in the advert. There may be occasions when these dates will change. You will be provided with sufficient notice of the confirmed dates.

Further Information

For meaningful checks to be carried out, individuals need to have lived in the UK for a sufficient period of time to enable appropriate checks to be carried out and produce a result which provides the required level of assurance. You should normally have been resident in the United Kingdom for the last 3 years if the role requires CTC clearance, 5 years for SC clearance and 10 years for DV.  A lack of UK residency in itself is not necessarily a bar to a security clearance and applicants should contact the Vacancy Holder/Recruiting Manager listed in the advert for further advice.

For further information on National Security Vetting please visit the following page https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/demystifying-vetting

• Higher Security Clearance - This post requires the successful candidate to hold security clearance at minimum SC level (normally requiring a five-year UK footprint). Job offers to this post are made on the basis of merit. Security vetting will only take place after the receipt of a job offer. 
• Visa Sponsorship Statement - Please take note that the Home Office DDaT does not hold a UK Visa & Immigration (UKVI) Skilled Worker License and are unable to sponsor any individuals via Skilled Worker Sponsorship / Tier 2 (General) work visa.

Note to Candidates

Please read the essential skills for this position carefully. We will only consider those who meet the listed requirement. 

If you have previously made an unsuccessful application for a role with the same essential skills and are not able to demonstrate how you have developed these skills since your last application please reconsider applying as your application is unlikely to be successful.

We often have similar roles available at different grades. If a candidate is suitable for a similar role or a lower grade than they have applied for, we may offer the candidate that role without the need to go through a further selection process providing the role has the same competencies and essential skills.

This post is eligible for a DDaT Recruitment Retention Allowance this allowance is subject to an initial review within six months of taking up the post and thereafter an annual review in line with the departmental priorities and could be reduced or withdrawn at any time. 

A reserve list may be held for a period up to 12 months from which further appointment may be made.

Every day, Home Office civil servants do brilliant work to develop and deliver policies and services that affect the lives of people across the country and beyond. To do this effectively and fairly, the Home Office is committed to representing modern Britain in all its diversity, and creating a welcoming, inclusive workplace where all our people are able to bring their whole selves to work and perform at their best.

We are flexible, skilled, professional and diverse. We work to recruit and retain disabled staff and area Disability Confident Leader. We are proud to be one of the most ethnically diverse departments in the civil service. We are a Social Mobility Foundation top 75 employer.

New entrants are expected to join on the minimum of the pay band.

Applicants who are successful at interview will be, as part of pre-employment screening, subject to a check on the Internal Fraud Database (IFD). This check will provide information about employees who have been dismissed for fraud or dishonesty offences. This check also applies to employees who resign or otherwise leave before being dismissed for fraud or dishonesty had their employment continued. Any applicant's details held on the IFD will be refused employment.

For further information please see the attached notes for candidates which must be read before making an application.

Existing Civil Servants should note that some of the Home Office terms and conditions of employment have changed. It is the candidate’s responsibility to ensure they are aware of the Terms and Conditions they will adopt should they be successful in application and should refer to the notes for candidates for further details.

Transfer Terms: Voluntary.

If you are invited to an interview you will be required to  bring a range of documentation for the purposes of establishing identity and to aid any pre-employment checks.

Please see the attached list of Home Office acceptable ID documents.

Any move to the Home Office 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

Reasonable Adjustments

If a person with disabilities is at a substantial disadvantage compared to a non-disabled person, we have a duty to make reasonable changes to our processes. 

If you need a change to be made so that you can make your application, you should:

• Contact Government Recruitment Service via HOrecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk as soon as possible before the closing date to discuss your needs
• 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. For instance, you may need wheelchair access at interview, or if you're deaf, a language service professional

If you are experiencing accessibility problems with any attachments on this advert, please contact the email address in the ‘Contact point for applicants’ section.

Feedback

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

Security

Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check (opens in a new window).

See our vetting charter (opens in a new window). 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.