About the job

Job summary

We’re looking for an exceptional Senior Java Developer to help us make a difference to our planet.

As our Senior Java Developer the job may be suitable for hybrid working, which is where an employee works part of the week in the office and part of the week from home. This is a voluntary, non-contractual arrangement and the location advertised will be your contractual place of work.

Our opportunity is full time, 37 hours per week. Our people are at the heart of what we do and we'll do our best to agree a working pattern that works for everyone.

World changing work

From science to technology, from meteorology to management, and from planning to communication, our expertise helps us stand out as the authority on weather accuracy and climate prediction. We help individuals, industries and government to make better decisions to stay safe and thrive. This is the Met Office. This is who we are.

• We’re a force for good - focusing on our environmental and social impact
• We’re experts by nature - always learning and developing to do things better
• We live and breathe it - putting our purpose at the heart of decision-making
• We’re better together - understanding partnerships and inclusivity make us greater
• We keep evolving - pushing boundaries to make tomorrow better for our customers

Job description

Your world of expertise

As a Senior Java Developer you will join a small team developing and supporting the Met Office's strategic API Management service.

This developer role is aligned to Senior DevOps Engineer - Government Digital and Data Profession Capability Framework (ddat-capability-framework.service.gov.uk) on the GOV.UK website.

Your key duties

• Take a leading role in defining and developing the work activities that facilitate the continuous improvement and development of the APIM capability
• Work with the Product Manager and Technical Architect to help define how to deliver the stakeholder requirement by:

            - Breaking down and estimating the user stories into manageable chunks to deliver within agreed iterations
            - Providing costed technical options and solutions to meet the business need

• Responsible for all low-level design aspects of the chosen technical solution in line with agreed constraints - time/cost/quality
• Responsible for advising the Tech Lead, Product Manager and Service Owner on how to best maintain operations, considering all aspects, such as running costs
• Work with the Solutions Architect to maintain an acceptable level of supportability and complexity – identifying and managing risks and technical debt
• Responsible for design & code reviews - delegating where possible to aid team development
• Responsible for delivering/maintaining DevOps best practice & tooling in support of lifecycle, automated testing and continuous deployment
• Responsible for providing technical advice and estimations to further adopt APIM capabilities. Identifying additional patterns and documentation to improve self-service on-boarding
• Support the needs of a DevOps team with respect to training, mentoring and technical career development
• Contribute to the development of secure and robust re-usable code / tools including:
  
     - Developing and extending Python-based AWS Lambda APIs
     - Building new Java classes to extend the APIM platform 

Person specification

Essential Criteria, skills and experience:

1. Highly proficient in Java development and proficient in Python development (We live and breathe it)
2. Demonstrable knowledge of using Amazon AWS services including Lambda, EC2, VPC (networking) and experience of the AWS CodePipeline
3. A working knowledge of implementing or supporting REST APIs using an API Management solution (e.g. WSO2, Apigee) and OpenAPI (Swagger) Definitions (We're experts by nature)
4. Experience of taking requirements and producing either Low Level, or High Level designs and presenting them in a clear manner to different audiences 
5. Experience of working in a live service using DevOps & Agile processes

Desirable Criteria:

We encourage you to apply if you believe you meet our essential criteria, but we’re also keen to discover if you have:

1. Strong teamwork and communications skills
2. Experience with some of the following tools:  git / GitHub, Atlassian toolset, Maven, Java Frameworks, Junit, Jmeter
3. Experience in writing both technical and user facing documentation

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £41,725, Met Office contributes £11,265 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

How to apply

If you share our values, we’d love to hear from you. Apply below with your career history and provide evidence against each of the essential criteria in the supporting statement questionnaire. We recommend candidates use the CARL method (Context, Action, Result and Learning) for presenting evidence of experience and skills

Closing date Sunday 10/06/2024 at 23:59 with first stage interviews commencing from 24th June. You will hear from us once the closing date has passed.

How we can help

If you are considering applying and need support to do so, please contact us via careers@metoffice.gov.uk . You can request adjustments either within your application or by contacting us. Should you be offered an interview, please be aware there may be a selection exercise which could include a presentation, written test or a scenario-based activity. You can select in your application to be considered under the Disability Confident Scheme. To be invited to interview/assessment under this scheme, your application must meet the essential criteria for the role.

We understand that great minds don’t always think alike and as an equal opportunities employer we welcome applications from those with all protected characteristics. We recruit on merit, fairness, and open competition in line with the Civil Service Code.

We can only accept applications from those eligible to live and work in the UK - please refer to GOV.UK for information. We require Security clearance, for which you need to have resided in the UK for at least 3 of the last 5 years to be eligible. You will need to achieve full security clearance within your first 6 months with us

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.