About the job

Job summary

This position is based nationally

Job description

Software Developer

Location: National*

Closing Date: 10th February 2024

Interviews: 21/22/23 February

Grade: SEO

(MoJ candidates who are on a specialist grade, will be able to retain this grade on lateral transfer)

Salary: London: £45,824 - £56,050 (may include an allowance of up to £10,226)

             National: £39,868 - £51,675 (may include an allowance of up to £11,807)

Working pattern: Full-time, part-time, flexible working

Contract Type: FTC for 24 months

Vacancy number: 83648

*We offer a hybrid working model, allowing for a balance between remote work and time spent in your local office. Office locations can be found ON THIS MAP

The Role

We’re recruiting for a Developer here at Justice Digital, to be part of our friendly and diverse OPG Digital & Technology team.

As a developer at MOJ Digital & Technology you will be designing and building web systems that make a genuine difference to people’s lives. You’ll make sure we build things the right way, keeping up to date with the latest technologies and trends, whilst delivering working software early and often.

At MOJ you’ll be working on our acclaimed open-source public services, with user needs at the heart of everything, helping us transform Government for the future. Working as part of a multi-disciplinary team, you’ll be helping define how we do what we do, and making sure that our systems are built to be changed rapidly.

To help picture your life at MoJ Justice Digital please take a look at our blog and our Digital and Technology strategy 2025

Key Responsibilities:

You will be working with development teams supporting the Office of the Public Guardian in providing improved services to those making and using a Lasting Power of Attorney.

You will:

• Collaborate with User Researchers, Product Managers and other developers to refine and develop features that benefit end users

• Write automated tests using appropriate libraries to ensure future changes do not have unexpected negative impacts

• Share knowledge of tools and techniques with the wider team stakeholders and community, both developers and non-developers

• Debug and fix issues when they arise

• Help keep on top of technical debt, though ongoing maintenance tasks such as updating packages, raising awareness of maintainability issues and working with the rest of the team to identify and take forward solutions

• Promote a diverse, inclusive culture across the development community

• Support a small number of less experienced developers

• Help with hiring, taking part in recruitment of other developers

• If this feels like an exciting opportunity, something you are enthusiastic about, and want to join our team please read on and apply!

Person Specification

You should have:

• Awareness of Agile methodologies such as Scrum and Kanban.

• Enthusiasm for sharing knowledge, and an eagerness to learn from others.

• Experience of supporting your colleagues, whether one-to-one or in groups, and comfort using approaches such as pair and mob programming.

• Demonstrable experience of software development in a professional context, with knowledge of Python, Golang, PHP, or similar. And some experience of front end development in HTML, CSS, and Javascript, Docker, and SQL.

• Experience using automated tests to continuously validate your work.

• Experience developing well structured, maintainable code.

• An understanding of how to protect people's data when providing services over the internet.

• An awareness of technologies used for web applications, e.g web servers, application servers, CDNs, databases, etc.

• Experience working on existing codebases (maintenance, refactoring, evolutionary development).

Willingness to be assessed against  the requirements for BPSS clearance.

We welcome the unique contribution diverse applicants bring and do not discriminate based on culture, ethnicity, race, nationality or national origin, age, sex, gender identity or expression, religion or belief, disability status, sexual orientation, educational or social background or any other factor.

Our values are Purpose, Humanity Openness and Together. Find out more here about how we celebrate diversity and an inclusive culture in our workplace.

Person specification

Please refer to attached Job Description

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £39,868, Ministry of Justice contributes £10,804 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

Candidates must submit a CV and a Statement of Suitability (Up to 750 words) which describes how you meet the requirements set out in the Person Specification above.

In Justice Digital, we recruit using a combination of the Government Digital and Data Profession Capability and Success Profiles Frameworks. We will assess your Experience, Technical Skills and the following Behaviours during the assessment process:

• Delivering at Pace

• Developing Self and Others

• Working Together

Your application will be reviewed against the Person Specification above by a diverse panel.

Successful candidates who meet the required standard will then be invited to a 90-minute panel interview held via video conference, with a small technical test (paired exercise - nothing to prepare for in advance) to be completed as part of the interview.

Should we receive a high volume of applications, a pre-sift based on your demonstrable experience of software development in a professional context will be conducted before the sift.

Should you be unsuccessful in the role that you have applied for but demonstrate the capability for a role at a lower level, we reserve the right to discuss this opportunity with you and offer you the position without needing a further application.

A reserve list may be held for up to 12 months, from which further appointments may be made.

Terms & Conditions

Please review our Terms & Conditions which set out how we recruit and provide further information related to the role and salary arrangements.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact recruitment@digital.justice.gov.uk

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.