About the job

Job summary

About us 

Archives matter. Without records, we could not hold government to account, carry out pioneering research or learn from the past. Whether they are websites, the evidence heard by inquiries, or the algorithms which support official decision-making, the survival of our digital public records is vital.  

We’re currently looking for an enthusiastic software developer to join our growing digital preservation team. In this role, you will work as part of a multi-disciplinary team to deliver products that will secure The National Archives’ ever growing digital collections. 

The National Archives is the archive of UK Government and the courts. We preserve and provide access to the UK’s public records. Our strategy sets out our ambition to be an inclusive, entrepreneurial, and disruptive archive. We welcome applications from all sections of the community and from people of diverse ages, experience, and backgrounds including people with disabilities. We are keen to explore the widest possible pool of talent for all our roles. 

We put people at the forefront of our organisation and are committed to enabling professional development and training for all our colleagues. 

 

About you 

You are an enthusiastic and organised individual who is keen to join a growing team and make a positive a contribution. You have the confidence to advise and support our users as they send us increasingly complex digital records. You are delivery focussed and strongly motivated to provide an excellent service. As part of the Digital Archiving team, you will directly contribute to growing the digital archive and delivering the aims of The National Archives’ business strategy, ‘Archives for Everyone’. 

Job description

About the role 

The National Archives is building a suite of innovative digital products and cloud-based services to ease the flow of digital records into the archive, preserve them for generations to come and open up access to this nationally important resource for audiences including students, government, researchers and the public. 

In this varied and challenging role, you will create, develop, and enhance these high-profile services, ensuring that they are capable of handling the latest digital records as diverse new record formats are transferred to the archives for preservation and access. You will have the opportunity to work on new initiatives, as well as working on new features for our live services. We are a recognized research organisation, and you may also have the opportunity to contribute to our programme of technical research in digital archiving, and to talk about your work at conferences and meetings. 

You should be passionate about technology, building high quality, user-focused services, and your own skills development. Your creativity and experience will be essential to the organisation to inform and shape the design and development of new processes and services. You will be motivated to find solutions to complex problems and will frequently look for opportunities to do things better.  

Our new services will connect to our award-winning Digital Records Infrastructure (DRI) which securely stores our rapidly increasing digital collection, operating at petabyte-scale to ensure the long-term preservation of vital public records. Government websites, the records of significant public inquiries, the decisions of senior officials, ministers and prime ministers, and the nation’s digitised history from the 11th to the early 21st century will all be preserved in the system.  

You will influence the future design of the system and will be responsible for helping to set technical direction, mentoring staff, undertaking code review as well as writing high quality, robust code yourself.  

You must be proficient in at least one modern programming language: familiarity with cloud computing would also be an advantage. You will have a passion for learning and developing your skills and will thrive in an environment which values and supports continuous learning. 

Join us here in beautiful Kew, just 10 minutes’ walk from the Overground and Underground stations, and you can expect an excellent range of benefits. They include a pension, discounts with local businesses, and wellbeing resources (e.g. on-site therapists). We offer an on-site gym, restaurant, shop and staff bar. 

Person specification

This is a full-time post. However, requests for part-time working, flexible working, fully remote working and job share will be considered, taking into account at all times the operational needs of the Department.  
We are committed to continually improving the diversity of our workforce and therefore encourage applications from people of colour, the LGBTQI+ community, the trans community, those who are neuro diverse, and those with a disability. 

If you have any questions about this application, please contact us. 

How to apply:

If you are an internal applicant: please do not use the link on this page. Please apply via your employee Workday account.

If you are an external applicant: to submit your application please click the 'Apply at advertiser's site' button on this page.

You will be asked to provide details of your work experience and write a personal statement. In your personal statement please explain, using examples, how you meet the essential criteria given below. You may draw on knowledge, skills, abilities, experience gained from paid work, domestic responsibilities, education, leisure interests and voluntary activities. Please note selection for interview will largely be based on the information you provide in this section.

Essential:

• Good professional development experience using programming languages such as Scala or Java, with the desire and ability to develop your skills in others.
• Highly motivated and able to work independently or as part of a multi-disciplinary team, maintaining strong working relationships both within an organisation and externally.
• Excellent ability to analyse and problem solve, and good organisational skills coupled with the ability to work to a high degree of accuracy.
• Experienced in development best practices and project methodologies.

Desirable:

• Experience, or the desire to learn Scala.
• Experience of Terraform or other infrastructure as code tools and languages.
• Experience of Python or a desire to learn Python.
• Experience of cloud computing and/or service-oriented software systems.
• Good understanding of source control tools, such as Git.
• Experience of development in a Linux environment.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £36,000, The National Archives contributes £9,720 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

Reasonable adjustments:

If a person with disabilities is put 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 The National Archives via careers@nationalarchives.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

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

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check. 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.