About the job

Job summary

It is an exciting time in Home Office Digital Data and Technology; we have a number of great new initiatives coming together which are laying the basis for our future operating model – reshaping and truly redefining how we manage our delivery and services to citizens.

So, what is a Software Engineering Team Leader at Home Office? Your role is split into two equal parts, 50% of your time will be focused on your team's delivery, the quality they produce and the overall growth of the engineers within those teams including taking on line management responsibilities. The other 50% of your time will be to produce and execute and that means having skin in the game.

You’ll lead and coach a multidisciplinary team to build, improve, and maintain critical digital services relied upon by the UK public and government.

What we’re offering:

We’re at the start of an interesting journey that involves growing our engineering community by about 500 people across the next few years and establishing and building our community culture to support this. You’d be part of a growing profession and enjoy the benefits of such, for instance a clearly defined developmental pathway along with community support and learning and development appertaining to your role.

If you like being at the heart of something big, implementing and shaping future services for users this role is for you. We’re shaping the future of Home Office Services in the building of new technical multidisciplinary teams.

To be considered for this role, you will need to successfully complete SC clearance before commencing the role. To meet the National Security Vetting requirements for this role you will need to have resided in the UK for a minimum of 5 years.

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

As an experienced Software Developer who wants to build on their leadership skills, or an experienced technical leader looking for a new challenge, you’ll be taking on a leadership role in a truly unique technical space that offers many challenges that we’re confident will provide an amazing experience to truly have an impact.

We offer training packages to ensure you get the best guidance and support to help you succeed.

You’ll play a part in recruiting your new team and leading the way it works, making decisions that affect your own and wider teams. You’ll enjoy engaging with others, collaborating, finding solutions to problems and take a ‘people first’ approach relishing the opportunity to develop others to reach their full potential through advising, guiding, mentoring and coaching to help grow their career.

Half of your time will be hands on technical with the remainder being focused on leadership, management and stakeholder engagement but ultimately, it’s up to you, you decide how your team works.

You’ll be focused on the delivery, but also ‘keep your hand in’ guiding and motivating team members to deliver, creating an environment that ensures team happiness and success. With complete autonomy you’ll decide how to manage and get the best out of your team, and with our new performance benefits you as a line manager will have the ability to reward excellent work through various ways.

Your key areas of impact:

• Building and leading an agile software engineering team delivering with high performance and high quality.
  
• Taking a hands-on role with engineering delivery where necessary, blending your leadership and technical skills to achieve team objectives.
  
• Growing and developing team members as well as Supporting Continuous Professional Development (CPD) and encouraging formal professional qualifications.
  
• Working with your peers to improve our tools, technologies, guidance and standards.
  
• Progressing the Digital Data and Technology profession, understanding all roles and helping to build our engineering community.

Person specification

Our people are important to us, and we put them at the heart of what we do. We’re looking for someone who embraces that philosophy and recognises the importance of diversity, continuous improvement, listening and learning from others, building trust and mutual respect.

You’ll combine leadership and line management expertise with your software engineering capability.

We’re building new teams too and you would actively participate in the hiring and on-boarding of team members.

Essential criteria

You’ll have a demonstrable passion for leading engineering teams with the following skills or proven experience in:

• Experience with Java or C# or JavaScript (and frameworks such as Node or React) or those with a background using another modern programming language like PHP or python who have some understanding of our core tech stack. Alternatively, experience of low-code development is appropriate
• Defining RESTful/SOAP APIs.
  
• Leading development through all aspects of the software delivery lifecycle with focus on automation, continuous integration, and continuous delivery
• Building new services and establishing and developing common approaches, contributing to technical strategy, helping to deliver consistently and iterate quickly
• Taking a “people first” approach and caring deeply about nurturing a healthy team culture
• Working within an agile environment.

If you like being at the heart of something big, making decisions, both autonomously and with others, ensuring work is prioritised and completed to recognised standards, along with implementing and shaping future services for users, then this role is for you.

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. 

The technical skills listed below 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. 

Benefits

• A Civil Service pension with an average employer contribution of 27%
• 25 days annual leave on appointment, plus 8 days public holidays and 1 day for the King’s Birthday, rising further with service
• Flexible working options to enable you to achieve the work life balance that right for you including part-time, flexi time and job sharing
• Training and development opportunities tailored to your role
• An in-year bonus scheme
• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity.

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, outlining all relevant experience.
• A Personal Statement (Max Word Limit: 500).

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

Your CV should include all relevant experience that relates to our Essential skills criteria listed in the advert and role description. Do not just list languages / platforms - do provide context.

Your Personal Statement should be aligned to explain why you are a good fit for the advertised role aligned to the Essential skills criteria listed in the role description.

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 background, circumstances, race or gender.

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

The sift will be held on the CV and Personal Statement.

Candidates who pass the sift will be provided with a programming / coding technical exercise to complete, details will be provided prior to the interview.

Technical Exercise stage

This coding test will assess your ability to effectively perform in the advertised role. You will be sent detailed instructions along with an invitation to take the test. Please make us aware if you require any reasonable adjustments in order to participate in the test.

A technical test is a great opportunity for you to show us your technical capability in a structured and transparent way. We have an assortment of tests to assess different skills depending on the role.

We score the solutions based on multiple factors. Even though the test cases might pass (which we expect junior developers to achieve as well, if given the same task), we consider the quality of code as well.
 
If you complete the test, meeting our expectations at this level, you will be invited to a video interview in the following few weeks.

Interview Stage

Candidates reaching the required standard will then be invited to attend a final interview. The interview will assess your Technical Skills (SFIA Framework) and experience using technical and experience-based questions.

Regrettably, candidates who fail to complete the test and those candidates not reaching the required standard should note that their applications will not be progressed further.

Sift and interview dates

Sift will be conducted week commencing Monday 12th January 2024

Interviews will be held week commencing Monday 4th 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.

Note For 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.

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.

A location-based reserve list of successful candidates will be kept for 12 months. Should another role become available within that period you may be offered this position.  

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 behaviours and essential skills. 

UK residency and security requirements

• You need to have lived in the UK for the past 5 years. This is because this post requires the successful candidate to have Security Check (SC) clearance, and you need to have been a resident in the UK long enough for sufficient checks to take place. These checks will only take place after the job offer has been accepted. 
• Visa sponsorship - we are unable to sponsor any individuals via Skilled Worker Sponsorship/Tier 2 (General) work visas as we do not hold a UK Visa & Immigration (UKVI) Skilled Worker License. 

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.

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.