Job summary

We are looking for people who are passionate about Engineering to join our community led team in Shared Applications Service (SAS). You will work in agile multidisciplinary teams with over 200 engineers in a modern cloud environment using the latest technologies. Our purpose as a team is to bring technical understanding in-house for over 600 Home Office applications.

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 raise any queries to the email address at the bottom of the advert.

Watch this short video to hear from members of Home Office Digital talking about the projects they work on and their experience of working here: Working for Home Office Digital.

Job description

The Developer works on software components that form part of a product. You will be involved in designing, running and improving software that meets user needs. You will typically work under the guidance of senior colleagues in your team. You will work to our technical standards writing clean, secure code following a test-driven approach, ensuring the code is open as far as possible and can be re-used.

Tools and Technologies we use:

We are keen for Engineers to continue learning new technologies, we have a large range in the Home Office including:

• Backend: Node.js, Python
• Frontend: React, JavaScript, Typescript,
• Data: Elasticsearch, Mongodb, Neo4j
• DevOps: AWS, Kubernetes, Docker
• AI: Github Copilot

Person specification

Working Pattern

This role is available on a full-time basis with the option of compressed hours working.  This role is also suitable for part-time working hours, with a minimum requirement to work 3 days per week due to business requirements.

Main responsibilities

Your main day to day responsibilities will be:

• Delivering secure, reliable and scalable software in your team; undertaking a breadth of development tasks.
• Designing new software using appropriate tools and in line with standards, proving designs through prototyping.
• Reporting on system performance and supporting test activities; keeping documentation up to date.
• Supporting services you have delivered through regular maintenance activities, balancing your work with your leadership.
• Working with other engineers to deliver new capability, for instance improved CI/CD pipelines or test approaches.

All our engineers will be expected to embody an open and positive approach, supporting the Home Office in:

• Progressing the Home Office Government Digital and Data Profession, understanding all roles and helping to build our community.
• Working and assessing to appropriate standards: for instance, accessibility, the GDS service standard and our own community practices.
• Improving our skills and approaches as well as keeping up to speed with the technology landscape

Essential skills

You’ll have a demonstrable passion for software development, with the following skills or proven experience in:

• Developing scalable, maintainable code using modern programming languages and frameworks (PROG)
• Applying software design principles and patterns to deliver robust solutions (SWDN)
• Testing software using unit, integration, and/or BDD/TDD practices to ensure quality and reliability (TEST)
• Troubleshooting and debugging issues across development and production environments (ASUP)
• Using version control systems (e.g. Git) and CI/CD pipelines to manage and deliver code efficiently (SINT)
• Managingand manipulating data effectively within applications and data stores (DATM)

SFIA capability framework

Skills for the Information Age (SFIA) is the technical framework that sets the standard capability and development of all levels in the Home Office. This is a link to the capability framework:  All skills A – Z English (sfia-online.org).

We use set SFIA technical skills to form our interview questions and we will assess you against these technical skills during the selection process.

The essential skills listed above are reflective of the Home Office Government Digital and Data Profession Career Framework (based on the industry standard SFIA framework).  Use the SFIA levels of responsibility to understand what would be expected for each technical skills listed below.

Technical skills

We’ll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:

• Software design (SWDN) – Level 3
• Programming/software Development (PROG) – Level 3
• Testing (TEST) – Level 3
• Systems integration and build (SINT) – Level 3
• Data management (DATM) – Level 3
• Application support (ASUP) – Level 3