Developer

Government Digital Service; Greater London, Manchester, West of England; On-site; GBP 60,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

Government Digital Service (GDS) is recruiting mid-level Developers to join GOV.UK Pay, GOV.UK Notify, GOV.UK App and GOV.UK Mailbox teams, within the Products & Services group. You’ll work on digital services serving millions of users across the UK and collaborate with frontend developers, product managers, and researchers.

You’ll contribute to scalable, secure software and learn in a fast-paced government environment with opportunities to present at conferences and to use learning budgets for

Qualifications

• Experience in back-end development with Python, NodeJS or Java.
• Experience with cloud-based web applications or serverless architectures.
• Solid understanding of software design principles.
• Experience with automated testing, TDD, CI, pair programming, code review and version control.
• Knowledge of OWASP Top 10 and mitigations.
• Enjoy researching and learning new programming tools and techniques and sharing skills.

Responsibilities

• Work as part of a multi-disciplinary agile team to deliver code focusing on user needs.
• Write clean, secure code following test-driven approaches.
• Implement tools to support development and improve systems.
• Support live operation during office hours and respond to incidents.
• Participate in on-call duties with payment as applicable.
• Share work and learning through blog posts, talks, and conferences.

Skills

Backend development

Python

NodeJS

Java

Cloud-based apps

Serverless

Software design principles

Automated testing

Test-driven development

Continuous integration

Version control

Web security (OWASP Top 10)

Agile methods

Multi-disciplinary collaboration

Job description

Location - London , Manchester and Bristol

Job summary

The Government Digital Service (GDS) is the digital centre of government. We are responsible for setting, leading and delivering the vision for a modern digital government.

Our priorities are to drive a modern digital government, by:

• joining up public sector services
• harnessing the power of AI for the public good
• strengthening and extending our digital and data public infrastructure
• elevating leadership and investing in talent
• funding for outcomes and procuring for growth and innovation
• committing to transparency and driving accountability

We are home to the Incubator for Artificial Intelligence (I.AI), the world-leading GOV.UK and at the forefront of coordinating the UK’s geospatial strategy and activity. We lead the Government Digital and Data function and champion the work of digital teams across government.

We’re part of the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) and employ more than 1,000 people all over the UK, with hubs in Manchester, London and Bristol.

The Government Digital Service is where talent translates into impact. From your first day, you’ll be working with some of the world’s most highly-skilled digital professionals, all contributing their knowledge to make change on a national scale.

Join us for rewarding work that makes a difference across the UK. You'll solve some of the nation’s highest-priority digital challenges, helping millions of people access services they need.

Former DSIT recruitment campaigns are continuing as usual, but candidates should be aware that following the Government’s announcement on the changes to some civil service departments, roles will be subject to the machinery of government moves and will ultimately be in one of the new departments. We will provide more information if you are selected for a role. This work remains of high importance to the civil service, and we thank you for your continued interest.

Details on changes to the machinery of government

We are recruiting Mid-level Developers to join the GOV.UK Pay, GOV.UK App, Mailbox and GOV.UK Notify teams, all part of Products & Services within GDS.

GOV.UK Pay enables public sector organisations to take online and telephone card payments quickly and securely, while helping teams manage income, issue refunds and generate financial reports.

GOV.UK Notify makes it simple for public sector organisations to send emails, text messages and letters to users. Since launching in 2016, the service has grown rapidly and is now used by more than 1,700 organisations and 12,500 services. Notify supports a diverse range of use cases, including appointment confirmations and reminders, passport application updates, account security notifications, etc.

GOV.UK App has over 730,000 downloads and is the future place where citizens will interact with Government and its departments, all in your pocket!

GOV.UK Mailbox is a brand new service, creating a simpler, more convenient and more secure way for government to communicate with its citizens digitally.

As a Developer in Products & Services, you’ll:

• work as part of a multi-disciplinary agile team, collaborating with frontend developers, content designers, product managers and user researchers to ensure your code puts users first at all stages of development
• write clean, secure code following a test-driven approach
• implement tools to support development and continuous improvement of the systems you work on
• support the live operation of the services we run during office hours, answering support queries from users, monitoring error rates and responding to incidents
• participate in out-of-hours support rotas where necessary - you'll be paid an allowance, and a further hourly payment for any duties you perform when on call
• share your work and the things you’ve learned through blog posts and show and tells, with the option of presenting at conferences and meetups
• use your learning and development budget to develop your career

Person specification

We’re interested in people who:

• have experience in back-end development, ideally with knowledge of web development in Python, NodeJS or Java
• have experience working with cloud-based web applications or serverless applications with technologies such as databases, caching, CDNs, containerisation and Unix-like operating systems
• have thorough understanding of software design principles, and an ability to apply them
• have proven experience of modern software development approaches such as automated testing, test driven development, continuous integration, pair programming, code review and version control
• have understanding of common web security risks such as OWASP Top 10, and the corresponding mitigations
• enjoy researching and learning new programming tools and techniques and sharing their skills with others
• have experience working in a collaborative environment, and an understanding of the benefits of agile and multi-disciplinary approaches
• have a desire to use their skills and experience to make a genuine difference, and to work on important services that are relied upon by millions of people