Junior Software Developer (Cross Cutting) - HM Courts and Tribunals Service - HEO

Manchester Digital; Greater London; On-site; GBP 35,000 - 38,000; Full time

Job summary

An agency of the Ministry of Justice is looking for a Junior Software Developer to support courts and tribunals in England and Wales. This role involves coding, testing, and collaborating within an agile team to innovate public services. Candidates should be familiar with structured data, relational databases, and have a good grasp of security concerns. The position offers opportunities for professional growth and a flexible working environment.

Benefits

Brilliant training opportunities

Flexible working

Inclusive culture

Qualifications

• Experience with coding, testing, and documentation.
• Ability to learn and develop skills.
• Commitment to industry best practices.

Responsibilities

• Design, code, test, and document programs under guidance.
• Support software maintenance, including live environments.
• Build secure products and identify risks.

Skills

Experience in structured data like XML and JSON

Knowledge of relational databases

Familiarity with cloud hosting and source control (Git)

Understanding of security mitigation

Ability to work in an agile team

Problem-solving skills

Tools

PostgreSQL

Docker

Kubernetes

Azure

Terraform

Job description

Junior Software Developer (Cross Cutting) - HM Courts and Tribunals Service - HEO

Full-time (Permanent) National £35,335 - £37,847 London £40,014 - £42,859
Published on 28 November 2025 Deadline 8 December 2025

Location

East Midlands (England), East of England, London (region), North East England, North West England, Scotland, South East England, South West England, Wales, West Midlands (England), Yorkshire and the Humber

Important salary details:

New recruits to the Civil Service joining MoJ are expected to join at the band minimum.

Existing Civil Servants applying on promotion, will usually be appointed on the salary minimum of the new pay band, or receive an increase of 10 percent on the current base salary, whichever is higher (This is restricted to the pay maximum of the new band).

GDD:

Government Digital and Data (GDD) Profession Capability Framework and Success Profiles Frameworks. Using GDD we will then determine if you will be paid an additional allowance, on top of your basic salary. This role is aligned to the Technical Job Family, Software Developer at Junior Developer level, but carries the title Junior Software Developer within DTS.

ReserveList:

HMCTS run a Reserve List, where candidates who are unsuccessful at interview by only a few points, can be offered other roles, at the same band, for up to 12 months. You will be able to view your status via the application screen. If you have been added to the Reserve List, your status will show either Merit or Reserve list.

Introduction:

These are exciting times at HM Court and Tribunals Service (HMCTS). As an agency of the MoJ, we support the judiciary across England and Wales to deliver justice by running courts and tribunals and processing outcomes, and we are looking for talented people to help us achieve our ambitions. It will be challenging, important and rewarding.

HMCTS Digital and Technology Services (DTS) is a specialist technology directorate which provides support to HMCTS in the use of IT and Digital.

DTS is committed to being a great place to work and part of our offer is brilliant training opportunities and support from expert colleagues. As well as that you’ll find flexible working, an inclusive culture and a place where your opinion is valued.

As a Junior Software Developer at HMCTS you will work with a wide range of stakeholders such as user researchers, product managers, designers, business analysts, delivery managers and digital architects, all of whom share a vision for making better government through smarter use of technology. You will innovate to radically transform public services for the better.

The development squad you are placed on will be agreed closer to your start date, but examples of products can be found in our GitHub repository: https://github.com/hmcts

• Kubernetes and Docker to run our services
• Azure for most of our infrastructure
• Terraformfor infrastructure as code
• Postgres and Redis as our databases.
• GOV.UK Design System for our web interfaces
• Macs to do all the above
• In addition, we use a range of other technologies and continue to evolve by employing new technologies that help us deliver better services to our users

Key Responsibilities:

• Design, code, test, correct and document simple programs or scripts under the direction of others.
• Constantly seek to learn and further develop your skills as required for your role.
• Adhere to industry best practices, produce well-engineered modern products.
• Use security controls to build secure products and engineer to mitigate security threats. Handle information with confidentiality and integrity, work with others to ensure compliance and information assurance. Contribute to identifying risks and threats.
• Support and maintain software as required, including in the live environment.
• Use modern tools to effectively package and deploy software and thoroughly identify and troubleshoot faults. Some activities may be outside the core office hours (in-line with the organisations policies).
• Contributeto planning by estimating your own effort. Practice the agreed methodology and apply it to your work, identifying obvious deficiencies and supporting activities to improve the development process.
• Translate logical designs into physical designs, produce simple designs that include well understood technology and appropriate patterns. Develop software to meet approved architectural artefacts. Identify, record and elevate tech debt and low-level risks.
• Build and test simple interfaces between systems, or work on more complex integration as part of a wider team.
• Share knowledge with developers and other coders (devOps, automation testers etc).
• Translate user stories to a proposed design and develop software to meet user needs.

Person Specification

We’re seeking ajunior developerwith the ability to develop and deploy high-quality code. The ideal candidate will have:

• Experience in working with structured data such as XML and JSON
• Working knowledge of at least one type of relational database e.g. PostgreSQL
• Working knowledge of some of the technologies and libraries used in an enterprise environment, such as logging and monitoring, cloud hosting, source control (Git) etc.
• An understanding of common security issues and how to mitigate them (OWASP top 10)
• You hold yourself and others to a high standard
• You care about making usable experiences, with a good understanding of front-end development concerns
• You thrive when you work as part of an agile team
• You solve problems in a systematic way
• You enjoy learning and helping others

If you meet a few of those criteria but think that you might not meet every last one then don’t let that stop you from submitting an application.