User Experience Designer jobs in United Kingdom

This role at The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is available to people who served in the Armed Forces, OR be in your resettlement period and due to leave the Armed Forces within a reasonable time frame OR Military Spouse/Partner: Your current partner must still be serving OR was discharged within the last 12 months.

We want you to join us, learn new skills and bring your experience to our organisation. We believe that everyone has the potential to make a difference, and we want to ensure that all our staff are equipped with the knowledge and skills to do so. As part of your employment, you will have access to a range of learning and development, and a buddy who can help you to understand the Civil Service and enable you to make the most of the opportunities it offers.

Organisation
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP)

Job Title
Software Engineer

Job Grade
Executive Officer

Positions available
1

Salary
£32,137

Location
Sheffield or Manchester

Contract Length
18 Months

Hours
37 hours Monday-Friday

About the job

The Identity & Trust team is responsible for the creation & support of Citizen Identity & Access Management capabilities that manage user and system access to DWP digital services & data.

Our strategic goals are focussed on providing simple, inclusive & secure ways for DWP users to prove their Identity and access the help they need & ensure safe and secure access to customer data, protecting our users and the Department against fraud.

We build web front ends and supporting backends that have been used by millions of customers.

We work in an agile manner, utilising cutting edge technologies to deliver the best possible experience to our customers via gov.uk, in person and telephony channels.

Job description

As a Software Engineer joining us on the Going Forward into Employment program you’ll enjoy a great introduction to the design, development and maintenance of software that makes up our citizen services.

You’ll be mentored by engineers who will guide your learning and assignments. By the end of your program, you will:

• Be a productive member of multi-disciplinary software delivery team
• Be writing high quality code in a modern programming language (Java, JavaScript or TypeScript)
• Understand how an IT function operates at scale and gain exposure to agile team working, cloud infrastructure, architecture, governance and compliance.

Your Roles and Responsibilities will include:

• Delivering software components which form part of a wider service
• Understanding business requirements and how to turn that into code
• Writing automated tests to ensure that the code you have written works as you expected it to
• Contributing to technical documentation
• Identifying ways to optimise the current development process
• Contributing to community discussions about best practice within Software Engineering.

Essential Criteria

• Analytical and problem-solving skills
• A desire to understand how IT systems function from the servers to the browser
• Curiosity and a desire to learn and grow
• Communication skills
• Ability to work in a team (Team Player)

Desirable Skills Criteria

• These are desirable but not essential to the role A background in or qualifications in for a STEM role (Science, Engineering, Technology and Mathematics) would be beneficial but not essential. Aptitude is more important than experience for this role
• Interest in the role that the Department of Work Pensions performs

How to Apply:

To apply we will need:

• A completed Expression of Interest form - Please request from GFIE@cabinetoffice.gov.uk quoting GFIE- 457 (v,s&p)
• A copy of your CV
• Candidates who meet the GFIE criteria are guaranteed an informal conversation with DWP about their suitability for the role.

Informal interviews with candidates are expected to take place in October 2025 and it is hoped that successful candidates start in January following successful clearance security checks.

Closing Date: 8 October 2025