Senior Developer | NHS England

Overview

NHS England is seeking experienced Senior Developers to join product teams across various areas of the organisation to play a key part in the delivery of critical services that have a national impact.

As a Senior Developer you will work on systems that improve healthcare for millions of people across the UK. These systems range from citizen facing web portals to internal back-end services and will typically feature complex application logic that requires robust, secure, quality-focussed development practices.

We have 2 roles available in Product and Platforms. Product and Platforms builds and operates citizen and clinician facing products, working closely with other business areas across the NHS. We enable a consistent approach to digital products, underpinning technology strategy, and digital transformation, supporting the best outcomes for health and care.

Our Central Engineering team in Products and Platforms builds and operates a set of products, tools, blueprints, and good practice guides to support Engineers, Developers, and Testers across Products and Platforms.

NHS login provides patients and the public with a simple, secure and re-usable way to access multiple digital health and care services. It is used by many of NHS England\’s own patient-facing digital services, such as the NHS App, and also by many of our partners\’ apps and services.

Technology

The main technologies we use in these teams are AWS and Python.

Responsibilities

• Develop software components across the front-end, back-end, and persistence layers
• Utilise appropriate design patterns to solve complex problems
• Implement robust development techniques such as unit, integration, and end-to-end testing
• Design and implement domain models, data schemas, and application architectures
• Design and implement user interfaces
• Create and present software designs
• Produce detailed technical documentation and runbooks
• Ensure seamless integration and deployment of code
• Play a central role in defining and refining product backlogs and estimating tasks
• Take part and leading team activities such as planning and retrospectives
• Contribute to cross-programme working groups
• Stay informed of emerging technologies and industry trends

Qualifications

• Development experience working on an application
• Experience working across different layers of the stack
• Implementing quality-focussed development practices
• Evidence using appropriate testing techniques
• Working within a team to deliver software in a collaborative way

About NHS England

Our work supports the NHS to deliver high quality services for patients and best value for taxpayers.

Our staff bring expertise across hundreds of specialisms — including clinical, operational, commissioning, technology, data science, cyber security, software engineering, education, and commercial — enabling us to design and deliver high-quality NHS services.

Leadership and aims

• Enabling local systems and providers to improve the health of their people and patients and reduce health inequalities
• Making the NHS a great place to work, where our people can make a difference and achieve their potential
• Working collaboratively to ensure our healthcare workforce has the right knowledge, skills, values and behaviours to deliver accessible, compassionate care
• Optimising the use of digital technology, research, and innovation
• Delivering value for money

Employment notes

Staff recruited from outside the NHS will usually be appointed at the bottom of the pay band.

If successful at interview, we will initiate an Inter Authority Transfer (IAT) via the Electronic Staff Record (ESR). This retrieves key data from your current or previous NHS employer to support onboarding, including competency status, Continuous Service Dates (CSD), and annual leave entitlement. You may opt out at any stage of the recruitment process.

Please note that the reason for the fixed term of this contract is – Short-term vacancy.

Earlier this year the Government announced that NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care will increasingly merge functions, ultimately leading to NHS England being fully integrated into the Department. The purpose of this change is to create a smaller, more strategic centre which will reduce duplication and eliminate waste.

You can find further details about the role, including key responsibilities and accountabilities, alongside the organisational structure and person specification in the attached Job Description and other supporting documents.

Secondments

Applicants from within the NHS will be offered on a secondment basis only, agreement should be obtained from their employer prior to submitting the application.

This advert closes on Tuesday 7 Oct 2025