Lead Java Engineer

Salary: £62,109 (National) or £66,229 (Croydon) plus skills allowance of up to £18,291 pending assessment.

Location: Croydon, Manchester or Sheffield on a hybrid basis.

Advert Close: 11:55 pm Thursday 14th May 2026.

Please note that this role requires Security Check (SC) clearance, which would normally need 5 years’ UK residency in the past 5 years.

What you'll bring to the role

There are 3 roles available. One will be within a team developing Critical National Infrastructure in the policing domain as a replacement for a legacy IT system. The other two opportunities will have a similar scope, sitting within Migration and Borders Portfolio. One of the teams develop Critical National Infrastructure and the other team work on advanced scanning platforms with growing focus on integration of AI-driven features.

The Lead Engineer will drive the technical delivery of their team, managing their workload and ensuring the right skills are available. You will be responsible for the work undertaken by your Developers and DevOps staff and will be expected to work with Seniors and Principals to ensure that services produced are best practice. You should have a solid technical background and will be able to apply these skills if required to provide guidance to your team. You will also maintain a broad perspective, monitoring technology developments such that you can support strategy formation.

Along with the other Senior, Lead and Principal Engineers in your area you will be responsible for ensuring that all technical approaches being used are appropriate and endorsed, and will take part in planning with senior stakeholders to make sure that product delivery and maintenance is on a firm basis. Your remit may be across the engineering function but working closely with Architects and other professions.

Tools and Technologies we use:

We would particularly welcome applications from candidates with strong experience in:

• AI: Github Copilot, OpenAI, Claude Code

As a Lead Java Engineer, you’ll have demonstrable experience in:

• Managing multiple delivery focused teams with competing priorities and timelines, ensuring adherence to standards within the team.
• Working with senior stakeholders to provide operational support to the portfolio in pursuit of challenging ministerial and legislative deadlines.
• Providing technical expertise and best practice across cloud management, FinOps, and end‑to‑end CI/CD processes, with the capability to interpret complex system designs and communicate them effectively to both technical and non‑technical audiences.
• Creating, executing, and delivering detailed roadmaps that include appropriate quality management and business capacity to ensure successful outcomes.
• Mentoring colleagues in developing skills and capabilities in line with strategy, team, and personal goals.

What's in it for you?

• A civil service pension with employer contribution rates of at least 28.97%.
• In‑year reward scheme for one‑off or sustained exceptional personal or team achievements.
• The ability to potentially adopt flexible working options that suit your work/life balance, plus the opportunity in future to take a career break.
• 25 days annual leave on appointment, rising with service.
• Eight days public holidays, plus one additional privilege day.
• 26 weeks maternity, adoption or shared parental leave at full pay, followed by 13 weeks statutory pay and a further 13 weeks unpaid, after qualifying service.
• Maternity and adoption support leave (also known as paternity leave) of two weeks full pay, after qualifying service.
• Paid leave for fostering approval processes, support when a child is substantively placed with you plus a foster to adopt policy.
• Support for guardians and kinship carers.
• Corporate membership of ‘Employers for Carers’ providing additional information and advice for carers, plus a ‘Carer’s Passport’ to discuss workplace needs and underpin supportive conversations.
• Time off to deal with emergencies and certain other unplanned special circumstances.