Software Engineer Ref. 3685 in London

Salary London: £66,332 - £70,791. Manchester: £64,005 - 68,185 (depending on skills and experience). The role includes a possibility for additional allowances and a skills-related payment under the Government Digital and Data Profession Capability Framework (GDDPCF). London roles are 36 hours per week, Manchester roles are 37 hours per week.

Flexible Working We support full-time, part-time, compressed hours and other flexible working patterns. This role is primarily office based, and opportunities for home or remote working are limited and dependent on business needs.

About us MI5 keeps the country safe from serious threats such as terrorism and attempts by states to harm the UK, its people and way of life. We carry out investigations by obtaining, analysing and assessing intelligence, working with partners such as MI6 and GCHQ to disrupt threats. Through our protective security arm, we advise government, businesses and other organisations how to keep themselves safe. A role in MI5 means you will do unique and challenging work in a supportive and encouraging environment to make a real difference to UK national security.

The role Technology sits at the heart of everything we do at MI5. We are looking for software engineers with multiple years of experience to take on a senior role within a multidisciplinary product team. You will develop solutions, mentor less experienced colleagues and work alongside Product Owners, Business Analysts, Delivery Managers, Data Scientists and Machine Learning Engineers to build and run secure applications and products. You will use agile methodologies to deliver core products and will work with cloud technologies such as AWS and Azure, as well as on‑premises platforms and legacy frameworks.

Responsibilities:

• Develop and maintain secure, scalable applications and products.
• Mentor and support less experienced engineers, promoting best practices and participation in our engineering community and guilds.
• Deliver new features throughout the engineering lifecycle, supporting product owners and users to identify and fix defects and participating in on‑call support when necessary.
• Develop automated tests and maintain continuous integration pipelines.
• Work within the Government Digital and Data Profession Capability Framework, building solutions for data analysis, compliance services, or developer tooling.

Our tech stacks vary across products, including Java, Python, C#, React.js, Oracle, Mongo, Elastic Search and Hadoop. We embrace a DevSecOps mindset and automate, run and support what we build.

About you

Qualifications and attributes:

• Proficiency in enterprise or commercial software development in at least one common language (Java, C#, Python, or JavaScript).
• Familiarity with modern standard practices such as continuous integration, delivery, test‑driven development and cloud services.
• Evidence of using agile methodology and understanding of design patterns with security in mind.
• Strong communication skills to engage technical and non‑technical colleagues.
• Demonstrated leadership capability, continuously seeking opportunities to learn and develop new engineering practices and approaches.

Training and development We commit to supporting your growth using the GDDPCF as a compass to provide guidance and tools. You will have opportunities to gain qualifications and pursue specialist pathways, and to undertake tailored training, coaching and mentoring. Teams also allocate up to 20% innovation and personal development time. As you develop and maintain technical skills, you will progress through GDDPCF pay points, demonstrating and accrediting your skills against the framework. If you no longer maintain the required skills, you will receive support to rectify the gap or risk reverting to a lower capability level and pay.

Rewards and benefits In addition to the salary ranges above, benefits include:

• 25 days annual leave, automatically rising to 30 days after 5 years of service, plus an additional 10.5 days of public and privilege holidays.
• Opportunities to be recognised through our employee performance scheme.
• Dedicated development budget.
• Interest‑free season ticket loan.
• Excellent pension scheme.
• Cycle‑to‑work scheme.
• Facilities such as a gym, restaurant and on‑site coffee bars (at some locations).
• Paid parental and adoption leave.

Equal opportunities At MI5 diversity and inclusion are critical to our mission. We welcome and encourage applications from everyone, including those from under‑represented groups such as women, ethnic minorities, people with disabilities and those from low socioeconomic backgrounds. We’re Disability Confident MI5 has achieved Leader status within the Department for Work and Pensions’ Disability Confident scheme. We aim to ensure a fair and proportionate number of disabled applicants meet the essential criteria and are offered an interview where practical.

Eligibility and security You must be a British citizen or hold dual British nationality. This role requires the highest security clearance, known as Developed Vetting (DV). We have a strict drug policy; once an application starts, recreational drug use is prohibited and prior drug usage must be declared at the relevant stage.