Senior Developer in London

We are looking for people who are passionate about Engineering to join our community led team in Shared Applications Service (SAS). You will work in agile multidisciplinary teams with over 200 engineers in a modern cloud environment using the latest technologies. Our purpose as a team is to bring technical understanding in-house for over 600 Home Office applications. You could be creating and maintaining some of the most critical public services in the United Kingdom and transforming how we use data and technology to improve these. We are responsible for designing, building and supporting solutions to help people prove their identity or apply for visas. You could also be working on critical IT systems that support policing and counter terrorism, which helps protect UK borders.

The Senior Developer is key for our product delivery, you will develop core components of our solutions and help select appropriate technologies. Your subject matter expertise will enable you to operate with greater levels of autonomy and decision making. You will work to our technical standards writing clean, secure code following a test-driven approach, ensuring the code is open as far as possible and can be re-used. The Senior Developer will be expected to mentor and lead other engineers in technical tasks, as well as support recruitment and assessment activities.

Tools and Technologies we use:

• Backend: Node.js, Python, APIs (REST/GraphQL)
• Frontend: React, JavaScript, Typescript, Angular
• Data: Mongodb, Redis
• DevOps: AWS, Kubernetes, Docker, Ansible, Terraform, CI/CD pipelines
• AI: Python, Github Copilot, OpenAI

Main Responsibilities:

• Delivering secure, reliable and scalable software, and supporting your team with technical tasks when needed.
• Evaluating and advising on design choices and ensuring that software is high quality and balances technical and business considerations.
• Defining and documenting test cases for new systems and maintaining live systems to ensure ongoing performance.
• Evolving new approaches/solutions with other professions through discoveries, maintaining a focus on development and deployment.
• Helping prioritise and direct technical tasks across your team, to balance new and live services.
• On occasions there may be a requirement to work out of hours, for which you will be paid an additional allowance.

Working Pattern:

This role is available on a full-time basis with the option of compressed hours working. This role is also suitable for part-time working hours, with a minimum requirement to work 3 days per week due to business requirements.

Essential Skills:

• Designing scalable, maintainable and secure software solutions, including modern JavaScript-based architectures for web applications and services.
• Developing high‑quality, testable code using JavaScript/TypeScript and modern frameworks, following agreed engineering standards and practices.
• Defining and implementing automated testing approaches (unit, integration, end‑to‑end) to ensure quality and reliability of JavaScript applications.
• Integrating and building services across front‑end and back‑end components, ensuring reliable deployment and interoperability in distributed systems.
• Managing and utilising application data effectively, ensuring appropriate handling and governance.
• Supporting live JavaScript-based services, diagnosing issues, improving performance, and maintaining stability in production environments.

Benefits:

• 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.
• 25 days annual leave on appointment, rising with service.
• 8 days of public holidays, plus 1 additional privilege day.

Selection process details:

This vacancy is using Success Profiles, and will assess your Experience and Technical skills. As part of the application process, you will be asked to complete a CV and 1000-word personal statement.

Security:

Successful candidates must undergo a basic (or equivalent) criminal record check. Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed.

Nationality requirements:

This job is broadly open to UK nationals, nationals of the Republic of Ireland, nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK, and nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein with settled or pre-settled status.