37898 - Senior Developer
We welcome and encourage applications from everyone, including groups currently underrepresented in our workforce and pride ourselves as being an employer of choice. To find out more about how we champion diversity and inclusion in the workplace, visit: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ministry-of-justice/about/equality-and-diversity
Job Title: Senior Developer
Salary: £58,130 - £78,448
Contract type: Permanent
Grade: MoJ Band Ab
Number of open roles: 1
Location: London (currently working remotely)
Hours: 37
Working pattern: Full time
Closing date for applications: 21st October 2020
Interviews: From 2nd November 2020
Introduction
The Cloud Platform Team
The Cloud Platform team, part of the Ministry of Justice’s Digital and Technology group, is looking for a Senior Software Developer who wants to make a difference by working on public services that really matter.
The MoJ’s Cloud Platform is transforming the ability for the department to deliver digital services, by providing hosting services with ops tools and best practices embedded. The value the team delivers is multiplied across over a hundred services that make the justice system better for users. We use modern best practices like DevOps, agile and GitOps, use cloud native architectures, work in the open and prefer modern open source tools.
For more information on the MoJ Cloud Platform, see About the Cloud Platform, our User Guide, Runbooks, Github Repositories and backlog.
Our Community
We have over a hundred developers around the UK in the various agencies of the MoJ, with thriving communities and opportunities for cross-team support. Take a look at our developer blog and read about one of our developers talking about her experiences joining during lockdown.
The Role
You will be a member of the Cloud Platform team, a multidisciplinary team operating and maintaining the Cloud Platform (think Heroku for the Ministry of Justice).
Key Responsibilities
● Apply your software development skills to develop the Cloud Platform by
● creating and maintaining new tools for operating the platform
● automating processes
● writing software that combines existing tools to create new capabilities
● contribute code back to the open source community, particularly around Kubernetes
● Apply your skills and knowledge to plan our roadmap, and improve our processes and tooling, both for the Cloud Platform team, and for our users (other software development teams in the MoJ)
● Occasionally participate in 2nd line support during office hours, and sometimes out of hours
● Mentor, coach and develop less experienced devops engineers on the team. The senior developer role is as much about leadership as it is delivery.
● Provide technical guidance and support to users of the cloud platform
● Participate in the wider MoJ developer community
● Help with hiring, taking part in the recruitment of other developers
Capabilities
You may be fit for this role if you:
● have or want to acquire "DevOps" skills and experience
● have extensive experience coding in at least one of Ruby and Go (and a willingness to learn the other, if you only know one of them)
● have some experience with other programming languages
● are looking for new technical and leadership challenges
● thrive when you work as part of a team
● enjoy learning and helping others
● hold yourself and others to a high standard
● solve problems in a systematic way
You’ll value:
● continuous learning and development, and building the capability of the wider team
● being inclusive, supportive, inquisitive and responsible (MoJ D&T core values)
● working with integrity, honesty, objectivity and impartiality (Civil Service core values)
To learn more about what senior developers do in government please review the DDaT Capability Framework:
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/software-developer#senior-developer
We use:
● Ruby and Go
● Kubernetes, Docker, EKS, Kops
● AWS for most of our infrastructure
● Terraform for infrastructure provisioning
● Mac laptops
● ...plus many other tools (details in our architecture diagram)
We’re happy to help you learn our tech stack once you’re part of our team. Check out GitHub for a closer look at the technology we use. We subscribe to the manifesto for agile software development.
In the Civil Service, we use Success Profiles, a flexible framework, to assess candidates against a range of elements using a variety of selection methods, therefore giving you the opportunity to demonstrate the various elements required to be successful in the role.
At the interview we will be assessing your technical/specialist skills and experience, testing your ability through relevant assessments and asking you questions around the behaviours we require to be successful in this role. The behaviours we assess are:
● Leadership
● Communicating and influencing
● Working together
● Developing self and others
● Making effective decisions
● Delivering at pace
● Seeing the big picture
● Changing and improving
● Managing a quality service
Throughout the process we will assess your technical specialist skills and experience on the above requirements.
We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, colour, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status or disability status.
Selection process details
Candidates must submit:
● a current and relevant CV;
● a Cover letter (1 page max) setting out why you are interested in the role and how you meet the essential skills and experience required.
The job advert lists the essential, specialist skills and experience as well as key Civil Service competencies required for the role.
At the CV review/sift stage we will use the technical/specialist skills and experience to determine your suitability for the role.
At the Interview the panel will ask you open-ended questions to which they are seeking answers/evidence of essential, previous skills, experience and behaviours in order to guide their hiring decision.
Note: due to the volume of applications we receive we are unable to provide feedback after the CV review (sift) stage.
Salary and working arrangements
If successful, the salary we offer you will be within the advertised range and will depend on the skills and experience you demonstrate at the interview. Therefore in your cover letter it would be helpful to the hiring teams if you can indicate your salary expectations and if possible your notice period.
Benefits:
● A generous pension scheme on average of up to 22%
● 25 days leave, plus bank holidays, plus 1 privilege day usually taken around the Queens’ birthday
● 1 additional day of leave for every year you work, up to a maximum of 5 extra days
● Flexible working - whether it’s working from home or remotely, working part-time, job sharing, or working compressed hours, we have people doing it and are happy to discuss options with you
● Access to training and development through Civil Service Learning, GDS Academy and Pluralsight
● Great maternity, adoption, and shared parental leave, with up to 26 weeks leave at full pay, 13 weeks with partial pay, and 13 weeks further leave. And maternity support/paternity leave at full pay for 2 weeks, too!
● Bike loans and secure bike parking (subject to availability and location)
● Season ticket loans, childcare vouchers, and eye-care vouchers.
● Some offices may have a subsidised onsite Gym.
● Upto 5 days paid leave for voluntary work you may wish to undertake
Things you need to know
Security and Immigration checks
Successful candidates must pass a disclosure and barring security check.
Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check.
Candidates will be subject to UK immigration requirements as well as Civil Service nationality rules.
If you're applying for a role requiring security clearance please be aware that foreign or dual nationality is not an automatic bar. However certain posts may have restrictions which could affect those who do not have sole British nationality or who have personal connections with certain countries outside the UK.
Nationality requirements
Open to UK, Commonwealth and European Economic Area (EEA) and certain non EEA nationals. Further information on whether you are able to apply is available here.
Eligibility
Candidates in their probationary period are not eligible to apply for vacancies within this department.
Working for the Civil Service
The Civil Service Code sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.
We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles.
The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equality of opportunity. There is a guaranteed interview scheme (GIS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.
Contact point for applicants- for further information regarding this role please contact MoJ D&T Recruitment.
Further information
All Civil Servants will adhere to the 'Civil Service code’, which outlines the Civil Service's core values, and the standards of behaviour expected of all civil servants in upholding these values.
Note for current Civil Servants: If successful, the salary offered would normally be determined by applying the MoJ salary progression rules. If the appointment is on level transfer your substantive salary (excluding any allowances) will remain unchanged, unless it exceeds the maximum stated within the MoJ pay band, and unless your current salary is below the relevant MoJ grade minimum. If the appointment is on temporary or substantive promotion the salary will be increased by the appropriate promotion percentage or moved to the minimum of the relevant MoJ grade minimum, whichever is the greater.
Note for non Civil servant applicants: This post is open to UK Nationals, Commonwealth Citizens, EEA Nationals of other member states and certain non-EEA family members. There must be no employment restrictions or time limit on your permitted stay in the UK. You should normally have been resident in the United Kingdom for at least 3 years and in some cases 5 or even 10 years preceding your application due to the requirement to have a checkable history for security vetting purposes. If you answer 'No' to the questions regarding nationality then it is unlikely your application will be pursued. If you are unsure as to your eligibility on any of these points, please contact the recruitment team for clarification or advice.
23/10/2020, 23:55 hours.
To apply for roles in MOJ you will need to confirm your employment history for at least 3 years prior to the date of application so that pre-employment checks (BPSS) can be undertaken. If you have spent significant time abroad (a total of 6 months in the past 3 years) you would be required to give a reasonable account of the reasons why.
For some roles you will be required to successfully complete National Security Vetting at Counter Terrorism (CTC), Security Clearance (SC) or Developed Vetting (DV) level as a condition of appointment. To meet CTC/SC/DV requirements you will normally need to have been resident in the UK for at least 3/5/10 years prior to the date of application (The level of checks that are required are stated in the advert).
If you do not meet the above requirements, you may still be considered if, for example:
- You've been serving overseas with HM Forces or in some other official capacity as a representative of HM Government
- You were studying abroad
- You were living overseas with parents
In such cases you will need to be able to provide referee cover for the period(s) of residence overseas. The duration of overseas residence and the country of abode will also be taken into account.
Success Profiles will enable a fairer and more inclusive method of recruitment by enabling us to assess the range of experiences, abilities, strengths, behaviours and technical/professional skills required for different roles. This flexible approach to recruitment focuses more on finding the right candidate for the specific role. To find out more about Success Profiles to support your application please click here for further guidance.
We have provided detail of the assessment stages and areas being assessed to help you prepare for completing your application form, and to advise of what will be assessed following this, if you successfully pass the application stage.
Application form stage assessments
Interview stage assessments
A Great Place to Work for Veterans
The "Making the Civil Service a Great Place to work for veterans" initiative includes a guaranteed interview scheme to those who meet the minimum criteria to provide eligible former members of the Armed Forces with opportunities to secure rewarding jobs. Allowing veterans to continue to serve their country, and to bring highly skilled individuals with a broad range of experience into the Civil Service in an environment, which recognises and values your previous service in the Armed Forces.
For further details about the initiative and eligibility requirements visit : https://www.gov.uk/government/news/making-the-civil-service-a-great-place-to-work-for-veterans
Redeployment Interview Scheme
Civil Service departments are expected to explore redeployment opportunities before making an individual redundant. The MoJ are committed, as part of the Redeployment Interview Scheme, to providing opportunities to those who are 'at risk of redundancy'.
MoJ are able to offer an interview to eligible candidates who meet the minimum selection criteria, except in a limited number of campaigns. Candidate's will not be eligible for the Redeployment Interview Scheme if they are applying on promotion.
https://app.jobvite.com/j?cj=oeWFdfwM&s=Civil_Service_jobs
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This job is broadly open to the following groups:
· UK nationals
· nationals of the Republic of Ireland
· nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
· nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window) https://www.gov.uk/settled-status-eu-citizens-families
· nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
· individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
· Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service
Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window) https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/nationality-rules
This Vacancy is closed to applications.