Job Description
Senior Developer
Location: National*
Closing Date: 3rd July 2026
Interviews: w/c 20th July 2026
Grade: Grade 7
(MoJ candidates who are on a specialist grade, will be able to retain this grade on lateral transfer)
Salary**: London: £63,343 – £73,875 (which may include an allowance up to £10,532)
National: £58,511 – £69,150 (which may include an allowance up to £10,639)
Working pattern: Full-time, Part-time, Flexible working
Contract Type: Permanent
Number of vacancies: 5
Vacancy number: 19010
*We offer a hybrid working model, allowing for a balance between remote work and time spent in your local office. Office locations can be found ON THIS MAP
Please note that unless you are an existing member of staff at Justice Digital, Data and Science, the only London location being recruited to is 10 South Colonnade, E14 4PU. We are no longer recruiting to 102 Petty France, SW1H 9AJ.
The Role
Please note this role requires you to pass Security Check clearance. Please click on the link for details.
We’re recruiting for Senior Developer here at Justice Digital, Data and Science to be part of our warm and collaborative Legal Aid Agency (LAA) Digital team.
This role aligns against Senior Developer from the Government Digital and Data Framework
About Us: At Justice Digital, Data and Science, we're dedicated to leveraging technology to drive impactful change across the justice system. As a Senior Software Developer, you'll play a pivotal role in enhancing access to justice and improving outcomes for offenders through innovative digital solutions.
Responsibilities: You’ll collaborate closely with fellow developers on our diverse tech stack and embrace opportunities to learn new technologies and systems. For instance:
- Enabling transformation across LAA Digital by building shared data services that provide secure, high-quality data and reduce duplication.
- Improving access to justice by developing a platform that helps people understand whether they are eligible for legal aid quickly and clearly
- Supporting legal aid providers by developing intuitive digital services to apply for criminal legal aid, reducing manual effort and improving the speed and accuracy of submissions.
- Safeguarding sensitive information by building services that securely receive and manage upstream data from other government departments
Collaboration: You’ll collaborate closely with user researchers, product managers, designers, delivery managers, technical architects, and content specialists who share our vision of leveraging technology to transform government services.
Our Tech Stack
Technologies: We use a diverse range of technologies, and we’re seeking individuals who specialise in one or more and are eager to learn new languages and frameworks. Our tech stack includes:
- Application Code: Java, Python, Ruby or TypeScript
- CI/CD: GitHub Actions
- Monitoring: Sentry
- Containerization: Kubernetes, Docker
- Cloud Infrastructure: AWS
- Web Interfaces: GOV.UK and MoJ Design Systems
You’ll be supported to learn the languages and frameworks used by your team, with opportunities to move between teams and develop your skills across different technologies over time. We’ll take your preferences into account wherever possible while balancing these with the needs of the organisation and the services we deliver to users.
Front-End Development: We value a deep understanding of web technologies, emphasising semantic HTML, performant CSS, and JavaScript or TypeScript. Accessibility is a core consideration across all our services.
Learning and Support: Once part of our team, we'll support you in mastering our tech stack, regardless of your current experience. Explore our GitHub for insights into our technologies and the services we develop and maintain.
Our Community: Join over 400 experienced developers who form our vibrant engineering community across the MoJ. You’ll have opportunities to mentor colleagues and participate in informal support networks with peers. We encourage active engagement in shaping our engineering culture and community.
Career Development: We take pride in our supportive and effective line management. Your skills are highly valued, and we’re committed to helping you expand them within the civil service. You'll have opportunities to move between teams or departments, explore new technologies, and take on increased responsibilities aligned with your career goals.
Explore Further: Dive deeper into our work and culture by visiting our Justice Digital Blog.
You’ll receive a range of excellent benefits when you join our department, including:
- A generous employer pension contribution of 28.97% through the Civil Service Pension Scheme.
- 25 days of annual leave, (increasing to 30 days once you have reached 5 years of service), plus 8 bank holidays and a privilege day for the King’s birthday.
- Flexible working arrangements including hybrid working, working part time or compressed hours. Designed to support a positive work–life balance.
- Employees are allocated 10% of their working time for personal and professional development.
- A £1k per person learning budget is in place to support all our people, with access to best-in-class conferences and seminars, accreditation with professional bodies, fully funded vocational programmes and e-learning platforms.
- Compassionate maternity, adoption, and shared parental leave policies, 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!
You can find more details of the Benefits we offer here. To help picture your life at MoJ Justice Digital, Data and Science please take a look at our blog.
Key Responsibilities:
- Technical
- Securely design, build, test and maintain platforms and services.
- Contribute to and enhance existing codebases.
- Improve the resilience and stability of software through best practices.
- Apply methodologies to facilitate continuous delivery.
- People
- Develop and mentor team members through line management responsibilities, both formally and informally.
- Support lead developers in cultivating high-performing teams.
- Foster a diverse, inclusive culture within the development community, promoting awareness and inclusivity.
If this feels like an exciting challenge, something you are enthusiastic about, and want to join our team please read on and apply!
Person Specification
Essential
- Demonstrate proven experience of delivering large and complex software solutions.
- Demonstrate proven experience working in a modern back-end language (e.g. Java, Python, Ruby, Golang, .NET) and be confident learning new languages.
- Apply modern development and deployment techniques to your work, including continuous integration and continuous delivery.
- Support a culture of software maintenance, clean code, coding standards and practices that make change and consistency easier.
- Write automated tests to continuously validate your work.
- Thrive when you work as part of a team that abides by the spirit of the manifesto of agile software development.
- Enjoy sharing knowledge and working in a multi-disciplinary team.
- Hold yourself and others to a high standard.
- Solve problems in a systematic and innovative way.
Willingness to be assessed against the requirements for SC clearance
We welcome the unique contribution diverse applicants bring and do not discriminate based on culture, ethnicity, race, nationality or national origin, age, sex, gender identity or expression, religion or belief, disability status, sexual orientation, educational or social background or any other factor.
Our values are Purpose, Humanity, Openness and Together. Find out more here about how we celebrate diversity and an inclusive culture in our workplace.
The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the Civil Service People Plan and the Civil Service D&I Strategy.
Salary Information**
Base salary for this role is from £63,343 – £70,725 (London) and £58,511 – £65,329 (National).
- New entrants to the Civil Service joining the MoJ are expected to start at the minimum of the pay band.
- Existing Civil Servants moving on a level transfer will retain their current base salary or move to the minimum of the pay band for the role, whichever is higher.
- Existing Civil Servants who are promoted will either move to the bottom of the new grade’s pay band or receive a 10% uplift, whichever provides the greater increase.
- Candidates may also be eligible for a non‑pensionable Government Digital & Data Allowance of up to £10,532 per year (London) or £10,639 (National). This is a temporary allowance, reviewed annually and may be retained, amended, or withdrawn.
The final offer will reflect the skills and experience you demonstrate during the assessment process.
How to Apply
In Justice Digital, Data and Science, we recruit using a combination of the Government Digital and Data Profession Capability and Success Profiles Frameworks. We shall assess a combination of your Experience, Technical skills and Behaviours during the assessment process.
Stage 1 - Application and sift:
To apply for this position, you must submit the following as part of your application:
- A CV detailing your career history (including any relevant qualifications). Your CV will be assessed against the essential criteria outlined within the Person Specification of this advert.
- A Personal Statement (no more than 750 words) which should outline your experience and skills, giving clear examples of work undertaken. It should specifically address the following 4 criteria listed below, using a separate paragraph for each.
- Demonstrate proven experience of delivering large and complex software solutions
- Demonstrate proven experience working in at least one backend language and be confident learning new languages
- Apply modern development and deployment techniques to your work, including continuous integration and continuous delivery
- Enjoy sharing knowledge and working in a multi-disciplinary team
Candidates who do not adhere to the Personal Statement directions above may be rejected on this basis.
A diverse sift panel will review the information in your CV and Personal Statement to assess the sift criteria specified above. We operate an anonymous shortlisting process. Please ensure your CV and Personal Statement do not include your name or any other identifying details.
Should we receive a high volume of applications, a pre-sift based on “Demonstrate proven experience working in at least one backend language and be confident learning new languages” will be conducted before the sift.
Please access the following link for guidance on how to apply - Application Guidance
Stage 2 - Interviews:
Successful candidates who meet the required standard will then be invited to a panel interview held via Microsoft Teams. At interview stage, you will be assessed against the following Success Profile elements - Experience, Technical and the following Behaviours:
- Working Together
- Communicating and Influencing
- Developing Self and Others
- Making Effective Decisions
As part of your interview, you will be asked to take part in a short exercise that assesses your technical experience against the following criteria:
“Demonstrate proven experience of delivering large and complex software solutions.”
Further details will be provided if successful at sift.
Appointments are made strictly in merit order. In the event that two or more candidates receive identical interview scores, “Working Together” will be applied as the primary lead criterion to determine the final merit order.
Should you be unsuccessful in the role that you have applied for but demonstrate the capability for a role at a lower level, we reserve the right to discuss this opportunity with you and offer you the position without needing a further application.
A reserve list may be held for up to 12 months, from which further appointments may be made.
Use of Artificial Intelligence
Artificial Intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.
Terms & Conditions
Please review our Terms and Conditions which set out how we recruit and provide further information related to the role and salary arrangements.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact digitalanddatarecruitment@justice.gov.uk
