Senior Data Engineer

Location: National*

Closing Date: 10/08/2026

Interviews: Rolling – from w/c 13^th July – w/c 31st Aug

Grade: SEO
(MoJ candidates who are on a specialist grade, will be able to retain this grade on lateral transfer)

Salary:
London: £49,325 - £53,081 (which may include an allowance of up to £7440)

National: £42,914 - £46,182 (which may include an allowance of up to £9424)

Working pattern: full-time, part-time, flexible working

Contract Type: Permanent

Vacancy number: 19568

Number of roles: 10

*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 Data Engineers here at the Justice Digital, Data and Science to be part of our warm and collaborative Data & Analytics Engineering team.

This role aligns against Senior Data Engineer from the Government Digital and Data Framework.

This is a great opportunity to work with leading cloud technology and help change the way data is used in the public sector. Data engineers at MoJ play a critical role in our mission to put data at the heart of decision-making. We're looking for people with the drive to develop a deep understanding of data needs and data availability across specific areas of the Ministry of Justice.

You will work in a team of Data Engineers, alongside Analytics Engineers, to bridge the gap between data producers and data users, developing analytical pipelines and self-service tools to acquire and transform data, making it available on our Analytical Platform. A summary of the type of work the teams are involved in can be found in our handbook.

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:

As a Senior Data Engineer your work might involve:

• designing and building robust and scalable automated data flows to connect operational systems, data for analytics and business intelligence (BI) systems
• recognising opportunities to reuse and re-engineer data flows to enable scaling and repeatable use
• designing and writing ETL (extract, transform, load) scripts and code to ensure the ETL process performs optimally
• working with data users to understand and translate their needs into technical requirements
• using a range of AWS services to deploy your solutions in a reproducible, sustainable manner
• using infrastructure-as-code to deploy AWS cloud infrastructure
• developing and optimising code, tools and services that enable people to use data effectively

You may also be expected to carry out the following day to day activities:

• designing and maintaining technical documentation
• creating and promoting best practices within the team and wider
• responding to incident reports, ensuring relevant prioritisation and detail to allow for effective investigation
• developing novel solutions to fit the needs of a range of stakeholders
• supporting the Ministry of Justice's Analytical Platform users to use our data and tools
• initiating team-building and development initiatives
• line managing a more junior colleague

We welcome applications from anyone with the skills we consider make a good data engineer. You may not currently be in a data engineering role and that's ok. Many of our team members have a background in analysis, software engineering, data science, and more.

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

• working in a technical team, preferably one that uses Python and SQL, as well as strong technical skills in these languages
• understanding of the software development lifecycle, including testing (e.g. pytest), version control (e.g. git) and CI/CD (e.g. GitHub Actions)
• working with a range of data sources
• working with data, such as data wrangling, analysis or manipulation
• communicating with stakeholders, and translating user needs into technical requirements

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 £42,914 - £46,182 (National) to £49,325 - £53,081 (London)

• 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 £9424 per year (National) or £7440 (London). 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

• an anonymised CV, setting out your career history, key responsibilities and achievements. 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 criteria listed below, using a separate paragraph for each.

• experience of working in a technical team, preferably one using Python and SQL, together with strong technical skills in both languages
• understanding of the software development lifecycle, including testing (e.g. pytest), version control (e.g. git) and CI/CD (e.g. GitHub Actions)
• working with data, such as data wrangling, analysis or manipulation
• communicating with stakeholders and translating user needs into technical requirements

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 working in a technical team, preferably one using Python and SQL, together with strong technical skills in both languages will be conducted before the sift.

If you do not provide a cover letter, we will not be able to consider your application.

Please access the following link for guidance on how to apply - Application Guidance

Stage 2 - Interviews:

Successful candidates who meet the required standard at sift will be invited to a 90-minute panel interview via Microsoft Teams. At interview stage, you will be assessed against the following Success Profile elements - Experience, Technical and the following Behaviours:

• Changing and Improving
• Managing a Quality Service

During the interview, you will complete a coding exercise (you will be required to share your screen), followed by a panel interview that includes a whiteboarding task, as well as technical and behavioural questions.

Appointments are made strictly in merit order. In the event that two or more candidates receive identical interview scores, working in a technical team, preferably one that uses Python and SQL, as well as strong technical skills in these languages 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.

Selection Process
This recruitment campaign will remain open until the stated closing date. All applications received by the closing date will be reviewed and assessed. We will be conducting a weekly sift of applications and will invite shortlisted candidates to interview, providing at least 7 days’ notice in advance. Following completion of the full assessment process, appointments will be made strictly in merit order.

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