Senior Ruby Developer

Location: National*

Closing Date: 4^th August

Interviews: W/C 10^th August (subject to change)

Grade: G7

(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, Job share.

Contract Type: Permanent.

*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 a Senior Developers here at Justice Digital, Data and Science, to be part of our warm and collaborative Central Digital team.

This role aligns against Software Developer from the Government Digital and Data Framework

At Justice Digital, 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.

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.

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 Software Developer at the MoJ you will have technical and people responsibilities.

Technical:

• Securely designing, building and maintaining APIs, services and systems
• Working on pre-existing codebases
• Improving the resilience and stability of software
• Applying practices to enable continuous delivery

People:

• Developing and influencing people via line management duties, informal and formal coaching, and mentoring
• Supporting lead developers in building high performing teams
• Helping to build and maintain a diverse, inclusive culture across the development community, growing awareness, inclusivity, and balance

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.

Technologies:

We use a range of technologies and we’re looking for people who have experience of building web applications or back-end systems in an object-oriented language, and love learning new languages and frameworks.

Application Code: Ruby

CI/CD: Circle CI, GitHub Actions

Monitoring: Sentry

Containerization: Kubernetes, Docker

Cloud Infrastructure: AWS

Web Interfaces: GOV.UK and MoJ Design Systems

Front-End Development:

We value a deep understanding of web technologies, emphasizing semantic HTML, performant CSS, and JavaScript or TypeScript. Accessibility is a core consideration across all our services.

We’re happy to help you learn our tech stack once you’re part of our team, and do not require an exact match in your experience of languages. Check out GitHub for a closer look at the technologies we use, and a complete list of services that we build and maintain. We subscribe to the manifesto for agile software development.

Our community:

We currently have over 300 experienced developers who make up the engineering community across the MoJ. You will coach and mentor junior colleagues and take part in informal support networks with your peers. You will be encouraged to play an active role in the engineering community and culture.

We take the responsibility of supportive and effective line management very seriously. We will value the skills you bring to the civil service and help you to build on them. When the time is right, we will support moving between teams or government departments to learn different technologies, or take on more responsibility, according to your career goals.

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

• Proven experience of delivering large and complex software solutions
• Demonstrate proven experience of working in a modern object-oriented language and be confident learning new languages
• Apply modern development and deployment techniques to your work, including continuous integration and continuous delivery
• Champion 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
• Solve problems in a systematic 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 National: £58,511 to £65,329. London: £63,343 to £70,725.

• 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 being scored as part of the sift stage.
• 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 3 criteria listed below, using a separate paragraph for each.

• Proven experience of delivering large and complex software solutions (250 words)
• Apply modern development and deployment techniques to your work, including continuous integration and continuous delivery (250 words)
• Champion software maintenance, clean code, coding standards and practices that make change and consistency easier (250 words)

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 the following criteria will be conducted before the sift -

• Proven experience of delivering large and complex software solutions.
• Apply modern development and deployment techniques to your work, including continuous integration and continuous delivery.

At the sift stage, the following essential criteria are being assessed -

• Proven experience of delivering large and complex software solutions.
• Apply modern development and deployment techniques to your work, including continuous integration and continuous delivery.
• Champion software maintenance, clean code, coding standards and practices that make change and consistency easier.

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

• Changing and Improving

• Developing Self and Others

• Making Effective Decisions

Candidates invited an interview will receive a short technical task to complete prior to attending. Further details around this task will be shared upon the conclusion of the sift stage.

Appointments are made strictly in merit order. In the event that two or more candidates receive identical interview scores, the ‘Proven experience of delivering large and complex software solutions’ 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.

We have mid-level Ruby Developer positions becoming available in the near future which we may offer to candidates from the merit or near miss lists from this campaign.

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