Senior Full Stack Software Engineer (GRIP)

The GRIP platform has a large user base, serving thousands of users across 250 public sector organisations. It is a full stack web application that helps government to manage and track its priorities and initiatives, and capture reporting on them, across all government departments, and for consumption by the most senior decision makers. The application has support and visibility at the very highest levels of the organisation. We also help to develop and maintain the government’s Evaluation Registry, which tracks planned and completed evaluations of government’s policies., We are looking for a full-stack developer to join our small software engineering team, building and managing this critical part of Government’s tooling. You will have the opportunity to have genuine impact on how Government manages its work and to contribute to its overall effectiveness., We are at an exciting stage, as we becoming an critical part of how government manages its most important areas of work. This will mean working on how the application scales, building new features, and maintaining a reliable, high quality service., You will work on both the front and back end of the application, mainly in Javascript, working with a range of AWS services. Our core stack includes React, Node.js, and Postgres, so you will need to be comfortable working with these. Other parts of our work are in Python, and experience of Python web frameworks, e.g. Django, would also be helpful. Each engineer is involved across the full range of responsibilities. Your work will therefore include managing our infrastructure and responding to any performance issues, building server functionality and new microservices, database management and schema changes, prototyping and building new front end features, and testing and deployment. There will also be opportunities to engage directly with users in a range of roles across government, and to help shape the overall direction of the product.

You can expect to have responsibility to:

• Build accessible and interactive interfaces, server functionality, and microservices, taking responsibility for the quality of your code.
• Decide and evolve how we structure and manage our data.
• Be a confident communicator, able to bridge the gap between the technical and non-technical team members to build the right product., We will assess applications against the Experience and Behaviours elements of the Civil Service Success Profiles:
• Behaviours - the actions and activities that people do which result in effective performance in a job:
• Experience - the knowledge or mastery of an activity or subject gained through involvement in or exposure to it.

As part of the application process you will be asked to complete a CV and personal statement. Further details around what this will entail are listed on the application form.

We will sift applications by considering your experience, career history and achievements, relevant to the job role, as described in your Personal Statement and CV. At this stage we will also consider how you have demonstrated the experience and technical skills you will need for the role.

Please provide a personal statement of no more than 500 words. It should explain how your knowledge, skills and experience (using examples) meet the requirements for this role in line with the Success Profile element(s) being assessed (e.g. Behaviours, Experience etc). Using the job advert information, particularly the job description and person specification. Information is available on the application process (including what Civil Service Success Profiles is) and how to write your personal statement.

Selection process

Candidates who pass the sift will be invited to complete a technical exercise and an interview.

For the technical exercise, you will be asked to take part in a pair programming exercise with two of our developers. You will be asked to write code in a language of your choice in order to carry out challenges similar to ones that you would be likely to encounter in the role.

During the pair programming exercise, you will be asked to talk through your thought process, cross reference previous experience and offer suggested solutions to the problems in exercise.

The successful candidate might not resolve all issues in the example, but the ability to communicate their thinking process, draw on relevant experience, and talk through any code that they write, will be necessary to a successful interview.

In the interview here we will ask a range of technical questions, and also ask you to provide examples of how you meet each of the assessed Behaviours:

• Managing a quality service (lead behaviour)
• Working together

We will ask follow up questions as appropriate.

The interview also provides an opportunity for you to ask any questions you may have regarding the role., A reserve list may be held for a period of 12 months from which further appointments can be made.

Any move to Cabinet Office from another employer will mean you can no longer access childcare vouchers. This includes moves between government departments. You may however be eligible for other government schemes, including Tax Free Childcare; for further information visit the Childcare Choices website.

Reasonable Adjustment

If a person with disabilities is put at a substantial disadvantage compared to a non-disabled person, we have a duty to make reasonable changes to our processes., Please note terms and conditions are attached. Please take time to read the document to determine how these may affect you. Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check. Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check .

See our vetting charter . People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks., * 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)
• 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

Do you have experience in macOS?, * Experience of front-end development, with detailed knowledge of HTML, CSS and JavaScript.

• Experience of technologies used for web applications, e.g HTTPS, JSON and CDNs, and of Unix-like operating systems, eg Linux and/or Mac OS.
• Experience of back-end data infrastructure, including SQL databases.
• Understanding of software design principles, including progressive enhancement.
• Experience in building robust and accessible interfaces that work for multiple users.
• An understanding of front-end web performance.
• Ability to quickly research and learn new programming tools and techniques.
• Experience of writing robust code using approaches such as TDD/BDD, unit testing, integration testing and feature testing
• Understanding of agile principles and working practices
• Experience of code reviewing workflows and version control.
• Experience of user-centred design principles and delivering to user needs.

Desirable Experience

• Deeper experience in any of our technology choices, or in web application security, * Managing a Quality Service
• Working Together

Technical skills

We'll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:

• Software engineering skills, in line with the person specification and job description., This vacancy is using Success Profiles , and will assess your Behaviours, Experience and Technical skills.

Alongside your salary of £57,204, Cabinet Office contributes £16,571 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

• Learning and development tailored to your role.
• An environment with flexible working options.
• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity.
• A Civil Service Pension which provides an attractive pension, benefits for dependants and employer contributions of 28.97%.
• A minimum of 25 days of paid annual leave, increasing by one day per year up to a maximum of 30.