Senior Developer

The role is both exciting and challenging. As we expand our product function, we are developing a wide range of new digital products that will transform how the organisation operates. In this position, you will help lead the development of these products and play a key role in shaping our overall approach to product delivery. You will work across a portfolio of digital products and services that support the FCDO in delivering its development and diplomacy goals, including tools that assist diplomats working in Embassies overseas.

We design and build these products in-house using a multidisciplinary, full-stack development team. Our work is international, diverse and highly collaborative. We are looking for people who are motivated by making a meaningful impact, passionate about creating user-focused services, and who enjoy working in a modern, agile environment using contemporary tools and practices.

As a Senior Developer, you will design, run, and improve software that meets user needs. In this role you are responsible for writing clean, secure code following a test-driven approach and creating code that is easy for others to reuse. You will also be responsible for coaching and mentoring colleagues in the software development profession to develop their skills and capability.

Roles and Responsibilities

The successful candidate will:

• Plan and lead development across sets of related user stories.
• Understand the end-to-end system and help others build that understanding.
• Work closely with colleagues across disciplines to define and deliver what needs to be built.
• Coach and mentor more junior developers.
• Operate and support the production services you create.
• Identify and implement improvements that enhance system robustness, resilience and stability.
• Contribute to innovative projects, for example our Power Platform Centre of Excellence and play a key role in the development and delivery of robust, scalable Power Platform solutions.

For Programme Delivery, we work with a modern technology stack designed to support high-quality, secure, and scalable development. As part of our team, you will use:

• Programming Languages: C#, JavaScript
• Developer Platform: .Net and .Net Framework
• IDE: Visual Studio
• Version Control: Git
• Sprint management and release pipelines: Azure DevOps
• Database: SQL Server
• Playwright for end-to-end testing

There will occasionally be the opportunity to travel within the UK, or to overseas offices, to support product development, but this is not mandatory., You must be a British Citizen at the time of application and, if invited to interview, you will need to bring proof of identity (British Passport/Driving Licence etc.) with you., We'll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:

• Programming and Build (software engineering) - Practitioner Level
• Modern Development Standards - Practitioner Level
• User Focus – Practitioner level
• Information Security - Practitioner Level

We only ask for evidence of these technical skills on your application form:

• Programming and Build (software engineering) - Practitioner Level
• Modern Development Standards - Practitioner Level

Do you have a valid Driving License license?, Do you have experience in Visual Studio?, * Programming and Build (Practitioner) – Ability to collaborate with others, when necessary, to review specifications and use agreed specifications to design, code, test and document medium to high complexity programs. This includes ensuring successful delivery whilst maintaining architectural and coding standards and application security demands.

• Systems Design (Practitioner) – Ability to competently apply modern development standards and guide others to do so, using your knowledge of clean architecture and good software design concepts and design patterns to ensure that software developed is consistent, reliable and efficient.
• Modern Development Standards: (Practitioner) – Ability to write robust, reusable code that is well tested and easy to maintain, ensuring that any coding standards and secure coding is maintained throughout the codebase. Ensuring that code has adequate unit testing and that definition of done practices are followed.
• User Focus (Practitioner) - Comprehensive understanding of user needs to develop a detailed grasp of the problems to be solved. Able to work as part of a multi-disciplinary team alongside others to ensure that users are at the core of all products and that delivering value to them is key., This vacancy is using Success Profiles , and will assess your Behaviours, Experience and Technical skills.

Pulled from the full job description

• Childcare
• Annual leave
• Company pension, We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:
• Working Together
• Changing and Improving
• Making Effective Decisions, Alongside your salary of £46,000, Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office contributes £13,326 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.
• A Civil Service pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%
• 25 days Annual Leave per annum.
• 9 days Public and Privilege holidays per annum.
• Learning and Development tailored to your role.

See the attached candidate pack., * A Personal Statement of 500 words explaining how you consider your skills, qualities and experience provide evidence of your suitability for the role, with specific reference to the Essential Criteria. These responses will be explored further during the interview process for shortlisted candidates.

• A Behaviour example of 250 words: Working Together
• 2 Technical Skills examples: Programming and Build (software engineering) - Practitioner Level; Modern Development Standards - Practitioner Level

IMPORTANT: If you are applying under the Disability Confident Scheme and require Reasonable Adjustments in order to complete your application, please ensure Government Recruitment Service (GRS) are aware of this on the date of application and certainly by the closing date.

In the event of a large number of applications, we may conduct an initial sift by a lead technical skill alongside your CV and personal statement. For this campaign we will be prioritising Programming and Build. Only candidates who meet the minimum standard in this Technical skill will have the rest of their application fully assessed.

Interview Stage

At the start of your interview, you will also be asked a non-assessed warm-up question about your motivation for applying for the role.

Candidates will be required to give a Presentation at the Interview, and the topic will be sent to you in advance. The Presentation will test the following Technical skill:

• Systems Design (Practitioner Level)

You will also be assessed on the following Behaviours and Technical skills at Interview:

• Behaviours: Changing and Improving; Making effective Decisions
• Technical Skills: Programming and Build (software engineering) – Practitioner level; User Focus – Practitioner level; Information Security - Practitioner Level

The FCDO has appointed the Government Recruitment Service to manage the process.

Please see the timeline in the candidate pack attached for indicative dates.

If you are successful at the application stage, you will be invited to attend a panel interview at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. This will be held remotely on Microsoft Teams and details will be given to candidates who are successful at the sift stage.

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.

The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office pursues our national interests and projects the UK’s role in the world. We promote the interests of British citizens, safeguard the UK’s security, defend our values, reduce poverty and tackle global challenges with our international partners. We employ more than 17,000 staff in 179 countries and territories, across our diplomatic and development offices worldwide, which consists of 282 officially designated Posts. Our UK-based staff work in King Charles Street, London, Abercrombie House in East Kilbride and in Milton Keynes. Digital, Technology and Security Directorate (DTaS) is responsible for delivering the Foreign Secretary’s ambition to make the FCDO the most technologically integrated and innovative foreign ministry globally. This means harnessing digital, data, technology, IT security and information management to support the FCDO and UK Government partners on our platform to deliver our diplomatic, development and consular aims. All while keeping our people and information safe, especially from hostile actors. The work we do is varied – from historical analysis and library services to cyber protection, from information rights to global network management, from supporting staff in using the latest Microsoft toolsets, to creating corporate applications, harnessing AI and much more in line with the FCDO Digital, Data and Technology (DDaT) Strategy. The Directorate is made up of a wide range of talented staff and experts including specialist, contractors, home civil servants and diplomats who have served overseas.