Location
National
About The Job
Job Title – Senior JavaScript Developer
Profession - Development & Operations
Directorate – Technology
Full Time equivalent - 37.5 hours
No of Roles – 2
Contract Type – Permanent
Location – Hybrid
UKHSA operates a hybrid working model where business needs allow. This provides us with greater flexibility about how and where we work, to get the best from our workforce. As a hybrid worker, you will be expected to spend a minimum of 60% of your contractual working hours (approximately 3 days a week pro rata, averaged over a month) working at one of UKHSA's locations (Birmingham, Leeds, Liverpool, and London). Specialist or regional roles will be based at the appropriate UKHSA site. For certain roles, some additional flexibility may be possible, which will be agreed upon with the hiring manager based on individual requirements and business needs.
Working Pattern – Full Time / Part Time / Flexible Working / Hybrid Working
Grade & Salary – Grade SEO. National banding - £38,724 - £44,393 Inner London - £42,716 - £48,068 Outer London - £40,721 - £46,231
Please note this role comes with a Market Pay Supplement of up to £5,000
New entrants to the Civil Service are expected to start on the minimum of the pay band. The internal roles rules apply to existing Civil Servants, i.e. level transfers move on current salary or the pay range minimum, transfers on promotion move to new pay range minimum or receive 10% increase. Either case is determined by whichever is the highest. This role is to be appointed under Civil Service Terms & Conditions. Full details on the T&C’s are found here .
Closing Date – 18/02/2024. 23:55pm. Unfortunately, late applications will not be considered.
Interview Date – W/C 04/03/2024. Please note, these dates are subject to change.
Job Description
The UKHSA Development and Operations team leads the digital transformation of UKHSA to make it a more data driven, customer focused, digital organisation. We do this by delivering services which meet and maintain the Government Digital Service (GDS) Digital by Default Service Standard (link ).
Developers at UKHSA work collaboratively with stakeholders such as Data Scientists and Public Health officials to deliver software which helps to drive forward the mission of the agency. We employ modern best practices to deliver projects quickly, safely, and cost-effectively.
Job Overview
- Implement new software products using modern development standards and techniques/technologies including test-driven and behaviour-driven development (TDD/BDD).
- Support and fix bugs in existing applications, using standard debugging tools to track down and identify root causes. Work independently to find solutions to identified problems and to work with the multi-disciplinary team to solve more challenging issues.
- Design, create and test software sub-systems and components using proven software engineering practices. Integrate existing and proposed systems with other systems to promote interoperability between disparate systems.
- Work in sprints in a multi-disciplinary Scrum team, collaborate and liaise with delivery managers, product owners and other stakeholders to identify business requirements and implement user stories.
- Collaborate and work with multi-disciplinary team members, including technology and cloud service providers to ensure that knowledge is shared among members of the project team.
- Continuously seek to improve your own knowledge of work areas and embrace the agile framework of software delivery methodology and aim to reach full agility with continuous integrations, delivery and deployment.
- Research and recommend proven open-source tools and platforms that will support the ongoing delivery of UKHSA’s products and developing functional and technical specification documentation for them.
- Design systems that model processes that are characterised by different levels of risk, impact and business/technical complexity through selecting appropriate design standards, methods and tools. Review existing system design and identify ways to improve or adopt efficient use of resources.
- Attend local and national meetings with key stakeholders and UKHSA’s partner organisations.
Main Duties of the Job
This is a hands-on development role in which you will develop and deploy new products as well as developing and enhancing UKHSA’s existing products and apps. You will work with business and technology stakeholders to translate business problems into technical designs. You will collaborate with UI, connectivity and DevOps teams in order to build elegant solutions to complex problems.
You will use the Scrum agile delivery methodology and deliver software in short iterations with frequent releases without compromising code quality, liaising with key internal and external stakeholders and providing technical direction on full-stack software development best practices.
Person Specification
- You will have a high standard of knowledge of JavaScript Development and be able to work to agreed security standards and specifications using the best tools for the job to design, create, test and document new or redeveloped software.
- You will be capable of building software of medium to high complexity, specifying and designing systems to meet defined business needs.
- You will need the ability to explore and propose different approaches to solving problems and ensure you select appropriate technology and use resources efficiently to integrate multiple systems and technologies.
- You will be skilled at integrating and testing multiple components, systems and their interfaces.
- You will have the ability to take ownership of projects and the desire to take them through to production.
- The role requires good troubleshooting skills with an ability to identify, locate and competently fix bugs and errors.
- You will need a strong ability to collaborate with user researchers, sell and represent users internally and champion user research to focus on all users. This means an ability to understand users and identify them and their needs based on evidence.
- You should put users first, manage competing priorities and offer recommendations on the best tools and methods to be used.
- You will have experience of using modern standards for process automation and testing and be able to guide others in doing so.
We pride ourselves as being an employer of choice, where Everyone Matters promoting equality opportunity to actively encourage applications from everyone, including groups currently underrepresented in our workforce. UKHSA ethos is to be an inclusive organisation for all our staff and stakeholders. To create, nurture and sustain an inclusive culture, where differences drive innovative solutions to meet the needs of our workforce and wider communities. We do this through celebrating and protecting differences by removing barriers and promoting equity and equality of opportunity for all.
Essential Criteria:
- Strong understanding and experience of JavaScript Development and a supporting ecosystem of packages and tools.
- Understanding of modern containerised deployment via CI/CD on the cloud.
- Both SQL and NoSQL data manipulation experience.
- Experience of developing and consuming RESTful APIs and web services.
- Knowledge of object-oriented concepts and design patterns.
- Experience of the principles and practices of agile development and the project lifecycle, and agile tools such as Jira or Redmine.
- An understanding of and commitment to equality of opportunity and good working relationships.
Desirable criteria:
- Postgraduate or professional qualification or equivalent experience in relevant technologies.
- Additional languages or technologies (for example, backend technologies, databases etc.)
Benefits
Alongside your salary of £38,724, UK Health Security Agency contributes £10,455 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 with an average employer contribution of 27%.
Selection process details
You will be required to complete an application form. This will be assessed and sifted in line with the essential criteria.
This vacancy is using Success Profiles and will assess your Behaviours and Experience.
Stage 1: Application & Sift
As part of the application process, you will be asked to provide a Statement of Suitability in no more than 500 words providing examples of how you meet the essential criteria. It should also detail what you and your experience can bring to the role.
If you are successful at this stage, you will progress to interview. Please note you will not be provided with feedback at this stage.
Stage 2: Panel Interview
All applicants that progress to interview will be interviewed remotely via Microsoft Teams, please note this is a 2 stage interview process that will involve a technical test as well as competency based questions to test the civil service behaviours.
The behaviours you will be tested on are:
- Communicating & Influencing
- Changing & Improving
- Making Effective Decisions
Reserve List:
Candidates who pass the interview criteria but are not offered a post will be kept on a reserve list for 12 months and may be contacted if similar roles become available.
If you are interviewed for the post and do not meet the required threshold for the specified grade, your application may be assessed against a similar, lower grade role and you may be offered the post should one be available.
DBS - People working with government systems must complete Basic Personnel Security Standard (BPSS) checks which includes a disclosure and barring security check. Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed for this role is BPSS however there may be a requirement for this role to be SC cleared and you should familiarise yourself with the criteria of security clearance.
This role is Open to all external applicants (anyone) from outside the Civil Service (including by definition internal applicants). Appointments to roles within UKHSA will be made in accordance with the Civil Service nationality rules.
We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's Recruitment Principles. The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities.
Contact Details
Recruitment team
#J-18808-Ljbffr