Lead Software Developer

We're recruiting for a Lead Software Developer here at the Legal Aid Agency (LAA) at Justice Digital, to be part of one of our warm and collaborative teams. This role aligns against the Software Developer role from the Government Digital and Data Framework. We really want to hear from people who value making a difference and building user-centred services using modern tools and practices as part of a highly collaborative team. We strongly encourage empathetic approaches and cross functional working and are looking for people to help build on this culture of agility and openness. As an example, you could be helping teams that are:

• Building services to enhance applications for legal aid
• Developing services to process and review applications for legal aid caseworkers
• Providing access to court data
To help picture your life at MoJ Justice Digital please take a look at our blog and our Digital and Technology strategy 2025, In addition to hands-on development, you will inspire, mentor, coach, manage and lead Software Developers within a business domain. You will focus on generating a culture of quality, maintaining balance between building sustainable well architected products and unlocking citizen value early. The areas of your responsibility for leadership will shift between people, architecture, development and product strategy, depending on context and need. You will have responsibility for one team, or two small related teams, and report to the Principal Developers. Technical Leadership:
• Collaborate with Technical Architects and Product Managers to set product direction
• Collaborate with Technical Architects to help in the design of systems and implementation of coherent and sustainable technical roadmaps
• Lead discussions with Developers to nurture consensus on technical/team decisions
• Support backlog refinement, helping plan, define and prioritise actionable tasks for the team
• Build inclusivity and understanding by promoting strategies to share technical knowledge of our systems with appropriate documentation and other activities
• Support Delivery Managers in unblocking value where necessary and/or honest representations of effort in an agile environment as the teams learn more
Engineering Management:
• Managing, coaching and growing people with a focus on their wellbeing and development
• Support Delivery Managers in improving team maturity
Engineering Profession:
• Work with your local Principal Developers and the wider community to improve and maintain good coding standards and practices
• Help provide feedback on wider technical strategy of your business unit
• Share knowledge and build enthusiasm for sharing via activities like brown bags, cooperative workshops, chat discussions and other means
• Encourage open discussion and drive communities in our primary communication tools
• Have a mindset for growth and learning looking for emerging technologies, tools and good practice
• Help build and maintain a diverse, inclusive culture across the development community, growing awareness, inclusivity, and balance
• Take part in the recruitment and onboarding of other Developers
If this feels like an exciting challenge, something you are enthusiastic about, and want to join our team please read on and apply!, In Justice Digital, we recruit using a combination of the Government Digital and Data Profession Capability and Success Profiles Frameworks. We will assess your Experience, Technical Skills and the following Behaviours during the assessment process:
• Leadership
• Working Together
• Developing Self & Others
• Making effective decisions
• Delivery at pace
A diverse panel will review your application against the Person Specification above. Successful candidates who meet the required standard will then be invited to a 1.5 hour panel interview held via video conference. Should we receive a high volume of applications, a pre-sift based on Software Development experience will be conducted prior to the sift. Should you be unsuccessful in the role that you have applied for, but demonstrated the capability for a role at a lower level, we reserve the right to discuss this opportunity with you and potentially offer you the position without the need for a further application. A reserve list may be held for up to 12 months, from which further appointments may be made. Terms & Conditions Please review our Terms & Conditions which set out how we recruit and provide further information related to the role and salary arrangements.,
• You've been serving overseas with HM Forces or in some other official capacity as a representative of HM Government
• You were studying abroad
• You were living overseas with parents
In such cases you will need to be able to provide referee cover for the period(s) of residence overseas. The duration of overseas residence and the country of abode will also be taken into account. Success Profiles Success Profiles will enable a fairer and more inclusive method of recruitment by enabling us to assess the range of experiences, abilities, strengths, behaviours and technical/professional skills required for different roles. This flexible approach to recruitment focuses more on finding the right candidate for the specific role. To find out more about Success Profiles to support your application please click here for further guidance. if you feel that your application has not been treated in line with the Civil Service Recruitment Principles, please contact SSCL (Moj-recruitment-vetting-enquiries@gov.sscl.com) in the first instance Supporting document 1 JD - Lead Software Developer - LAA.docx - 14KB Opens in a new window Converted File JD - Lead Software Developer - LAA.docx.pdf - 97KB Opens in a new window We have provided detail of the assessment stages and areas being assessed to help you prepare for completing your application form, and to advise of what will be assessed following this, if you successfully pass the application stage.


• You have experience making and guiding complex technical decisions and contributing to technical strategy
• You have experience nurturing a culture of good software practice that makes change easy
• You have contributed towards building a high performing, inclusive team culture
• You have experience in delivering value sooner and safer, through DevOps, XP or other ways of working that lead to agility and collaboration
• You have experience either coaching or managing other people
• You have been involved in building or contributing to a community of practice
• Contribution towards the team e.g. being point of contact / tech lead, working with stakeholders, helping with DM/PM activities, improving processes
• Contribution towards other developers: e.g. coaching / training / inspiring; encouraging L&D
Willingness to be assessed against the requirements for BPSS clearance. 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. Our Tech Stack: We rely on Java, Ruby or Python to write our application code, Circle CI or GitHub Actions for CI/CD, Sentry for application monitoring, Kubernetes and Docker to schedule and run our services (read about our Cloud Platform), AWS for most of our infrastructure, GOV.UK Design System for our web interfaces and use Macbook Pros. For front-end development, we value a robust understanding of the underlying web technologies. We value well-maintained, open-source tools that can be used to produce semantic HTML, performant CSS and unobtrusive JavaScript or TypeScript, and we assess all our services against accessibility criteria. 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.., To apply for roles in MOJ you will need to confirm your employment history for at least 3 years prior to the date of application so that pre-employment checks (BPSS) can be undertaken. If you have spent significant time abroad (a total of 6 months in the past 3 years) you would be required to give a reasonable account of the reasons why. For some roles you will be required to successfully complete National Security Vetting at Counter Terrorism (CTC), Security Clearance (SC) or Developed Vetting (DV) level as a condition of appointment. To meet CTC/SC/DV requirements you will normally need to have been resident in the UK for at least 3/5/10 years prior to the date of application (The level of checks that are required are stated in the advert).

The national salary range is £56,532 - £64,048, London salary range is £61,201 - £69,338. Your salary will be dependent on your base location. Total pay in the range of '£50,001 to £60,000, £60,001 and over' are subject to capability, skills and experience. Salary may consist of base pay and a Recruitment and Retention Allowance (RRA) Number of jobs available 2 Detail of reserve list 12 Months Region National City/Town National Building/Site NATIONAL, If you have any questions, please feel free to contact recruitment@digital.justice.gov.uk Allowance Details London: £61,201 - £78,225 (which may include an allowance of up to £17,035) National: £56,532 - £73,450 (which may include an allowance of up to £16,918) Closing Date