Length of employment: Job Summary: Are you an experienced Lead Software Engineer looking to take the next step in your career? Are you capable of leading and mentoring engineering teams, evangelising best practices and standards and fostering a culture for engineers to develop while helping to shape and deliver services? Do you want to lead on the vision and strategy helping to develop the future services within DWP Digital? You will lead and help to reshape an existing engineering capability made up of blend of DWP and Supplier Engineers. Successful candidates will join the Digital Group and be an integral part in directing and determining how we build the technology solutions of the future that will enable us to realise our key mission and passion. What really excites the successful candidate is problem-solving and the opportunity to deliver innovative technology that carries real value for users. You will be tasked with making significant advances in our engineering practices and capabilities within the function as we accelerate both the transformation of the digital services we offer and widen our adoption of a microservices and event-based architecture style. As part of the role, you may be required to travel regularly to the other digital hubs. The frequency of this will be discussed further should you be successful. Job Description: Our Lead Software Engineers are experts in their field, role models in software craftsmanship and have proven experience in the design, development, and support of software products. You will: Define standards for the Engineering community and lead their adoption across teams to deliver quality software products Lead the design and establishment of frameworks, tools and processes to responsibly develop, deploy and monitor our products Be an enabler for multiple teams, driving consistency, standards, pace and quality, resolving technical blockers, and promoting re-use and collaboration through the wider community Influence our future Vision for delivery as part of the Leadership Team and then take ownership for bringing the engineering community on that journey Have an excellent ability to self-organise and define priorities Be capable of diving in where necessary, but the focus of this role will be to lead and set direction for multiple engineering teams effectively and successfully. Evangelise best practices and standards in design and delivery across DWP Digital and potentially wider government Developing a culture to ensure that members of your engineering team are delivering to the best of their ability at all times, ensuring continued investment in the project and in their own skills We also have a broad benefits package built around your work-life balance which includes: Working patterns to support work/life balance such as job sharing, term-time working, flexi-time and compressed hours. Generous annual leave - at least 25 days on entry, increasing up to 30 days over time (pro-rata for part time employees), plus 9 days public and privilege leave. Support for financial wellbeing, including interest-free season ticket loans for travel, a cycle to work scheme and an employee discount scheme. Health and wellbeing support including our Employee Assistance Programme for specialist advice and counselling and the opportunity to join HASSRA a first-class programme of competitions, activities and benefits for its members (subscription payable monthly). Family friendly policies including enhanced maternity and shared parental leave pay after 1 year's continuous service. Funded learning and development to support progress in your role and career. This includes industry recognised qualifications and accreditations, coaching, mentoring and talent development programmes. An inclusive and diverse environment with opportunities to join professional and interpersonal networks including Women's Network, National Race Network, National Disability Network (THRIVE) and many more. This job role may be suitable for hybrid working, which is where an employee works part of the week in their DWP office and part of the week from home. This is a voluntary, non-contractual arrangement and your office will be your contractual place of work. The number of days that anyone will be able to work at home will be determined primarily by business need but personal circumstances and other relevant circumstances will also be taken into account. If you are successful, any opportunities for hybrid working, including whether a hybrid working arrangement is suitable for you, will be discussed with you prior to you taking up your post. Salary Information Pay for this role is from £72,664 to £89,995. The maximum salary for the grade is £77,740, however a Digital Allowance of up to £12,255 per annum is available for exceptional candidates. Digital Allowance is non-salary, and non-pensionable, and is classed as a temporary allowance. It is reviewed annually where it could be retained, amended, or removed. Our offer to successful candidates will be based on an assessment of your skills and experience as demonstrated at interview. Existing Civil Servants who secure a new role on lateral transfer should maintain their current salary. Existing Civil Servants who gain promotion may move to the bottom of the grade pay scale or 10% increase in salary whichever would be the greater. See selection process for further details. If you would like to learn more about the role, please contact Akhtar.ali1@dwp.gov.uk. Stage 1: Application Your application will consist of three parts: 1. A Personal Details application form. 2. Employment history - this should contain your work experience and any skills, qualifications and accomplishments relevant to the jobs you have completed based on the essential criteria. 3. Personal statement - up to 1250 words. This statement should be used to provide examples of how you meet the essential criteria below: Lead criterion: Expert knowledge and extensive experience of open-source technologies like Java or JavaScript and Node.js. Experience of leading multiple teams and driving changes in technology whilst fostering a supportive development and collaborative culture alongside other roles and disciplines. Expert and extensive Knowledge and experience of developing on cloud-based environments such as AWS and Azure. Knowledge and experience of SQL and noSQL database applications such as Postgres, MySQL, and MongoDB. Have the skills to build up a useful, robust automated test suite to support a continuous deployment environment. Knowledge and experience of APIs, RESTful services and Microservice Architectures. The sift panel will use the information in your employment history and personal statement to assess your experience, skills and knowledge against the essential criteria. You will be provided with one combined overall assessment score for both your CV and Personal Statement. An initial sift will be conducted using the lead criterion stated above. Candidates who pass the initial sift will progress to a full sift. For Hints and Tips on completing your application visit Applying for jobs at DWP Digital. Applications will be sifted at regular intervals from the date the posts are advertised. Please apply as soon as you can, do not wait until the end of the campaign. Important Information You will be asked to complete your employment history any information that you would customarily share on a CV should therefore be entered onto the application form. Personal details that could be used to identify you including your name, contact details and address must be removed for your application to be considered. If your employment history, personal statement or technical statement contain any personal details your application will be withdrawn. We recognise that AI may be helpful when applying for this role, but it is important to use it in the right way. Read the DWP AI Candidate Guide to understand how you can make the best use of GenAI while ensuring your application remains authentic and effective. Stage 2: Interview If you're successful at sift stage you will be invited to a video interview via Microsoft Teams. There, you will be assessed against the experiences listed in the essential criteria. You will also be asked to do a 15-minute presentation on a specific topic. Further details will be provided to candidates invited to interview. Please add: to your safe senders list or monitor your spam folder to ensure safe receipt of the presentation via email. Interviews will take place from early June 2025. Interview dates to be confirmed. Further information Find out more about Working for DWP If high application volumes are received, the benchmark for candidates to proceed to the next stage may be raised. In line with our commitment to the Disability Confident Scheme (DCS), we aim to advance all candidates applying under the DCS who meet the minimum standard. However, we may only progress those candidates who best meet the required standards. A reserve list may be held for a period of 6 months from which further appointments can be made. All successful candidates and those placed on reserve will be posted in merit list order by location. The Civil Service values honesty and integrity and expects all candidates to abide by these principles. Please ensure that all examples provided in your application are taken directly from your own experience and that you describe the examples in your own words. Applications will be screened and if evidence of plagiarism or copying examples/answers from other sources is found, your application will be withdrawn. Internal DWP candidates may also face disciplinary action. Reasonable Adjustment At DWP we value diversity and inclusion and actively encourage and welcome applications from everyone, including those that are underrepresented in our workforce. We consider visible and non-visible disabilities, neurodiversity or learning differences, chronic medical conditions, or mental ill health. Examples include dyslexia, epilepsy, autism, chronic fatigue, or schizophrenia. If you need a change to be made so that you can make your application, you should: Contact Government Recruitment Service via as soon as possible before the closing date to discuss your needs. Complete the "Reasonable Adjustments" section in the "Additional requirements" page of your application form to tell us what changes or help you might need further on in the recruitment process. For instance, you may need wheelchair access at interview, or if you're deaf, a Language Service Professional. For further information on reasonable adjustments, terms and conditions and how we recruit visit the How we recruit page. Feedback