In June 2025, the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care introduced two key frameworks: the Population Health Framework and the Service Renewal Framework (SRF). The SRF sets out an ambitious vision to drive innovation and enable more integrated delivery across Scotland’s health and care services. As part of this transformation, NHS National Services Scotland (NSS) and NHS Education for Scotland (NES) will come together to form a new organisation: Public Services Delivery Scotland in April 2026. The new organisation will play a pivotal role in supporting the renewal and long-term sustainability of health and care services across Scotland.
To learn more about the new organisation, please read the public consultation paper, NHS Delivery A New National Delivery Organisation, available on the Scottish Government website
Flexible Location: NES is a remote-friendly employer with staff based throughout Scotland. We support office-based and hybrid working arrangements. We welcome conversations about alternative working patternsplease get in touch during the application process to discuss.
Work Pattern: Fixed Term, Full Time, 37 hours per week
Fixed-term or Secondment** until 31 March 2028
**For NHS applicants, an NHS secondment will be offered in the first instance. For non-NHS applicants, a fixed-term or secondment would be considered.
You must have eligibility and entitlement to work in the UK which is required to be maintained throughout your period of employment.
Who We Are
NHS Education for Scotland (NES) is the national health board with statutory responsibilities to effect sustainable change through workforce development, education and training across the health and social care system in Scotland, while working at UK level with partner organisations.
NES Technology Service (NTS) has created a strategic programme for the
transformation of digital based services to allow NES to become a leading digital
organisation in Scottish Health, digital by default and fully aligned with the Scottish
Government’s technology strategies.
It is in pursuit of this aim that NTS are working with partners to develop digital-first
solutions that utilise a National Digital Platform.
The National Digital Platform (NDP) is an open, standards-based platform,
supporting technology and data for the health and social care environment. It
underpins our commitment to making health and care information and services more
accessible. The NDP is designed to be used by services and providers across the
NHS in Scotland.
The Opportunity
To deliver the NES Strategy and assist in delivering against the Scottish
Government Digital Health and Care Strategy and Data Strategy. NTS is seeking a
skilled and motivated Software Engineer to help develop new and existing digital
solutions for the Health and Social Care sectors within Scotland, with primary focus on the new national MyCare.Scot application.
Do you enjoy working and collaborating as part of a highly skilled multi-disciplinary
agile team
Do you enjoy problem-solving and being adaptive to an ever-changing yet rewarding environment?
Do you want to play a key role in the development and maintenance of high quality, scalable web solutions, developed for a broad range of users across Scotland ?
Do you have a passion for development best practices in areas such as cloud architecture, web application system design, security and debugging?
Do you want to work on the new digital front door for the people of Scotland, developing the MyCare.Scot application.?
Working within the NES Technology Service your work will directly influence the
development of impactful technology services for health and care professionals and
the general public.
Does this sound like you?
What We Love to See
Software Engineers offer a broad range of skills and experience, if you can offer some or all of these, we’d love you to apply:
* Ability to facilitate development of complex software and contribute to the technical direction of a project
* An understanding of Agile software development practices.
* Ability to collaboratively design, code, test, and document software using modern industry standards and tools
* Experience in cloud provider technologies (e.g. from AWS/Azure), serverless
* solutions and continuous deployment best practices
* Experience in maintenance and querying database technologies, either
* relational (e.g. SQL Server, MySQL) or non-relational (e.g. DynamoDB)
* Ability to comprehend and extract meaning from large datasets and the
* relationships between them
* Effective communication skills, knowing how to make complex technical
* information and language simple for diverse senior internal and external
* stakeholders (both verbally and in writing)
* Mentoring and/or coaching experience
* Demonstrate honesty, integrity, care and compassion when dealing with others, utilising tact and persuasion skills when necessary
* Ability to work on own initiative, to organise and prioritise own workloads, to meet strict deadlines
Benefits Which Matter
As a valued employee of NHS Scotland, you can enjoy an extensive range of benefits including:
* Life-work balance - with opportunities for flexible working and hybrid working
* Generous NHS pension scheme
* Annual incremental salary progression (up to the maximum of the salary band) plus annual NHS salary scale review
* Annual Leave - 27 Days increasing in line with service plus 8 days public holiday
* NHS discounts and more
Diversity and Inclusion
Developing a successful national service for Scotland means considering the diverse needs, perspectives, and backgrounds of everyone in Scotland. We are focused on hiring the very best talent and actively encourage applications from candidates of all backgrounds. Our aim to ensure that everyone is treated fairly, with respect, and has a positive recruitment experienceregardless of the outcome.
We welcome applications from all under-represented groups, including racially minoritised people and disabled people. It is not essential to be in Software Engineeringrole right nowyou may be returning from a career break (e.g., maternity, paternity, caring) or coming from another field. Your experiences can bring a fresh perspective to our work.
If you are considering applying and would like to discuss the opportunity, any adjustments or alternative work patterns, please contact Mark.McLaughlin@nhs.scot, Head of Engineering, Health and Social Care.
Next Steps
**NHS candidates will be considered firstly on a secondment basis, and so are strongly encouraged to discuss this with their current NHS employer at the earliest opportunity, ideally prior to application.
All applicants who are shortlisted for interview will be contacted by e-mail.
In person OR online interviews will take place on between 24th 26th March 2026.
For further information please refer to the Job Information Pack below.
Unless otherwise stated the deadline for applications is 23:59 hours on the closing date. Please note, CVs will not be accepted.
1. Please be advised that if you are successful in being offered the role following the recruitment process, you will be expected to attend the office prior to your start date to complete face-to-face pre-employment checks. If you require any adjustments to support this, please let us know.
2. To work in the United Kingdom, there is a legal requirement for an individual to demonstrate that they have the relevant permission to work in the country. This permission is, without exception, granted by the UK Visa and Immigrations Service.
As part of the pre-employment checks for a preferred candidate, NHS Scotland Boards willcheck your entitlement to work in the UK. It can be evidenced through a number of routes including specific types of visa as well as EU settled and pre-settled status. To find out more about these routes of permission, please refer to the GOV.UK websitehere .
For specific types of post, if you do not have the necessary eligibility to work in the UK, it might be possible (though not guaranteed) to secure sponsorship via a UK Skilled Worker/Health & Care Worker Visa. However, this is only possible if the employer is a licenced Sponsor, and if the post does not fall below the current minimum salary threshold or ‘going rate’. Further information on these criteria can be foundhere .
It is ESSENTIAL that you have checked that you either already have an appropriate right to work in the UK or that the post would be eligible to be sponsoredBEFOREsubmitting your application form.
If you have any queries regarding the NHS Scotland National Recruitment Portal or the recruitment process, please don't hesitate to contact our recruitment partners, the East Region Recruitment Service, at: EoS.ERRS@nhs.scot