Lead Engineer - HO - G7
Government Digital & Data -
We are looking for people who are passionate about Engineering to join our community led team in Shared Applications Service (SAS). You will work in agile multidisciplinary teams with over 200 engineers in a modern cloud environment using the latest technologies. Our purpose as a team is to bring technical understanding in-house for over 600 Home Office applications.
You could be creating and maintaining some of the most critical public services in the United Kingdom and transforming how we use data and technology to improve these. We are responsible for designing, building and supporting solutions to help people prove their identity or apply for visas. You could also be working on critical IT systems that support policing and counter terrorism, which helps protect UK borders.
Job description
The Lead Engineer will drive the technical delivery of their team, managing their workload and ensuring the right skills are available. You will be responsible for the work undertaken by your Developers and DevOps staff and will be expected to work with Seniors and Principals to ensure that services produced are best practice. You should have a solid technical background and will be able to apply these skills if required to provide guidance to your team. You will also maintain a broad perspective, monitoring technology developments such that you can support strategy formation.
Along with the other Senior, Lead and Principal Engineers in your area, you will be responsible for ensuring that all technical approaches being used are appropriate, endorsed and will take part in planning with senior stakeholders, to make sure that product delivery and maintenance is on a firm basis. Your remit may be across the engineering function, but working closely with Architects and other professions.
This role is not suitable for part-time working due to the nature of the role.
Tools and Technologies we use:
We are keen for Engineers to continue learning new technologies, we have a large range in the Home Office including:
- Backend: C#, Python
- Frontend: React, JavaScript, Typescript
- Data: PostgreSQL, Microsoft SQL Server, MongoDB
- DevOps: Kubernetes, Azure, Docker, Terraform, Azure DevOps
- Other: Azure OpenAI Studio, Power Platform, PowerBI
What you will do
Your main day to day responsibilities will be:
- leading the day-to-day activities of engineers in your team, ensuring everyone is working effectively and efficiently, reporting any impediments.
- coaching your team as well as supporting Continuous Professional Development (CPD) and encouraging formal professional qualifications.
- supporting capability build in your team and in the organisation.
- taking a hands-on role with engineering delivery when necessary, blending your leadership and technical tasks to achieve team objectives.
- ensuring appropriate methods are being used, as well as leading efforts to identify improved tools/technologies.
Like many organisations we need to maintain our services 24/7, therefore, on occasions there may be a requirement to work out of hours, for which you will be paid an additional allowance.
Person specification
UK residency and security requirements - You need to have lived in the UK for the past 5 years.
Essential criteria
As a Lead Engineer you will have experience of:
- Leading an agile team to deliver in a dynamic environment, whilst managing stakeholders’ expectations and mitigating/escalating risks (Lead essential criteria).
- Oversight of technical designs produced by engineers and architects, ensuring that these are scalable, secure and fit for purpose.
- Providing technical expertise and ensuring best practice across the entire software development life cycle including use of tooling and CI/CD.
- Line management, task management and target setting for engineers in your team, including management of poor performance.
- Implementing training plans for engineers to meet the strategic goals of the organisation, whilst supporting capability build and recruitment activities.
- Initiating improvements to processes in the areas of security, sustainability, and quality of service.
SFIA capability framework
Skills for the Information Age (SFIA) is the technical framework that sets the standard capability and development of all engineering levels in the Home Office. This is a link to the capability framework: All skills A–Z — English (sfia-online.org)
We use set SFIA technical skills to form our interview questions and we will assess you against these technical skills during the selection process.
SFIA levels of responsibility – Use the SFIA Levels of responsibility to understand what would be expected for each Technical Skill listed below.
SFIA Technical Skills
The essential technical skills listed above are reflective of the Home Office Government Digital and Data Profession Career Framework. Please see below for the relevant skills required for your role.
Technical skills
We'll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:
- Systems development management (DLMG) - Level 4
- Software design (SWDN) - Level 4
- Programming/software development (PROG) - Level 3
- Performance management (PEMT) - Level 3
- Professional development (PDSV) - Level 4
- Quality management (QUMG) - Level 4
