Senior Developer - Planning Inspectorate - SEO

The Planning Inspectorate is recruiting for Senior Developers to join our growing Digital Services team as we expand to meet growing demands from our colleagues, government, and our customers.  

You will be a member of a multidisciplinary team, writing code and providing technical expertise as part of our digital service teams. This will involve potentially working across multiple products including our casework management system, public facing websites and internal tools, as well as supporting our ongoing digital transformation work to create a more modern Inspectorate.  

You will work with a smart and talented group of user researchers, product managers, DevOps engineers, testers, business analysts and delivery managers to deliver better public services for communities where they live; primarily supporting our services which examine applications and provide recommendations to the Secretary of State for major infrastructure projects such as power stations, airport expansions or major roads.  

You will be joining a team of around 20 highly skilled software engineers, testers, and DevOps engineers, providing mentoring and guidance as well as setting the standard for technical excellence. 

Job description

You will be responsible for working collaboratively as part of a multidisciplinary team, focussed on delivering high quality code in line with project goals and delivery cycles. As well as this you will be setting the standards for technical excellence within a team of Developers and fostering an environment where team members are supported and can come to you for guidance and feedback.        

As a Senior Developer, you will provide technical direction within the team to identify the best technology, solutions and industry standard Agile methodologies and embed and enhance practices such as TDD, continuous integration, continuous delivery, and DevOps.      

You will also keep up to date with the latest technologies and trends, whilst delivering working software early and often, learning new languages and frameworks and picking the right solutions.     

Our Tech Stack     

 We rely on:       

• NodeJS for our digital transformation work.     
• HTML/CSS/JavaScript for both digital transformation and other services.     
• Azure for our infrastructure and deployment.     
• MSSQL for data storage.     
• Docker and Azure Web Apps to host our digital transformation services.     
• GOV.UK Design System for our web interfaces.     

We’re happy to help you learn our tech stack once you are part of our team.     

Check out GitHub (Planning-Inspectorate) for a closer look at the technology we use. 

A typical week in this role will consist of a blend of responsibilities, including:       

• Performing code review.    
• Providing mentoring and coaching to other team members.    
• Prioritisation of work in line with deliverables and project goals.    
• Writing code.  
• Writing unit tests.  
• Offering technical advice on software architecture and technology choices.  
• Providing guidance to technical and non-technical stakeholders. 
• Identifying and fixing faults.    
• Providing technical assurance

Role types

1 x Permanent

4 x FTC up to 36 months

The Planning Inspectorate has a long and proud history in ensuring a fair planning system for England. The work we do has a significant impact on people’s lives, the communities where they live and the economy. 

We want our colleagues to be able to work more flexibly and more collaboratively, exploring new and innovative ways to improve the way we provide services.  

For further information on the Planning Inspectorate, please visit our careers page at Civil Service Careers  

Office Attendance 

This role is contractually based at Temple Quay House, Bristol which is currently out of use due to undergoing refurbishment work. In the interim, we have the use of alternative office space in very close proximity to Bristol Temple Meads railway station. We recognise and value the mutual benefits of hybrid working and have a flexible approach to in person attendance, which can vary dependent on the requirements of individual business units - the details of which can be discussed with candidates if invited to attend an interview.

Person specification

Essential Criteria 

• Experience of building scalable, secure web applications (preferably in Azure) and a detailed knowledge of server-side JavaScript programming. 
• A comprehensive understanding of front-end web development (HTML, CSS and JavaScript). 
• Experience of agile development, software design patterns, continuous integration, test driven development and version control (preferably GitHub). 
• Experience of developing and working with APIs. 
• Demonstrable experience of delivering user focused products with a thorough understanding of software design principles, standards and practices. 
• Ability to quickly research and learn new programming tools and techniques. 
• Proven experience balancing multiple priorities and dealing with ambiguity. 
• Experience of identifying, locating and competently fixing faults. 
• Understanding cyber security, developing solutions and services with security controls embedded, specifically engineered as mitigation against security threats as core part of the solutions and services. 

Desirable Criteria

• Experience of other Cloud platforms and programming languages (e.g. AWS, PHP, Java). 
• Experience of Azure AI & Machine learning services. 

Behaviours

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Changing and Improving
• Delivering at Pace
• Developing Self and Others
• Working Together

Technical skills

We'll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:

• Programming in modern languages such as server-side JavaScript
• Front end web development using HTML, CSS & JavaScript