Mid and Senior Frontend Developer

Job description

We're recruiting for multiple roles within the GOV.UK directorate - three frontend Developers and two senior frontend Developers. We're conducting a single campaign and will assign a role based on interview performance and merit.

The GOV.UK directorate is the information engine behind the product suite. It manages the central source of trusted content, publishing infrastructure, overarching policy and consistent design that form the crucial foundation for a proactive, personalised user experience that spans multiple digital channels.

The roles are across these teams:

• Web, who build and maintain the central www.gov.uk domain with a focus on content
• GOV.UK Design System, who provide the styles, components and patterns used by teams across government to build services consistent with the GOV.UK

Watch this video to find out more about what it's like to be a frontend developer at GDS.

As a frontend developer you’ll:

• build accessible components and patterns to serve a variety of citizen and government needs, taking responsibility for the quality of code you produce and ensuring that it follows our standards
• have and apply a broad knowledge of core web technologies, and help to define the strategy for frontend development with GDS and wider government
• consider the impact of your changes, versioning releases and collaborating on release notes and documentation to help users to navigate breaking changes
• design and implement automated testing plans to help us deliver with confidence
• share knowledge of tools and techniques with your team (both developers and non-developers) and with the wider frontend community
• participate in our in-house support rotas
• have the opportunity to share your experiences and the things that you’ve learnt with a wider audience, for example by writing blog posts, or speaking at government events

If appointed at senior level you will also:

• help to prioritise and direct technical work across the team
• potentially take on line management of one or more frontend developers
• act as a digital ambassador across government, supporting recruitment, identifying good practices for GDS to adopt and sharing experiences, e.g. through blog posts, tech talks at conferences etc

Person specification

We’re interested in people who have:

• experience in frontend development, with detailed knowledge of HTML, CSS and JavaScript
• experience in building robust and accessible interfaces that work for as many users as possible, regardless of their needs
• experience designing and implementing an asset build pipeline and other supporting tooling required as part of the frontend development environment
• an understanding of software design principles, including progressive enhancement
• the ability to research and learn new development tools and techniques in a supportive environment
• experience researching problems, identifying and evaluating different solutions, and making decisions whilst taking into account the views of peers and stakeholders
• experience of using testing to validate solutions
• understanding of agile environments and version control
• a basic understanding of web security principles
• an awareness of technologies used for web applications, e.g HTTPS, JSON and CDNs, and of Unix-like operating systems, eg Linux and/or Mac OS. 

For our web, publishing and data roles we use Ruby on Rails and will expect you to be familiar with, or upskill in this area as well as bringing your frontend specific skillset to the role. For our Design System role we will expect you to work with Node.

Benefits

There are many benefits of working at GDS, including:

• flexible hybrid working with flexi-time and the option to work part-time or condensed hours
• a Civil Service Pension with an average employer contribution of 28.97%
• 25 days of annual leave, increasing by a day each year up to a maximum of 30 days
• an extra day off for the King’s birthday
• an in-year bonus scheme to recognise high performance
• career progression and coaching, including a training budget for personal development
• paid volunteering leave
• a focus on wellbeing with access to an employee assistance programme
• job satisfaction from making government services easier to use and more inclusive for people across the UK
• advances on pay, including for travel season tickets
• death in service benefits
• cycle to work scheme and facilities
• access to an employee discounts scheme
• 10 learning days per year
• volunteering opportunities (5 special leave days per year)
• access to a suite of learning activities through Civil Service learning

Any move to Government Digital Service from another employer will mean you can no longer access childcare vouchers. This includes moves between government departments. You may however be eligible for other government schemes, including Tax Free Childcare. Determine your eligibility at https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk 

Office attendance
The Department operates a discretionary hybrid working policy, which provides for a combination of working hours from your place of work and from your home in the UK. The current expectation for staff is to attend the office or non-home based location for 40-60% of the time over the accounting period.
DSIT does not normally offer full home working (i.e. working at home); but we do offer a variety of flexible working options (including occasionally working from home).

Things you need to know

Selection process details

The standard selection process for roles at GDS consists of:

• a simple application screening process - We only ask for an anonymised CV and answer 3 knockout questions
• an initial 20 minute video call
• a 60 minute assessment of your technical, communication and planning skills
• a 75 minute panel interview via video call with 3 people from GDS, including at least 2 people currently in technical roles. You'll also have a chance to ask questions at the end.

Depending on how many applications we get, there might also be an extra stage before the video interview, for example a phone interview or a technical exercise.

Artificial Intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action.  Please see our candidate guidance for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

In the event we receive a high volume of applications, we will conduct the initial sift against the lead criteria which is:

• experience in frontend development, with detailed knowledge of HTML, CSS and JavaScript

In the Civil Service, we use Success Profiles to evaluate your skills and ability. This gives us the best possible chance of finding the right person for the job, increases performance and improves diversity and inclusivity. We’ll be assessing your technical abilities, skills, experience and behaviours that are relevant to this role.

For this role we’ll be assessing you against the following Civil Service Behaviours:

• working together
• changing and improving
• making effective decisions
• leadership

We’ll also be assessing your experience and specialist technical skills against the following skills defined in the Government Digital and Data Capability Framework for the Frontend developer role: 

• Accessibility
• Communicating information
• Community collaboration
• Leadership and guidance
• Modern development standards
• Programming and build
• Systems design
• User focus
• Web performance optimisation

Recruitment Timeline

Sift completion: 31st October

Phone Interviews: W/C 10th November

Technical and Interview: 1st December

Candidates that do not pass the interview but have demonstrated an acceptable standard may be considered for similar roles at a lower grade.

A reserve list will be held for a period of 12 months, from which further appointments can be made.

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.

Please note that this role requires SC clearance, which would normally need 5 years’ UK residency in the past 5 years. This is not an absolute requirement, but supplementary checks may be needed where individuals have not lived in the UK for that period. This may mean your security clearance (and therefore your appointment) will take longer or, in some cases, not be possible.

For meaningful checks to be carried out, you will need to have lived in the UK for a sufficient period of time, to enable appropriate checks to be carried out and produce a result which provides the required level of assurance. Whilst a lack of UK residency in itself is not necessarily a bar to a security clearance, and expectation of UK residency may range from 3 to 5 years. Failure to meet the residency requirements needed for the role may result in the withdrawal of provisional jobs offers.

Sponsorship

DSIT cannot offer Visa sponsorship to candidates through this campaign. DSIT holds a Visa sponsorship licence but this can only be used for certain roles and this campaign does not qualify.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.