Software Developer (Python) - Department for Business and Trade - SEO

Location

Belfast, Birmingham, Cardiff, Darlington, Edinburgh, London, Salford

About the job

Job summary

The Department for Business and Trade (DBT) has a clear mission - to grow the economy. Our role is to help businesses invest, grow and export to create jobs and opportunities right across the country. We do this in three ways.   

Firstly, we help to build a strong, competitive business environment, where consumers are protected and companies rewarded for treating their employees properly.  

Secondly, we open international markets and ensure resilient supply chains. This can be through Free Trade Agreements, trade facilitation and multilateral agreements. 

Finally, we work in partnership with businesses every day, providing advance, finance and deal-making support to those looking to start up, invest, export and grow.  

The Digital, Data and Technology (DDaT) directorate develops and operates tools and services to support us in this mission. The team have been nominated four times in a row for ‘Best Public Sector Employer’ at the Women in Tech awards and won the award in 2025! 

Job description

As a software developer in the Digital, Data and Technology (DDaT) directorate in Department for Business and Trade (DBT), you will design, build and maintain software that meets user needs. You will write clean, secure code following a test-driven approach, and create code that is open by default and easy for others to reuse.  

You will work in one of our service teams alongside colleagues in different DDaT roles, such as business analysts, content designers, or user researchers. Your service team will be part of a portfolio of services that are managed together. These portfolios have a thematic focus, such as business growth, data and AI services, employee experience, or trade and regulatory services.  

You will be part of a wider developer community, and you’ll have the opportunity to attend talks and discussions, encouraging knowledge sharing across teams and portfolios 

Main responsibilities  

You can: 

• Develop software to meet user needs
• Follow best practice guidelines and help to improve those guidelines
• Write clean, secure and well-tested code, with an awareness of top security risks (e.g. OWASP Top 10)
• Coach and mentor more junior colleagues
• Operate the services you build and identify issues in production 

Person specification

You will need to show evidence of the following essential skills: 

• Software development using a modern programming language for the web such as Python, JavaScript, C#, Java, PHP or Ruby (Lead Criteria)
• Using relational databases such as PostgreSQL or MySQL
• Software testing, including unit testing and test-driven development (TDD)
• Delivering user-centred features or services using an agile method such as Scrum or Kanban 

You may also have evidence of the following desirable skills: 

• Python as a primary programming language
• Django or a similar Python web application framework