Senior Frontend Developer (i.AI) - CO - G7
Government Digital & Data -
Government must seize the opportunity of AI to drive outcomes in the public interest. This is of critical importance now. Government needs innovation and must not sleep on the opportunity presented by AI to drive better services for taxpayers and citizens.
In November 2023, the creation of the incubator for AI (i.AI) was announced, and following early successes, the team was expanded in March 2024. Our mission is to harness the opportunity of AI to improve lives, drive growth, and deliver better public services. This is an AI product team that focuses on delivery of technical solutions to public service challenges, responding to ministerial steers about priorities and driving impact out into departments from the centre.
i.AI delivers high impact products and is mission-led, delivering value and innovation within government. We are able to move fast and build things, and are set up specifically to pivot quickly towards priority use cases, and re-use technologies for future impact.
You can see more about our work on ai.gov.uk and on LinkedIn. We work in the open and our code can be found here: https://github.com/i-dot-ai
The Incubator for Artificial Intelligence (i.AI) will be moving to the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) to form part of the new digital centre of government. If offered the position, you will be onboarded to, and initially employed by, the Cabinet Office, but will move with us to DSIT under the machinery of government change. This is expected to happen on 1st June 2025, but this date is subject to change. If shortlisted, the hiring panel will be happy to answer any questions you might have. You're also welcome to reach out to us at i-dot-ai-recruitment@cabinetoffice.gov.uk
Our team is based across Bristol, Manchester and London, and we work in a hybrid manner as default. A minimum 60% of your working time should be spent at your principal workplace, although requirements to attend other locations for official business will also count towards this level of attendance. We will consider part-time and flexible working arrangements - we encourage you to discuss your needs with the hiring manager if you are offered the role.
Job description
About the role
Alongside AI engineering, software engineering is the core technical discipline in the Incubator. Whilst AI engineers focus on the implementation and evaluation of machine learning and LLM technology, software engineers, including frontend developers, are responsible for integrating that technology into working software that delights users and delivers against well-defined metrics.
Frontend engineers collaborate with AI engineers to deliver working code from development to production, taking responsibility for the creation, testing and deployment of user interfaces using standard web technologies. They champion usability, accessibility and simplicity in frontend engineering.
Information session
To give you an idea of working in i.AI and to answer any questions you might have, we encourage you to attend our information session on Tuesday 25th February, 13:00-14:00. You can join the session using this link: meet.google.com/txm-wkus-pbp
Role Responsibilities
- Delivering clean, semantic HTML, CSS and JavaScript to support high-quality, accessible user experiences.
- Contributing to server-side Python code that supports the frontend
- Advocating for progressive enhancement, ensuring that applications work across a range of devices.
- Quickly delivering prototype code to support user research.
- Using your experience working with different frontend technologies to help the team make decisions about which technologies to adopt.
- Sharing your knowledge via activities like pair programming.
- Advocating for coding standards and good practices, especially for JavaScript.
- Supporting the effective management and performance of the team by promoting diversity, inclusion, regular, honest and constructive feedback, and supporting continuous improvement.
Person specification
Essential skills:
- Excellent grasp of HTML, CSS and the fundamentals of JavaScript.
- Experience with Python
- Experience delivering frontend code to production in a multidisciplinary team.
- Proficient with the core technical tools for frontend development.
- Experience working with design systems such as the GOV.UK Design System.
- Working knowledge of web application security and accessibility standards (OWASP, WCAG).
- Writing accessible code following a progressive enhancement approach.
- Ability to collaborate with software engineers, designers and non-technical stakeholders to ensure that the team’s work meets requirements.
- Able to prototype rapidly in code, for example using tools such as the GOV.UK prototype kit.
- Proactive in learning new skills and keeping up to date with the constantly changing landscape of frontend development.
Experience of any of the following would be beneficial, though all we require is an interest in developing these skills in post:
- Experience working with products that have an AI component, such as chat interfaces
- Experience of working with web components
- Experience building apps and services using server-side Python and JavaScript
- Proficiency with the wider ecosystem of frontend tools, such as linters, module bundlers and preprocessors
Strong candidates come from many different backgrounds, and we encourage a broad range of applications to ensure we have a well-balanced team. Studies show that talented people, especially those from groups underrepresented in their field, are more likely to doubt themselves and feel like an "imposter". Unique perspectives enrich teams, so we urge you to have confidence in your potential contributions. If aspects of this role resonate with you, please apply. We look forward to your application.
Additional information:
A minimum 60% of your working time should be spent at your principal workplace. Although requirements to attend other locations for official business will also count towards this level of attendance.
Behaviours
We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:
- Seeing the Big Picture
- Working Together
- Delivering at Pace
Technical skills
We'll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:
- Technical assessment at interview 1
