Software Engineer (£36,103)

Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency

Apply before 11:55 pm on Sunday 29th September 2024

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Details

Reference number

367443

Salary

£32,603

You will also receive a Recruitment and Retention Allowance of £3,500 which will bring your total pay up to £36,103

A Civil Service Pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%

Job grade

Higher Executive Officer

Contract type

Permanent

Business area

DVLA - Information Technology Services

Type of role

Digital
Information Technology

Working pattern

Flexible working, Full-time, Job share, Part-time

Number of jobs available

6

Contents

• Location
• About the job
• Benefits
• Things you need to know
• Apply and further information

Location

Swansea

About the job

Job summary

Are you an experienced Software Engineer who has a genuine ambition and aim to succeed?

Would you like to work with leading serverless, and cloud based technologies?

If so, we would love to hear from you!

We are recruiting software developers, to work with us and help us build services that reach over 50 million people a year. In this role, you’ll work in an agile delivery team alongside lead and senior engineers to build modern, cloud-based services.

Job description

The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) deliver wide reaching digital services to the UK public and industry. We maintain the national record of vehicles and drivers so if you have applied for a driving licence, taxed your vehicle or completed a vehicle enquiry you would have used one of our services.

Within and between our teams, we have a friendly and stable engineering community. Keeping work/life enjoyable is key to us, and we strive to ensure the efficient and secure use of software and infrastructure.

Our current deliveries include:

• Two major programmes of work, modernising our drivers and vehicles services and systems.
• Entirely new services including a new customer portal, mobile digital driving licence and identity platform.
• The DVLA digital payment service that helps us collect around 6 billion pounds a year.
• New versions of key driving licence services that will help us to reduce paper forms, reduce waiting times and to enable all of our customers to transact digitally.

As part of our core business services, you will work with Java and SpringBoot alongside tools like OpenAPI. No specific Java experience is needed. All you need is a passion for building clean, maintainable, and secure applications using an object-oriented language.

If you’re working on the front-end, you’ll be developing applications and reusable components using a combination of Ruby on Rails and React. You will also have the opportunity to build and develop our external and internal UIs, so this is an exciting opportunity to deliver far reaching, intuitive and accessible front-end systems.

We also make extensive use of serverless Node.js and TypeScript using AWS services such as Lambda, Step Functions and Dynamodb to build services using event-driven architecture patterns.

As part of our ongoing mission to support and develop all staff within the DVLA, you will be given a high spec Macbook and we will help you to achieve certification in areas such as AWS and Java, as well as giving you the freedom and support necessary to perform in your role and continuously develop your skill set.

Would you like to find out more about the role, the technology and what you would be working on? If so, we are organising a session where you can virtually 'meet the team' on Wednesday 25th September 2024 at 11am.

Please click here to book on.

Responsibilities

Your responsibilities will include but will not be limited to: 

1. Develop Software to meet user needs.
2. Follow Best Practice Guidelines and help to improve those Guidelines
3. Write clean, secure and well-tested code
4. Coach and mentor more junior colleagues
5. Operate the services they build and identify issues in production.

For further information about the role please see the attached role profile. 

Additional Information  

Applications will be accepted from full time/part time/job sharers. Full time roles at DVLA consist of 37 hours per week. Part time and/or flexible working may also be available subject to the needs of the business. If you have a flexible or part time working requirement, you should contact the vacancy holder in advance of making an application to avoid possible disappointment later in the process should your desired working arrangements not be compatible with the requirements of the role. To contact the vacancy holder, please use the job contact details listed under ‘Contact point for applicants’. 

Person specification

• You will be experienced working as a software engineer across multiple projects, developing software using a variety of modern technologies and tools
• You will be able to work with a team to shape and define requirements and have the skills to build, tests, and deliver features and services
• You will need to be comfortable in using modern CI/CD tooling with an understanding of languages such as Java, Ruby, C#, HTML, Python or similar
• You may have experience delivering services using a public cloud provider such as AWS, Azure or Google Cloud, or a motivation to develop these skills

Working for the DVLA Digital Team 

At DVLA, licensing is just the start. Every project you implement, touch and deliver has a ripple effect that’ll wash across the nation. Here the work you’re doing has the capacity to change the way 50 million people interact with our services. As we aim to keep our roads some of the safest in the world, our innovative, transformative digital-led services help optimise a nation of individuals and business every single day.   

To see how our people are transforming our digital services, head over to our DVLA Digital Services Blog and, to understand more about the great opportunities and benefits of working at DVLA read our Inside DVLA blog.   

Visit the DVLA Engineering GitHub to read the blogs written by our engineers and find out more about the work we do.

Due to the evolving nature of the business, vacancies can become available at any time. Therefore, this campaign may create a reserve list to fulfil demand if it arises which will be held for a period of 12 months. 

Behaviours

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

• Delivering at Pace

Technical skills

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

• Developer - Modern Standards Approach (Skill level: Practitioner)
• Developer - Systems Integration (Skill level: Working)
• Developer - Systems Design (Skill level: Working)
• Developer - Programming and Build (Software Engineering) (Skill level: Practitioner)

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £32,603, Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency contributes £9,445 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

Passionate, reliable and always willing to push yourself and those around you, you’ll continue to seek improvement in your own role and challenge us too. Because we pride ourselves on how we approach your development. From training courses to specialist skills workshops and opportunities to grow your expertise, we thrive when you thrive. You can find out more about all of the above here alongside a full list of our benefits:     

• Best in class learning and development tailored to your role    
• An environment with flexible working options where we encourage a great work-life balance  
• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity with a range of staff communities to support all our colleagues    
• Generous employer contribution of 28.97%, depending on chosen pension scheme   
• Digital communities with clear career frameworks   
• On-site gym plus personal training available (membership applies)   
• On-site nursery, restaurants and coffee bar    
• 25 days holiday (plus bank holidays), increasing by 1 each year (up to 30) & 1 extra day for the King’s birthday   
• Free parking     
• A hybrid office/home based working model where staff will spend a minimum of 60% of their time in the office over a month, with flexibility dependent on balancing business and individual need 

There are many more opportunities and great benefits of working at DVLA, visit our Careers website for further information.     

Things you need to know

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours, Experience and Technical skills.

How to Apply   

As part of the application process for this role you will need to submit a CV. Further details around what this will entail are listed on the application form. 

For your CV, please provide detailed evidence of your experience of the following essential criteria:   

• Experience working on one or more commercial, software delivery projects
• Experience in one or more technical specialism such as Java, C#, front-end development or serverless 

Click here for further guidance on writing a CV.

The sift is due to take place from Monday 30th September 2024.

Interviews will be held week commencing Monday 14th October 2024.

This interview will be conducted via a video interview. Further details of which will be provided to you should you be selected for interview. 

We will try to meet the dates set out in the advert. There may be occasions when these dates will change. You will be provided with sufficient notice of the confirmed dates. 

If invited to interview, this may consist of a range of question types. These could include questions around behaviours and how you would respond in any situation as well as specific examples of things you have done. 

The selection process will be designed specifically for the role. As a result, your assessment will include: 

•              an interview and technical coding exercise 

The Department for Transport alongside other Government Departments recruit using Success Profiles. This means for each role we consider what you will need to demonstrate in order to be successful. This gives us the best possible chance of finding the right person for the job, drives up performance and improves diversity and inclusivity.  

For further information on Success Profiles visit our Careers website.

Please take note that DVLA does not hold a UK Visa & Immigration (UKVI) Skilled Worker License sponsor and are unable to sponsor any individuals for Skilled Worker Sponsorship. 

Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) 

You must ensure that any evidence submitted as part of your application or used during interview is truthful and factually accurate. Applications may be rejected if plagiarism is detected. Examples of plagiarism can include presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or concepts generated by artificial intelligence, as your own. 

Reasonable Adjustments

As a Disability Confident Leader employer, we are committed to ensuring that the recruitment process is fair, accessible and allows all candidates to perform at their best. If a person with a visible or non-visible disability is substantially disadvantaged, we have a duty to make reasonable changes to our processes.

Complete the “Assistance required” section in the “Additional requirements” page of your application form to tell us what changes or help you might need during the recruitment process. For instance, you may need wheelchair access at an interview, or if you’re deaf, a Language Service Professional.

If you need a reasonable adjustment so that you can complete your application, you should contact Government Recruitment Service via dftrecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk as soon as possible before the closing date to discuss your needs.

Document Accessibility

If you are experiencing accessibility problems with any attachments on this advert, please contact the email address in the 'Contact point for applicants' section.

This job advert contains links to the DfT Careers website. Our website provides useful guidance and information that can support you during the application process. If you cannot access the information on our website for any reason, please email DRGComms@dft.gov.uk for assistance.

Further Information

For more information about how we hire, and for useful tips on submitting your application for this role, visit the How We Hire page of our DfT Careers website. You can find detailed information about the recruitment process and what to expect when applying for a role.

Pre-employment Checking

Applicants who are successful at interview will be, as part of pre-employment screening, subject to a check on the Internal Fraud Database (IFD). This check will provide information about employees who have been dismissed for fraud or dishonesty offences. This check also applies to employees who resign or otherwise leave before being dismissed for fraud or dishonesty had their employment continued. Any applicant’s details held on the IFD will be refused employment. 

A candidate is not eligible to apply for a role within the Civil Service if the application is made within a 5-year period following a dismissal for carrying out internal fraud against government.

For further information on National Security Vetting please visit the following page https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/demystifying-vetting

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

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.

Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check (opens in a new window).

See our vetting charter (opens in a new window).

People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)