Domains Senior Developer

Job description

As a Domains Team Senior Developer you’ll be responsible for working alongside mid-level and junior developers to build and maintain services for identifying and managing vulnerabilities associated with public sector domains. You will be expected to take the lead on individual epics as well as contributing across all of the team’s priorities.

The platform has a Django application at its core, supported by AWS serverless components and automated tasks using Celery. These components feed data into a Salesforce-based frontend. We have several ancillary services supporting the team’s wider objectives and plan to stand up additional components/services over the next year.

Our services are built almost exclusively using Python, including our infrastructure (using the AWS CDK), with small amounts of HTML/CSS and Javascript used in our frontend and for automated testing.

You will build and maintain a domain vulnerability management toolset, principally in Python, including:

• adding new, commercially-available or open source data sources to our existing ingestion pipeline
• designing, building and maintaining additional tools for monitoring for and detecting vulnerabilities with public sector services
• extending our existing Django/Postgres-based API to accommodate new classes of vulnerability and enable reporting of these to operational colleagues and external partners
• building and extending tools to export vulnerability data to public sector domain owners, as supported by their vulnerability management tooling (MS Sentinel, Splunk etc)
• maintaining and improving web applications used by our partners for consuming services provided by the Domains Team
• integrating newly-built and extended components with our existing, AWS-based infrastructure using the Python CDK
• extending our existing reporting tooling (based on AWS Quicksight), and build new tools as required, to provide stakeholders with an overall picture of the range and scale of vulnerabilities discovered by our service
• clearly communicating ideas with the rest of the development team, service owners, and other colleagues; receive feedback and build consensus for proposed solutions
• sharing responsibility for establishing development standards and good practice, and ensuring that the development team works to them
• ensuring the product is built according to the needs of users, including an operations team, a communications team, national security stakeholders and other apex domain holders

The above list of job duties is not exhaustive and a willingness to work flexibly as priorities change is an essential requirement of the role.

Person specification

This role aligns to the following in the Government Digital and Data Profession Capability Framework - Senior Developer (technical)

• Development process optimisation
• Information security
• Programming and build (software engineering)
• Prototyping
• Service support
• Systems design
• Systems integration
• User focus

Specialist skills required

You will also have the following skills:

• a high level of expertise in Python and Python web frameworks, ideally Django
• strong working knowledge of modern development tools, including Docker, git and GitHub
• a good working knowledge of Amazon Web Services, in particular deploying containerised applications
• an ability to build and maintain CI/CD tooling, ideally using GitHub Actions and AWS CodeBuild/CodePipeline
• a strong understanding of relational databases, ideally PostgreSQL
• the ability to investigate problems with running applications, including interrogating AWS logs, responding to errors raised in Sentry (or similar tools) and applying fixes
• experience of deploying applications and infrastructure using either the Python CDK or other infrastructure as code products
• a good working knowledge of Linux/UNIX, including system administration and shell scripting
• an understanding of what DNS is and its role in enabling the operation of the Internet
• experience leading work within an Agile environment, including leading and supporting more junior developers

Benefits

The benefits of working at CDDO

There are many benefits including:

• flexible hybrid working with flexi-time and the option to work part-time or condensed hours
• a Civil Service Pension with an 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 children's holiday play schemes across different locations in central London
• 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

CDDO offers hybrid working for all employees. This means that everyone does some working from home and also spends some time in their local office. You’ll agree to your hybrid working arrangement with your line manager in line with your preferences and business needs.

Any move to the Central Digital and Data Office 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

Things you need to know

Selection process details

The standard selection process for roles at CDDO consists of:

• a simple application screening process - We only ask for a CV and cover letter of up to 750 words. Important tip - please ensure that your cover letter includes how you meet the skills and experience listed in the “person specification” section above
• a 60 video interview - as part of the interview you will be asked to complete a technical exercise.

Whilst we value the use of AI technology to enhance our daily work, we also value the personal touch and urge applicants to write responses without the use of AI to emphasise their own unique experiences.

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.

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

• a high level of expertise in Python and Python web frameworks, ideally Django

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:

• Leadership
• Making Effective Decisions
• Working Together

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

• Development process optimisation
• Information security
• Programming and build (software engineering)
• Prototyping
• Service support
• Systems design
• Systems integration
• User focus

Recruitment Timeline

Role closes: 10th November 2024

Sift completion: 15th November 2024

Panel interviews: starting from 22nd November 2024

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.

You may be aware that there are plans for the Government Digital Service (GDS) & the Central Digital & Data Office (CDDO) to move into the Department of Science, Innovation & Technology (DSIT). This move is to bring together the digital transformation of public services into one core department. The move itself will offer huge opportunities whilst allowing DSIT to lead the way and drive forward the new Government's digital agenda. 

As the announcement is relatively new, we are awaiting more detailed information. Therefore, we encourage you to apply for this role, and will keep you informed with updated information throughout the application process.

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