We're recruiting for a Senior Ruby Software Developer here at Justice Digital, to be part of one of our warm and collaborative teams. This role aligns against the Senior developer role from the Government Digital and Data Framework. You'll be confident working with other developers on our tech stack and comfortable learning new technologies and systems. We use a variety of different technologies and will work with you to place you in a team that matches your skills, interests and aspirations wherever possible. As an example, you could be:
* Reducing reoffending rates by improving the scheduling of prison visits in our Prisons team
* Enhancing colleague visibility across justice by developing new features for the MoJ People Finder application
* Building a no-code platform for publishing government forms and services to the internet in the MoJ Forms team
* Maintaining transparency of government by managing freedom of information requests and parliamentary questions in our Central Digital team
You will work with user researchers, product managers, designers, delivery managers, technical architects and content specialists who share a vision for improving government through smarter use of technology. To help picture your life at MoJ Justice Digital please take a look at our blog and our Digital and Technology strategy 2025. Our Tech Stack We use a range of technologies and we're looking for people who specialise in one or more of them and who love learning new languages and frameworks. For example, we might use Ruby, NodeJS, to write our application code, Circle CI or GitHub Actions for CI/CD, Sentry for application monitoring, Kubernetes and Docker to schedule and run our services (read about our Cloud Platform), AWS for most of our infrastructure, GOV.UK Design System for our web interfaces and use Macbook Pros. For front-end development, we value a robust understanding of the underlying web technologies. We value well-maintained, open-source tools that can be used to produce semantic HTML, performant CSS and unobtrusive JavaScript or TypeScript, and we assess all our services against accessibility criteria. We're happy to help you learn our tech stack once you're part of our team, and do not require an exact match in your experience of languages. Check out GitHub for a closer look at the technologies we use, and a complete list of services that we build and maintain. We subscribe to the manifesto for agile software development. Our Community We currently have over 200-250 experienced developers who make up the engineering community across the MoJ. You will coach and mentor junior colleagues and take part in informal support networks with your peers. You will be encouraged to play an active role in the engineering community and culture. We take the responsibility of supportive and effective line management very seriously. We will value the skills you bring to the civil service and help you to build on them. When the time is right we will support moving between teams or government departments to learn different technologies or take on more responsibility, according to your career goals. Take a look at our developer blog and Justice Digital blog to get a sense of our work and culture., As a Senior Software Developer at the MoJ, you will have technical and people responsibilities. Technical:
* Securely designing, building and maintaining APIs, services and systems
* Working on pre-existing codebases
* Improving the resilience and stability of software
* Applying practices to enable continuous delivery
People:
* Developing and influencing people via line management duties, informal and formal coaching, and mentoring
* Supporting lead developers in building high-performing teams
* Helping to build and maintain a diverse, inclusive culture across the development community, growing awareness, inclusivity, and balance
If this feels like an exciting challenge, something you are enthusiastic about, and want to join our team please read on and apply! Person Specification You will:
* Apply modern development and deployment techniques to your work, including continuous integration and continuous delivery
* Champion software maintenance, clean code, coding standards and practices that make change and consistency easier
* Write automated tests to continuously validate your work
* Thrive when you work as part of a team that abides by the spirit of the manifesto of agile software development
* Have awareness of technologies used for web applications, e.g databases, microservices, backups, CDNs and search, DevOps and Unix-like operating systems
* Enjoy sharing knowledge and working in a multi-disciplinary team
* Hold yourself and others to a high standard
* Solve problems in a systematic way
You'll value:
* Continuous learning and development
* Being inclusive, supportive, inquisitive and responsible (MoJ D&T core values)
* Working with integrity, honesty, objectivity and impartiality (Civil Service core values)
Willingness to be assessed against the requirements for BPSS clearance. The Civil Service is committed to attracting, retaining and investing in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the Civil Service People Plan and the Civil Service D&I Strategy., In Justice Digital, we recruit using a combination of the Government Digital and Data Profession Capability and Success Profiles Frameworks. We will assess your Experience, Technical Skills and the following Behaviours during the assessment process:
* Working Together
* Developing Self and Others
* Making Effective Decisions
A diverse panel will review your application against the Person Specification above. Successful candidates who meet the required standard will then be invited to a 60-minute panel interview held via video conference. A small technical test will need to be completed in advance, as it will be discussed and developed during the interview. Should we receive a high volume of applications, a pre-sift based on recent experience as a Developer will be conducted prior to the sift. Should you be unsuccessful in the role that you have applied for, but have demonstrated the capability for a role at a lower level, we reserve the right to discuss this opportunity with you and potentially offer you the position without the need for a further application. A reserve list may be held for a period of up to 12 months from which further appointments may be made. Terms & Conditions Please review our Terms & Conditions which set out how we recruit and provide further information related to the role and salary arrangements.,
* You've been serving overseas with HM Forces or in some other official capacity as a representative of HM Government
* You were studying abroad
* You were living overseas with parents
In such cases you will need to be able to provide referee cover for the period(s) of residence overseas. The duration of overseas residence and the country of abode will also be taken into account. Success Profiles Success Profiles will enable a fairer and more inclusive method of recruitment by enabling us to assess the range of experiences, abilities, strengths, behaviours and technical/professional skills required for different roles. This flexible approach to recruitment focuses more on finding the right candidate for the specific role. To find out more about Success Profiles to support your application please click here for further guidance. if you feel that your application has not been treated in line with the Civil Service Recruitment Principles, please contact SSCL (Moj-recruitment-vetting-enquiries@gov.sscl.com) in the first instance Supporting document 1 Senior Ruby Software Developer - JD.docx - 14KB Opens in a new window Converted File Senior Ruby Software Developer - JD.docx.pdf - 94KB Opens in a new window We have provided detail of the assessment stages and areas being assessed to help you prepare for completing your application form, and to advise of what will be assessed following this, if you successfully pass the application stage.
To apply for roles in MOJ you will need to confirm your employment history for at least 3 years prior to the date of application so that pre-employment checks (BPSS) can be undertaken. If you have spent significant time abroad (a total of 6 months in the past 3 years) you would be required to give a reasonable account of the reasons why. For some roles you will be required to successfully complete National Security Vetting at Counter Terrorism (CTC), Security Clearance (SC) or Developed Vetting (DV) level as a condition of appointment. To meet CTC/SC/DV requirements you will normally need to have been resident in the UK for at least 3/5/10 years prior to the date of application (The level of checks that are required are stated in the advert).
The national salary range is £54,358 - £61,585, London salary range is £58,847 - £66,670. Your salary will be dependent on your base location Total pay in the range of '£50,001 to £60,000, £60,001 and over' are subject to capability, skills and experience. Salary may consist of base pay and a Recruitment and Retention Allowance (RRA) Number of jobs available 1 Detail of reserve list 12 Months Region National City/Town National Building/Site NATIONAL, London: £58,847 - £73,875 (which may include an allowance of up to £15,028) National: £54,358 - £69,150 (which may include an allowance of up to £14,792), If you have any questions, please feel free to contact recruitment@digital.justice.gov.uk Allowance Details London: £58,847 - £73,875 (which may include an allowance of up to £15,028) National: £54,358 - £69,150 (which may include an allowance of up to £14,792) Closing Date