Lead Software Engineer

Birmingham, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Exeter, Ipswich, Leeds, London (Croydon & Stratford) Manchester, Newcastle, and Nottingham.

Job Summary

The Insolvency Service is a leading Government agency which plays a crucial role in providing essential services to the public and to business. The work we do is important to the proper functioning of markets, the economy in general and support for thousands of people each year who are in financial difficulty.

We have an exciting opportunity for a talented, enthusiastic Lead Software Engineer within our Digital Services team. We are responsible for delivering and maintaining digital services for the agency.

Inclusive and diverse teams are important to us. We welcome and encourage applications from everyone, including groups underrepresented in our workforce. The Insolvency Service strives to ensure that the agency is a safe, inclusive, and welcoming place for everybody to bring their true self to work and to help the agency to achieve its diversity objectives. We have 10 active employee network groups available to join or become an ally, these include, Carers Network, Disability & Health, FACES Network Group, Grass Roots, LGBT+, Mind Matters, No Limits, Part Time Workers, The Shed, and Women’s Network Group.

We offer full-time, part-time, job share and flexible ways of working. We value capability, technical skills and experience and we place great emphasis on lifetime development to support our people. We encourage our employees to become more involved in areas they feel strongly about, whether it be for the benefit of the agency, though our Engagement network or in their own local communities via volunteering opportunities.

The Insolvency Service is a great place to work, learn and grow your career!

Job Description

Digital Services is comprised of an in-house team made up of a blend of QAT, development and delivery capabilities. We are currently consolidating our technology stack and moving away from legacy services, so this is a fantastic opportunity to help shape our digital services and the way we work for a sustainable and user centric future. We would love to for you to be part of that new team.

Digital services are part of Change and Technology Services (CTS). CTS provide key services including digital services, cyber security and information governance, service architecture and governance and digital programme delivery.

Responsibilities

As a Lead Software Engineer, you will:

• Support the design and lead the implementation of digital services using C#, HTML, CSS, JavaScript (client-side, express.js, hapi) and the Azure stack, i.e. Azure SQL, Cosmos DB, AI Search, Azure app services, Function apps, meeting the requirements of the Technology Code of Practice and Gov.UK Service manual
• Work with a multi-disciplinary team and business stakeholders, fostering good relationships and responding to views and challenges from others
• Provide technical direction for the team of engineers across our digital services
• Ensure that we build digital products that are interoperable, share components and are sustainable, i.e. perform well and share infrastructure as much as possible to keep energy use and costs as low as possible
• Work with the wider agency leadership team, promoting the work of digital services, helping build and maintain a diverse inclusive culture across the agency
• Develop and sustain modern development standards, practices and techniques in our development team
• Support, coach and mentor the development team
• Advocate user-centric, agile approaches which focus on efficient delivery of high-quality digital services
• Aid in agile development centre user centred design, Test-Driven Development and continuous deployment
  
  

Digital Services is comprised of an in-house team made up of a blend of QAT, development and delivery capabilities. We are currently consolidating our technology stack and moving away from legacy services, so this is a fantastic opportunity to help shape our digital services and the way we work for a sustainable and user centric future. We would love to for you to be part of that new team.

Digital services are part of Change and Technology Services (CTS). CTS provide key services including digital services, cyber security and information governance, service architecture and governance and digital programme delivery.

As a Lead Software Engineer, You Will

• Support the design and lead the implementation of digital services using C#, HTML, CSS, JavaScript (client-side, express.js, hapi) and the Azure stack, i.e. Azure SQL, Cosmos DB, AI Search, Azure app services, Function apps, meeting the requirements of the Technology Code of Practice and Gov.UK Service manual
• Work with a multi-disciplinary team and business stakeholders, fostering good relationships and responding to views and challenges from others
• Provide technical direction for the team of engineers across our digital services
• Ensure that we build digital products that are interoperable, share components and are sustainable, i.e. perform well and share infrastructure as much as possible to keep energy use and costs as low as possible
• Work with the wider agency leadership team, promoting the work of digital services, helping build and maintain a diverse inclusive culture across the agency
• Develop and sustain modern development standards, practices and techniques in our development team
• Support, coach and mentor the development team
• Advocate user-centric, agile approaches which focus on efficient delivery of high-quality digital services
• Aid in agile development centre user centred design, Test-Driven Development and continuous deployment
  
  

Person specification

The Successful Candidate Will Have

• A proven ability to lead the delivery of complex software solutions across all project phases in a multi-disciplinary agile team, utilising C#, Javascript and the Azure stack
• Experience of IaaS and PaaS solutions and ability to analyse legacy services to upgrade to PaaS
• Understanding of the importance of good documentation, contribute to design, and support architectural decision making for our digital services
• Enthusiasm for sharing knowledge and mentoring others, supporting the team and nurturing its growth
• Knowledge and experience of modern development practices such as BDD and TDD, CI/CD, and DevOps, modern development workflows, ideally using GitHub, as well as an understanding of modern design principles such as clean architecture, OOP, SOLID, RESTful APIs
• A good understanding of web application security and awareness of the OWASP Top 10 security vulnerabilities
• Understanding of the GDS Service Manual and Technology Code of Practise
  
  

Behaviours

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

• Working Together
• Leadership
  
  

Technical skills

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

• A hypothetical technical scenario will be the given to the candidates who are successful at sift stage and are invited to interview. Further information will be released to those invited to interview.
  
  

Alongside your salary of £56,799, Insolvency Service contributes £16,454 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

Benefits

We want you to have a good work-life balance and want to support you in all that you do, so we offer a great benefits package including:

• flexible working arrangements and flexi-time
• full time new entrants to the Civil Service and those Civil Servants on modernised terms and conditions will be entitled to 25 days leave increasing on a sliding scale to 30 days after 5 years’ service
• in addition to this you are entitled to 8 public/bank holidays plus an additional day of privilege leave
• competitive maternity, paternity and parental leave
• 5 days paid leave for learning and development
• 5 days paid for volunteering
• a Cycle to work scheme
• staff have access to an employee assistance programme, Workplace Wellness, for confidential, independent support and advice during difficult times in either their professional or personal life
  
  

Your pension is a valuable part of your total reward package where the employer makes a significant contribution to the cost of your pension. Your contributions come out of your salary before any tax is taken. This means, if you pay tax, your take-home pay will not be reduced by the full amount of your contribution; and your pension will continue to provide valuable benefits for you and your family if you are too ill to continue to work or die before you retire. For more information, visit www.civilservicepensionscheme.org.uk

Selection process details

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

As part of the sift process, you will be asked to complete:

• CV
• Personal Statement
  
  

Further details around what this will entail are listed on the application form.

Should a large number of applications be received, an initial sift may be conducted using the Personal Statement. Candidates who pass the initial sift may be progressed to a full sift or progressed straight to interview.

Your CV should provide a clear overview of your employment history, key responsibilities, relevant qualifications, and the skills and experience you’ve gained throughout your career including any notable achievements.

Note: Your CV will be scored as part of the assessment process and will be assessed against the criteria outlined in the job advert.

Your personal statement should be no more than 500 words and must demonstrate how your personal skills, qualities, and experience align with the requirements of the role. Please ensure your statement references the essential criteria outlined in the person specification. This will help provide a clearer basis for scoring and will be particularly useful in the event of tied scores.

If successful at the sift stage, at interview, you will be assessed on the following:

• Experience
• Behaviours - assessed through:

• Behaviour 1 - Working Together
• Behaviour 2 - Leadership
  
  

• Technical Skills
  
  

Expected timeline (subject to change)

Sift – week commencing 1st December 2025

Interview – week commencing 11th December 2025

Location - MS Teams

Your interview will either be conducted face to face or by video. You will be notified of this if you are selected for interview. Candidates are asked to note the above timetable, exercising flexibility through the recruitment and selection process.

Use of AI

Artificial Intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Visa Applicants

To sponsor a candidate under the Skilled Worker visa, a sponsorship licence is required. The Insolvency Service does not currently hold this licence and therefore, cannot legally sponsor Skilled Worker visa applicants.

Hybrid Working

Insolvency Service operates a hybrid working policy subject to business need, giving people the flexibility to choose when and where they work and collaborate with others.

Individuals are expected to work from one of the office locations stated in the advert to connect with their colleagues, as required by their role and business team needs. There is flexibility to split the working week, spending a minimum of 60% in the workplace, which includes the office, site visits, court etc.

Further Information

A reserve list may be held for a period of 12 months from which further appointments can be made.

Any move to Insolvency Service 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; for further information visit the Childcare Choices website.

If successful and transferring from another Government Department a criminal record check may be carried out.

In order to process applications without delay, we will be sending a Criminal Record Check to Disclosure and Barring Service/Disclosure Scotland on your behalf.

However, we recognise in exceptional circumstances some candidates will want to send their completed forms direct. If you will be doing this, please advise Government Recruitment Service of your intention by emailing [email protected] stating the job reference number in the subject heading.

For further information on the Disclosure Scotland confidential checking service telephone: the Disclosure Scotland Helpline on 0870 609 6006 and ask to speak to the operations manager in confidence, or email [email protected]

New entrants are expected to join on the minimum of the pay band.

Reasonable Adjustment

If a person with disabilities is put at a substantial disadvantage compared to a non-disabled person, we have a duty to make reasonable changes to our processes.

If you need a change to be made so that you can make your application, you should:

Contact Government Recruitment Service via [email protected] as soon as possible before the closing date to discuss your needs.

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

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

Feedback

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

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

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.

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

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.

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)

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window).

The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.

The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window).

The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.

The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.

Diversity and Inclusion

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 (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).

This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans (opens in a new window) initiative.

The Civil Service welcomes applications from people who have recently left prison or have an unspent conviction. Read more about prison leaver recruitment (opens in new window).

Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Contact point for applicants

Job Contact

• Name : CTS Corporate Support Team
• Email : [email protected]
  
  

Recruitment team

• Email : [email protected]
  
  

Further information

A candidate can raise a complaint to the Insolvency Service if they think that:

They have been discriminated against under the Equality Act 2010.

There have been procedural irregularities at any stage of the recruitment process.

If you feel that your application has not been treated in accordance with the recruitment principles, and wish to make a complaint, then you should contact in the first instance: [email protected]. If you are not satisfied with the response that you receive you can then contact the Civil Service Commission.

All complaints must be received by the contact point for applicants within 24 hours from the date the applicant is advised of their non-success at sift, assessment or interview. Complaints will be considered by an independent third-party outside of the recruitment campaign. The decision will be conveyed to the applicant, in writing, within 5 working days of receipt of the complaint. The recruitment process will usually be put on hold until the complaint has been resolved.

Complaints may also be made to the Civil Service Commission at any time if the individual believes their application has not been treated in accordance with the recruitment principles (appointment on merit through fair and open competition). However, complaints must first have been raised with Government Recruitment Service.