Data Engineer (Ref: 14639)

Job summary

This position is based Nationally

Job description

Data Engineer

Location: National*

Closing Date: 22nd February 2026

Interviews:
Technical tests will take place week commencing 9th March 2026
Final interviews will take place week commencing 23rd March 2026

Grade: HEO

(MoJ candidates who are on a specialist grade, will be able to retain this grade on lateral transfer)

Salary:

National: National: £35,335 - £37,847

Working pattern: full-time, part-time, flexible working

Contract Type: Permanent

Vacancy number: 14639

*We offer a hybrid working model, allowing for a balance between remote work and time spent in your local office. Office locations can be found ON THIS MAP

The Role

We’re recruiting for a Data Engineer here at the Ministry of Justice, to be part of our warm and collaborative Data & Analytics Engineering professions.

This role aligns against Data Engineer from the Government Digital and Data Framework.

This is a great opportunity to work with leading cloud technology and help change the way data is used in the public sector. Data engineers at MoJ play a critical role in our mission to put data at the heart of decision-making. We're looking for people with the drive to develop a deep understanding of data needs and data availability across specific areas of the Ministry of Justice.

You will work alongside Data Engineers and Analytics Engineers, to bridge the gap between data producers and data users, developing analytical pipelines and self-service tools to acquire and transform data, making it available on our Analytical Platform. A summary of the type of work the teams are involved in can be found in our handbook.

Key Responsibilities:

As a Data Engineer your work might involve:

• building robust and scalable automated data flows to connect operational systems, data for analytics and business intelligence (BI) systems
• re-engineering manual data flows to enable scaling and repeatable use
• writing ETL (extract, transform, load) scripts and code to ensure the ETL process performs optimally
• working with data users to understand and meet their needs
• using a range of AWS services to deploy your solutions in a reproducible, sustainable manner
• using infrastructure-as-code to deploy AWS cloud infrastructure
• developing tools and services that enable people to use data effectively

You may also be expected to carry out the following day to day activities:

• updating and maintaining technical documentation
• responding to incident reports, ensuring relevant prioritisation and detail to allow for effective investigation
• writing scripts to automate repetitive tasks
• supporting the Ministry of Justice's Analytical Platform users to use our data and tools
• contributing to team-building and development initiatives

We welcome applications from anyone with the skills we consider make a good

data engineer. You may not currently be in a data engineering role and that's ok.

Many of our team members have a background in analysis, software engineering,

data science, and more.

If this feels like an exciting challenge, something you are enthusiastic about, and want to join our team please read on and apply!

Benefits

• 37 hours per week and flexible working options including working from home, working part-time, job sharing, or working compressed hours.
• A £1k per person learning budget is in place to support all our people, with access to best in class conferences and seminars, accreditation with professional bodies, fully funded vocational programmes and e-learning platforms
• Staff have 10% time to dedicate to develop & grow
• Generous civil service pension based on defined benefit scheme, with employer contributions of 28.97% from April 1st 2024 (Contribution Rates)
• 25 days leave (plus bank holidays) and 1 privilege day usually taken around the Kings’ birthday. 5 additional days of leave once you have reached 5 years of service.
• Compassionate maternity, adoption, and shared parental leave policies, with up to 26 weeks leave at full pay, 13 weeks with partial pay, and 13 weeks further leave. And maternity support/paternity leave at full pay for 2 weeks, too!
• Wellbeing support including access to the Calm app.
• Bike loans up to £2500 and secure bike parking (subject to availability and location)
• Season ticket loans, childcare vouchers and eye-care vouchers.
• 5 days volunteering paid leave.
• Free membership to BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT.
• Some offices may have a subsidised onsite Gym.

Person Specification

Essential

You’ll have a demonstrable passion for Data Engineering, with the following skills or some experience in:

• implementing simple data pipelines from a range of data sources, following established approaches and standards
• designing, coding, testing and deploying programs or scripts in Python and SQL following standards and good practice
• writing readable, maintainable code utilising version control tools, such as git
• adopting and following appropriate data security and compliance measures in your solutions

Willingness to be assessed against the requirements for SC clearance

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.

Person specification

Please refer to Job Description

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £35,335, Ministry of Justice contributes £10,236 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

• Access to learning and development
• A working environment that supports a range of flexible working options to enhance your work life balance
• A working culture which encourages inclusion and diversity
• A Civil Service pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%
• Annual Leave
• Public Holidays
• Season Ticket Advance

For more information about the recruitment process, benefits and allowances and answers to general queries, please click the below link which will direct you to our Candidate Information Page.

Link: https://justicejobs.tal.net/vx/candidate/cms/About%20the%20MOJ

Things you need to know

Artificial intelligence

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 (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Selection process details

How to Apply

Candidates must submit

• an anonymised CV, including career history, responsibilities, and achievements
• a cover letter which describes how you meet the requirements set out in the Person Specification above – this should be no longer than 750 words

We are recruiting 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:

• Changing and Improving
• Managing a Quality Service

A diverse panel will review your application against the essential criteria detailed in the Person Specification above.

Successful candidates who meet the required standard will then be invited to undertake a 1-hour technical test, if you pass the technical test, you will be invited to a 1-hour panel interview (on a separate date) held via video conference.

Should we receive a high volume of applications, esigning, coding, testing and deploying programs or scripts in Python and SQL following standards and good practice will be conducted before the sift.

When sifting applications, we’ll be assessing candidates based on the following criteria:

• Implementing simple data pipelines from a range of data sources, following established approaches and standards
• Designing, coding, testing and deploying programs or scripts in Python and SQL following standards and good practice
• Writing readable, maintainable code utilising version control tools, such as git

Should you be unsuccessful in the role that you have applied for but demonstrate the capability for a role at a lower level, we reserve the right to discuss this opportunity with you and offer you the position without needing a further application.

A reserve list may be held for up to 12 months, from which further appointments may be made.

Use of Artificial Intelligence

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.

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)

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.

Diversity and Inclusion

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see theCivil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).

Apply and further information

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 : SSCL Recruitment Enquiries Team
• Email : moj-recruitment-vetting-enquiries@resourcing.soprasteria.co.uk
• Telephone : 0345 241 5359

Recruitment team

• Email : moj-recruitment-vetting-enquiries@resourcing.soprasteria.co.uk

Further information

Appointment to the Civil Service is governed by the Civil Service Commission’s Recruitment Principles. If you feel a department has breached the requirement of the Recruitment Principles and would like to raise this, please contact SSCL (Moj-recruitment-vetting-enquiries@gov.sscl.com) in the first instance. If the role has been advertised externally (outside of the Civil Service) and you are not satisfied with the response, you may bring your complaint to the Commission. For further information on bringing a complaint to the Civil Service Commission please visit their web pages: http://civilservicecommission.independent.gov.uk/civil-service-recruitm…

https://www.jobtrain.co.uk/justicedigital/Job/JobDetail?JobId=970

Attachments

Data Engineer HEO FEB 26 JD Opens in new window (docx, 39kB)