DBS DIT- Payroll Software Developer

Job summary

Defence Business Services (DBS) - Digital, Information and Technology (DIT) -

Digital, Information, Technology - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)>

Are you a dedicated person who is passionate about making a difference?

Would you like to work for the Ministry of Defence?

Defence Business Services (DBS) is one of the largest shared service organisations in Europe that provides a wide range of corporate services, to over 1.2 million end users, including serving and past military and families, as well as MoD civil servants and industry. DBS delivers large scale administration and smaller specialist services to enable the wider MOD to focus on its core aims, maintaining the UK’s Defence and Security. Services include Human Resources, Pay, Veterans, Finance and Procurement.

• Our Vision - To support UK defence customers with outstanding service every time.
• Our Mission - Together we will proudly support Defence, continuously improving and delivering flexible, timely, sustainable and value for money services that underpin the whole force and enhance operational capability.

DBS is committed to creating a great place to work for all our colleagues. We are building an inclusive culture and respectful environment that reflects the diversity of the society.

We want to maximise the potential of everyone who chooses to work for us through opportunities to develop your skills and experience. We also offer a range of flexible working patterns and support to make a fulfilling career accessible to you and offer a Civil Service pension with an average employer contribution of 27%. Where your role permits, we support a blended working approach alternatively known as hybrid working.

Come and join the DBS community today!

DBS is part of The National Armaments Directorate (NAD) Group which is at the heart of delivering and sustaining the UK’s defence capability. Bringing together organisations responsible for developing, procuring, supporting and modernising Defence equipment, infrastructure and services, the Directorate works closely with industry, international partners and academia to ensure the Armed Forces have the capabilities they need to deter threats, protect the nation and succeed on operations. NAD drives innovation, operational readiness and value for money while supporting economic growth and strengthening the UK’s defence industrial base.

Job description

DBS Digital & Information Technology (DIT) delivers the digital capability that underpins critical corporate services across the Ministry of Defence, including Payroll, Human Resources, Finance and Commercial services for Military Personnel, Civilian Personnel, Veterans and Arm's Length Bodies.

Our digital services utilise modern cloud and enterprise technologies, including Oracle Fusion Cloud, Microsoft platforms, Cognos, automation solutions and low-code technologies. These services support some of the largest and most complex HR and payroll operations in government, delivering accurate and timely pay for tens of thousands of employees.

The DIT Payroll and Expenses team provides the digital capability that underpins one of the largest and most complex payroll environments in UK government. Supporting approximately 63,000 employees across multiple Defence organisations, the team combines payroll expertise with software development, assurance, reporting and application engineering capabilities to provide secure, resilient and compliant payroll and expenses services. Responsible for both change delivery and live service operations, the team delivers statutory and legislative changes, pay awards, business-critical fixes, service improvements and major transformation programmes, while operating the payroll engine and expenses processes for multiple pay groups. The team plays a vital role in ensuring Defence civilian personnel are paid accurately and on time.

As a Functional Payroll Software Developer, you will play a pivotal role in designing, developing, testing and supporting payroll solutions within Oracle Fusion HCM Cloud. You will work closely with business stakeholders, payroll specialists, test teams and technical colleagues to deliver enhancements, statutory changes, defect resolutions and major transformation initiatives.

This role combines software development principles with functional Oracle HCM Payroll configuration and business process expertise. You will develop robust, scalable and maintainable payroll solutions that underpin the accurate and timely payment of tens of thousands of Defence personnel and employees.

What You'll Do

You will:

• Design, develop and maintain Oracle Fusion HCM Payroll solutions that meet business and user needs.
• Configure payroll elements, balances, calculations and related payroll components within Oracle Cloud.
• Develop and maintain Fast Formula, payroll configuration and supporting system functionality.
• Develop clean, secure and well-tested payroll solutions in accordance with departmental standards and best practice.
• Analyse legislative, policy and business requirements and translate them into effective payroll system solutions.
• Deliver solutions for both live service support and change programmes, including legislative updates, pay awards and business transformation initiatives.
• Investigate, troubleshoot and resolve complex payroll and system issues in test and production environments.
• Ensure all solutions are peer reviewed, appropriately tested and documented before implementation.
• Support payroll assurance activities, ensuring solutions are compliant, auditable and fit for production deployment.
• Collaborate with payroll operations, assurance, reporting and integration teams to deliver end-to-end solutions.
• Support unit testing and quality assurance activities, including system, integration, user acceptance and payroll parallel run testing.
• Monitor and support the services you build, identifying opportunities to improve performance, reliability and user experience. Contribute to the development and continuous improvement of development, configuration and assurance standards.
• Follow software development and configuration best practice, contributing to continuous improvement of standards and processes.
• Produce clear technical and functional documentation to support supportability and knowledge sharing.
• You will be expected to have or develop understanding of some or all of the following functionality: SQL/PLSQL, HCM Extract, HCM Data Loader (HDL), FastFormula, HCM Spreadsheet Loader (HSDL/AD).

Why Join Us?

This is an opportunity to work on one of the UK Government’s largest and most complex payroll environments. Your work will directly support the delivery of pay and HR services to Ministry of Defence employees and partners, while contributing to major digital transformation programmes that modernise how government services are delivered.

You'll join a diverse, multidisciplinary team of developers, payroll specialists, application engineers and assurance professionals, working together to deliver reliable services that make a real difference to thousands of users across Defence.

You'll have the opportunity to develop specialist expertise in Oracle Fusion Payroll while helping deliver secure, resilient and high-performing services that support critical Defence operations every day.

Person specification

Essential Skills and Experience

We are looking for someone with:

• Experience developing, configuring or supporting software solutions within an enterprise application environment.
• Understanding of Oracle HCM Cloud Payroll.
• Understanding of payroll processes and payroll legislation, or the ability to rapidly develop this knowledge.
• Ability to analyse business requirements and translate them into effective system solutions.
• Experience investigating and resolving complex functional issues.
• Knowledge of software development lifecycle practices, including documentation, testing and change control.
• Experience working within agile or structured delivery environments.
• Strong stakeholder engagement and communication skills.
• Ability to work collaboratively across multidisciplinary teams.
• A commitment to producing high-quality, secure and maintainable solutions.

Desirable Skills and Experience

Experience of:

• Configuring and developing Oracle HCM Cloud Payroll solutions.
• Developing and troubleshooting Oracle Fast Formula.
• Understanding payroll processes and payroll legislation.
• MOD payroll processes and practices.
• Working within a government shared services environment or public sector payroll environment.
• Oracle HCM Core HR, Absence Management or Compensation.
• Oracle Integration Cloud (OIC), payroll integrations and data interfaces.
• Oracle Transactional Business Intelligence (OTBI) and reporting solutions.
• End-to-end payroll delivery and operational payroll support.
• Large-scale transformation or cloud migration programmes.

Behaviours

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

• Making Effective Decisions
• Changing and Improving

Technical skills

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

• Programming and build (software engineering)
• User Focus
• Modern Development Standards
• Systems Design

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £37,720, Ministry of Defence contributes £10,927 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides (opens in a new window).

• An environment with flexible working options Monday-Friday
• 25 days paid annual leave rising (1 day per year) to 30 days upon completion of 5 years’ service (pro rata). In addition to 8 public holidays per year, you will also receive leave for His Majesty The King’s birthday
• Hybrid working where role permits
• An opportunity to be considered for Reward and Recognition
• Family-friendly policies including - parental leave and adoption leave
• Learning and development tailored to your role
• Professional and personal development of skills
• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
• Minimum of 15 days special leave in a rolling 12 month period for volunteer reserve commitments
• Special paid leave to volunteer up to 6 days per year
• A Civil Service pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%

Where business needs allow, some roles may be suitable for a combination of office and working from home as part of a non-contractual hybrid working arrangement. All office-based employees will be expected to spend a minimum of 60% of their working time in office, subject to site capacity and any required workplace adjustments. Requirements to attend other locations for official business, or work in another MOD workplace, will also count towards this level of office attendance. Applicants can request further information regarding how this and other flexible working arrangements may work in their team from the Vacancy Holder (see advert for contact details). Defence Business Services cannot respond to any questions about working arrangements.

The post does not offer relocation expenses.

External recruits who join the MOD who are new to the Civil Service will be subject to a six-month probation period.

This post may be eligible for a Digital Skills Allowance of up to £11,400 per annum. Eligibility for this allowance will be assessed at interview against the 4 core technical skills only and reviewed annually in line with departmental policy. ​

Please Note: Expenses incurred for travel to interviews will not be reimbursed.

Please be advised that the Department is conducting a review of all pay related allowances which could impact on those allowances that the post currently being advertised attracts.

Any move to MOD 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/.

The Ministry of Defence is committed to providing a safe and healthy working environment for its staff which includes educating them on the benefits of not smoking, protecting them from the harmful effects of second-hand smoke and supporting those who want to give up smoking. Under the Smoke-Free Working Environment policy, Smoking and the use of all tobacco products (including combustible and chewing tobacco products) will not be permitted anywhere in the Defence working environment however some exemptions are in place, please refer to local guidance. The policy is Whole Force and includes all Defence personnel, contractors, visitors and other non-MOD personnel. All applicants seeking, considering, or accepting employment with the Ministry of Defence should be aware of this policy and that it is already in place at a number of Defence Establishments.

MOD Recruitment Satisfaction Survey – We may contact you regarding your experience to help us improve our customer satisfaction. The survey is voluntary and anonymous. You may however be given the opportunity to provide additional information to help us improve our service which includes the collection of some personal data as defined by the United Kingdom General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR). The MOD Privacy Policy Notice sets out how we will use your personal data and your rights.

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

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

Please ensure that at the application and interview stages of the campaign you review the Success Profiles Framework to assist you in the demonstration of your skills and experience.

Your suitability for the role will be assessed using the Success Profile elements that have been chosen for this campaign. Each element will be scored accordingly, and the successful candidate will be appointed on merit.

Candidates will be required to provide CV details to include job history and previous skills and experience.

Personal Statement:

Candidates will be required to provide a statement of suitability (750 Word Max).

At sift, candidates will be assessed against their CV and Statement of suitability and the following:

• Making Effective Decisions
• Changing and Improving

At interview, candidates will be assessed against the following:

• Programming and build (software engineering) - Working Level - https://ddat-capability-framework.service.gov.uk/role/software-developer
• User Focus - Practitioner Level - https://ddat-capability-framework.service.gov.uk/role/software-developer
• Modern Development Standards - Practitioner Level - https://ddat-capability-framework.service.gov.uk/role/software-developer
• Systems Design - Working Level - https://ddat-capability-framework.service.gov.uk/role/software-developer

Applications will be sifted on all Success Profile elements, but in the event of a high number of applications, an initial sift will be conducted on the following success profile elements:

Primary: Career - Previous Skills

In the rare case where individuals have exact matching scores, the order of merit will be determined based on the behaviour scores at interview in the following order:

1 - Career - Previous Skills
2 - Career - Job History
3 - Technical - Programming and build (software engineering)
4 - Technical - User Focus
5 - Technical - Modern Development Standards

If candidate scores are still exact, the merit order will then be determined on the sift score in the following order:

1 - Career - Previous Skills
2 - Career - Job History
3 - Career - Personal Statement
4 - Behaviour - Making Effective Decisions
5 - Behaviour - Changing and Improving

Sift start date: Late October
Interviews are currently taking place via the following method: MS Teams
Interview start date: Early November

Further information:

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.

As a result of the changes to the UK immigration rules which came into effect on 1 January 2021, the Ministry of Defence will only offer sponsorship for a skilled worker visa under the points-based system, where a role has been deemed to be business critical. This role does not meet that category, and we will not sponsor a visa. It is therefore NOT open to applications from those who will require sponsorship under the points-based system.
Should you apply for this role and be found to require sponsorship, your application will be rejected and any provisional offer of employment withdrawn.

The Ministry of Defence requires all candidates who are successful at interview to declare any outside interests. These declarations will be discussed with successful candidates following the interview process and before a formal offer of employment is made, as some outside interests may not be compatible with MOD civilian roles. This will not, in the majority of cases, prevent employment in MOD, but it is a measure that must be taken to ensure that appropriate mitigations can be put in place to manage any potential, perceived or actual conflicts of interest from the first day of employment.

The Ministry of Defence adopts a zero-tolerance approach to unacceptable behaviours, which includes bullying, harassment, sexual harassment, discrimination, and victimisation. You will not be eligible and will not be considered for this post if you have been dismissed from a role for such unacceptable behaviours within the last five years. This will also apply if you resign or otherwise leave a role but, because of an adverse decision, would have been dismissed for gross misconduct had you continued in that employment. Pre-employment checks will be carried out.

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

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a basic (or equivalent) 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.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 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

This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans (opens in a new window) initiative.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 : Catherine Ruane
• Email : Catherine.Ruane100@mod.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : DBS-EnhancedRecruitmentTeam@mod.gov.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 DBS-EnhancedRecruitmentTeam@MOD.gov.uk 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…

Attachments

Candidate Information 2025 Opens in new window (docx, 31kB)Defence Internal Brief notice Opens in new window (docx, 43kB)MOD Candidate Pack Opens in new window (pdf, 1563kB)