Lead Software Engineer

Job summary

Please note this role requires you to pass Security Check clearance. For further information, please see 'Selection process details'.

Are you capable of leading & mentoring engineering teams while helping to shape and deliver services?

Are you an experienced Software Engineer looking to take the next step in your career?

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) Digital and Transformation Group is seeking two exceptional Lead Software Engineers to drive the next phase of one of the UK’s largest and most complex digital transformations.

This is a rare opportunity for highly experienced engineers to step into a senior, influential role where deep technical expertise meets strategic leadership. You’ll lead and inspire multiple engineering teams, work shoulder‑to‑shoulder with senior leaders, and translate complex technical concepts into clear, compelling outcomes for non‑technical stakeholders, all while building modern, cloud‑native services using open‑source technologies such as Java, JavaScript and Node.js, AWS and Azure, TDD, robust CI/CD pipelines, API‑driven microservice architectures, and SQL and NoSQL data platforms.

If you thrive in complex environments, enjoy setting technical direction, and want your work to have national scale and purpose, this role offers influence, challenge and genuine impact.

We are looking for outstanding Lead Software Engineers who can make a positive impact and want to contribute to one of the most demanding and important Government services for the UK.

Let’s be clear about the impact of your work – the products we build are the changing the face of public services with the potential to dramatically transform the future of millions of people.

Job description

Our Lead Software Engineers are experts in their field, skilled in multiple disciplines, role models in software craftsmanship and have proven experience in the design, development and support of software products.

Responsible for defining medium to long term strategies for product lines, defining guidelines for the Engineering community and leading their adoption across teams in order to deliver quality software products.

You will lead the design of complex software products that make up citizen services in collaboration with Architecture.

There are two teams that successful candidates might join:

• Within Working Age Services Digital, we support a range of critical services, including the Department’s highest profile benefit service, Universal Credit. These services sit at the heart of society, helping millions of people every day. In addition, we have the green field Jobs and Careers Service which is the government’s new 'Get Britain Working' initiative which moves DWP to having a customer base beyond benefit claimants. Through all of this we need the highest skilled engineers guiding the teams through cutting edge technology decisions working with Product and Delivery leads throughout.

• Digital Payment Services: Payments are core to DWP. They are the biggest payer in the UK, serving 22m citizens which is 34% of the total UK population and make circa £230bn in payments annually generating a third of the UK’s BACS (Bankers’ Automated Clearing System) traffic. We are delivering an ambitious transformation programme to reimagine and make best use of emerging future technologies in the banking industry to continue to ensure that people who get paid by DWP receive the right amount of money, at the right time into the right bank account.

Please note: As part of the role, you may be required to travel regularly to the other digital hubs. The frequency of this will be discussed further should you be successful.

Person specification

See selection process for further details.

If you would like to learn more about the role, please contact mark.harbottle@dwp.gov.uk.

Technical skills

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

• Relationship Management

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £75,026, Department for Work and Pensions contributes £21,735 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

We also have a broad benefits package built around your work-life balance which includes:

• Working patterns to support work/life balance such as job sharing, term-time working, flexi-time and compressed hours.
• Generous annual leave – at least 25 days on entry, increasing up to 30 days over time (pro–rata for part time employees), plus 9 days public and privilege leave.
• Support for financial wellbeing, including interest-free season ticket loans for travel, a cycle to work scheme and an employee discount scheme.
• Health and wellbeing support including our Employee Assistance Programme for specialist advice and counselling and the opportunity to join HASSRA a first-class programme of competitions, activities and benefits for its members (subscription payable monthly).
• Family friendly policies including enhanced maternity and shared parental leave pay after 1 year’s continuous service.
• Funded learning and development to support progress in your role and career. This includes industry recognised qualifications and accreditations, coaching, mentoring and talent development programmes.
• An inclusive and diverse environment with opportunities to join professional and interpersonal networks including Women’s Network, National Race Network, National Disability Network (THRIVE) and many more.

Hybrid Working

This role may be suitable for hybrid working, which is where an employee works part of the week in their DWP office and part of the week from home. This is a voluntary, non-contractual arrangement and your office will be your contractual place of work.

If a hybrid working arrangement is suitable for the role and for you, you will normally be required to spend a minimum of 60% of your contracted working hours from your DWP office.

If you have a disability, caring responsibilities, or other circumstances that may affect your ability to meet the minimum office attendance requirement, please discuss this with us using the contact details in this advert.

Salary Information

Pay for this role is from £75,026 to £92,522.

The maximum salary for the grade is £80,267, however a Digital Allowance of up to £12,255 per annum is available for exceptional candidates. Digital Allowance is non-salary, and non-pensionable, and is classed as a temporary allowance. It is reviewed annually where it could be retained, amended, or removed.

Our offer to successful candidates will be based on an assessment of your skills and experience as demonstrated at interview.

Existing Civil Servants who secure a new role on lateral transfer will maintain their current substantive salary.

Existing Civil Servants who gain promotion will move to the bottom of the grade pay scale or receive a 10% increase applied to their current substantive salary, whichever is greater.

Any temporary allowances that you are currently in receipt of will not form part of the calculation to determine your pay. Any allowances that are in payment will cease when you move into your new role.

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 Experience and Technical skills.

Stage 1: Application

Your application will consist of four parts:

1. A Personal Details application form.

2. Employment history - this should contain your work experience and any skills, qualifications and accomplishments relevant to the jobs you have completed.

3. Personal statement - up to 1000 words. This statement should be used to provide examples of how you meet the essential criteria below:

• An experienced leader with strong influencing skills, able to grasp complex technical concepts and communicate, both written and verbal, to a wider range of non-technical stakeholders. You will have evidence of a strategic mindset, working effectively with senior leadership teams in a complex technical environment.
• Experience of leading multiple teams and driving changes in technology and ways of working alongside other roles and disciplines within the team.
• Expert knowledge and extensive experience of open-source technologies like Java, JavaScript and Node.js.
• Expert and extensive knowledge and experience of developing on cloud-based environments such as AWS and Azure to deliver APIs, RESTful services and Microservice Architectures.
• Extensive experience and knowledge of Test-Driven Development.
• Knowledge and experience of SQL and noSQL database applications such as Postgres, MySQL, and MongoDB.

4. Technical statement (up to 250 words). The following statement is aligned to the required technical skill of Relationship Management. This statement should be used to provide example(s) of how you meet the criterion below:

• An experienced leader with strong influencing skills, able to grasp complex technical concepts and communicate, both written and verbal, to a wider range of non-technical stakeholders. You will have evidence of a strategic mindset, working effectively with senior leadership teams in a complex technical environment.

Ensure that all examples provided in your statements are taken directly from your own experience and that you describe the examples in your own words. If you choose to use gen-AI to support your statements, you must follow the guidelines outlined in the Artificial intelligence and recruitment guide.

The sift panel will use the information in your employment history, personal statement, and technical statement to assess your experience, skills and knowledge.

An initial sift will be conducted using the technical statement. Candidates who pass the initial sift will be progressed to a full sift.

If you do progress to a full sift, you will be provided with one combined overall assessment score for both your employment history and Personal Statement.

For Hints and Tips on completing your application visit Applying for jobs at DWP Digital.

Important Information

• You will be asked to complete your employment history. Any information that you would customarily share on a CV should therefore be entered onto the application form.
• Personal details that could be used to identify you including your name, contact details and address must be removed for your application to be considered.
• If your employment history, personal statement or technical statement contain any personal details your application will be withdrawn.

Stage 2: Interview

If you’re successful at the sift stage, you’ll be invited to a video interview via Microsoft Teams. During the interview, you’ll be assessed against the experience criteria listed under both the essential criteria and technical skill.

You will also be asked to do a 15-minute presentation on Relationship Management. There will be a further 10 minutes for questions. The use of visual aids such as PowerPoint is allowed. Further details will be provided to candidates invited to interview.

Interviews will take place from mid June 2026. Sift and Interview dates to be confirmed.

Further Information:

Find out more about Working for DWP

If high application volumes are received, the benchmark for candidates to proceed to the next stage may be raised. In line with our commitment to the Disability Confident Scheme (DCS), we aim to advance all candidates applying under the DCS who meet the minimum standard. However, we may only progress those candidates who best meet the required standards.

A reserve list may be held for a period of 6 months from which further appointments can be made.

All successful candidates and those placed on reserve will be posted in merit list order by location.

For these vacancies, we strongly recommend that applicants consult with an immigration specialist or qualified advisor to assess their eligibility for Visa Sponsorship before deciding to apply. Please note that while we consider sponsorship requests in accordance with current DWP guidance and Home Office policy, sponsorship cannot be guaranteed.

Security Clearance Requirement

You must meet the security requirements before you can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check.

You must have resided continuously in the UK for at least 3 of the last 5 years, 2 of which must have been the immediately preceding years from the point of applying for this job.

For further information on National Security Vetting please visit the Demystifying Vetting website.

Reasonable Adjustment

At DWP we value diversity and inclusion and actively encourage and welcome applications from everyone, including those that are underrepresented in our workforce.

We consider visible and non-visible disabilities, neurodiversity or learning differences, chronic medical conditions, or mental ill health. Examples include dyslexia, epilepsy, autism, chronic fatigue, or schizophrenia.

If you need a change to be made so that you can make your application, you should: Contact Government Recruitment Service via DigitalRecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk as soon as possible before the closing date to discuss your needs.

Complete the “Reasonable Adjustments” 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.

For further information on reasonable adjustments, terms and conditions and how we recruit visit the How we recruit page.

The Civil Service values honesty and integrity and expects all candidates to abide by these principles. Please ensure that all examples provided in your application are taken directly from your own experience and that you describe the examples in your own words. Applications will be screened and if evidence of plagiarism or copying examples/answers from other sources is found, your application will be withdrawn. Internal DWP candidates may also face disciplinary action.

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.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.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 : Mark Harbottle
• Email : mark.harbottle@dwp.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : DigitalRecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk

Further information

Appointment to the Civil Service is governed by the Civil Service Commission Recruitment Principles. If you wish to make a complaint, please find further details here: https://careers.dwp.gov.uk/how-we-recruit/.

Attachments

DWP Terms and Conditions January 2024 (3) Opens in new window (docx, 17kB)Success-Profiles-Candidate-Overview (18) Opens in new window (pdf, 635kB)