Senior Software Developer, HEO, Perm, Liverpool, Newport

Job summary

In this role, you will be part of one of our technical teams that sit within the Digital Practice team within the Digital, Data and Technology (DDaT) directorate.

You will be responsible for developing software to meet user needs following best practice guidelines and helping to improve those guidelines. You will be able to write clean. secure and well-tested code following clear peer review processes within an agile or waterfall framework depending on the needs of the project. You will support colleagues as part of a collaborative DDaT directorate as well as operating as a partner to the wider Charity Commission to support the achievement of the shared goals, objectives and delivering a successful Commission strategy.

You will have the ability to coach and mentor junior colleagues and help build the capability of the team. You will also be able to operate and maintain Charity Commission systems, identifying issues in production while meeting the Government Service Standard and the Technology Code of Practice.

Job description

Key Responsibilities:

Availability and capacity management - Ensuring services are available with as little downtime or disruption as possible, and that we have sufficient resources to support emerging business needs. You will, manage service components to ensure they meet business needs and key performance indicators (KPIs)

Development process optimisation - Ensuring your processes are accurately defined and capture the most efficient way to complete a task by monitoring modified procedures. You will:

• Explain the importance of developing process efficiency and the common ways in which processes are optimised.
• Support specific activities to improve development processes.
• Identify obvious deficiencies

Information security - Maintaining the security, confidentiality and integrity of information. You will, design solutions and services with security controls included, specifically engineered to mitigate security threats.

Modern development standards - Using the latest technologies and best practices to improve the quality of the software development process. You will, apply modern development standards and support others in applying them

Programming and build (software engineering) – Collaborate with others when necessary to review specifications use the agreed specifications to design, code, test and document programs or scripts of medium-to-high complexity, using the right standards and tools

Prototyping - Exploring, testing and sharing different concepts before committing to the final design. You will approach prototyping as a team activity, actively soliciting prototypes and testing with others. Establish design patterns and iterate them by using a variety of prototyping methods and choose the most appropriate

Service support - Fixing service faults and maintaining the underlying infrastructure, ensuring processes are in place to keep the service running efficiently. You will, help fix service faults following agreed procedures carry out maintenance tasks on service support infrastructure

Systems design - Creating the specification and design of systems to meet defined business needs. You will, translate logical designs into physical designs

• produce detailed designs
• effectively document all work using required standards, methods and tools, including prototyping tools where appropriate
• design systems characterised by managed levels of risk, manageable business and technical complexity, and meaningful impact
• work with well understood technology and identify appropriate patterns

Systems integration - Identifying points of connection between different systems and processes, or opportunities to combine them, and designing how the components communicate.

• build and test simple interfaces between systems
• work on more complex integration as part of a wider team

User focus - Understanding the user needs to develop a detailed understanding of the problems that need to be solved. You will, collaborate with user researchers and can represent users internally

• explain the difference between user needs and the desires of the user
• champion user research to focus on all users
• prioritise and define approaches to understand the user story, guiding others in doing so, offer recommendations on the best tools and methods to use

Person specification

Essential Criteria

Ability:

• Strong problem-solving skills and ability to troubleshoot complex deployment issues.
• Ability to collaborate effectively with cross-functional teams (developers, QA, operations).
• Capacity to work in agile environments, adapting to changing priorities.
• Ability to document processes and communicate technical concepts clearly to non-technical stakeholders.
• Strong focus on automation, efficiency, and continuous improvement.

Experience:

• Hands-on experience with Azure DevOps for build and release management.
• Demonstrated experience in Java and Java Spring application development and deployment.
• Experience working with Liferay DXP for enterprise portal solutions.
• Practical experience with Docker for containerization and orchestration.
• Familiarity with GitHub for source control and collaborative development.
• Exposure to automated testing frameworks and integration into CI/CD pipelines.
• Previous experience in cloud environments (preferably Azure) and infrastructure as code.

Ability:

Proficiency in:

• Java and Java Spring Framework.
• Docker for containerization.
• GitHub for version control and workflow automation.

Knowledge of:

• Infrastructure as Code (e.g., Terraform, ARM templates).
• Monitoring and logging tools (e.g., Prometheus, ELK stack).
• Linux-based environments and shell scripting.
• GDS Service Design Standards

Understanding of:

• Security best practices for design and development of digital services.

Relevant professional qualifications such as BSc or BEng in Computer Science or equivalent experience in (Java, .Net, C#, C+)

Qualifications

Relevant professional qualifications such as BSc or BEng in Computer Science or equivalent experience in (Java, .Net, C#, C+)

Behaviours

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

• Seeing the Big Picture
• Changing and Improving
• Working Together
• Delivering at Pace

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £35,384, Charity Commission contributes £10,250 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).

This is your chance to make a contribution that really matters and to make an impact in an organisation where your voice will be heard and your hard work noticed.

Watch this short video to find out more about us.

We operate a flexible hybrid working policy where office attendance is combined with at least 3 days homeworking per week dependent on role requirements.

We recognise everyone as an individual, accepting people for who they are and treating everyone fairly. We welcome the unique contribution diverse applicants bring from all backgrounds and we aim to have a workforce that represents the wider society that we serve. We champion inclusion and wellbeing, aiming to create a workplace where everyone feels valued and has a sense of belonging.

We do not discriminate on the basis of culture, ethnicity, race, nationality or national origin, age, sex, gender identity or expression, religion or belief, disability status, sexual orientation, educational or social background or any other factor.

We offer access to the highly competitive Civil Service Pension Scheme (employer contributions of 28.97%), far more than in the private sector, and a flexible, family-friendly environment. Additionally, you can look forward to other great benefits via our ‘Perkbox’ and ‘Edenred’ schemes. These include everything from an interest-free season ticket loan and bicycle loan (after two months) to discounts on gym membership, cinema tickets and restaurants. Please see the attached Charity Commission benefits document.

A minimum of 25 days of paid annual leave, increasing by one day per year up to a maximum of 30 days per year.

The Charity Commission’s operational ambition is to realise the Commission’s values of being an expert regulator that is fair, balanced, and independent, which works in a way that is supportive, collaborative, and innovative to achieve our ambitions. We want to develop our capability to regulate charities to realise this goal and meet our statutory and public duties to ensure that charity in England and Wales can deliver maximum benefit to society in a way that upholds its reputation in the eyes of the public.

Work at the Charity Commission and you’ll make a difference every day to:

• The 170,000 charities of all shapes and sizes that we regulate across England and Wales.
• The trustees we partner with and advise.
• The people and causes that benefit from the £10bn generously donated each year by the public.

Find out more about working for us here.

To note: Any move across the Civil Service on or after 4 October 2018 may have implications on an employee’s ability to carry on claiming childcare vouchers.

Visa Sponsorship

Please note that we are currently unable to offer Skilled Worker Sponsorship. Candidates must ensure they have the appropriate right to work in the UK before applying.

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 and Experience.

To apply for this post, you must complete an online application with the following:

• A blind CV setting out your Job History/Full Qualifications/Previous skill and experiences.
• A Personal Statement (maximum 750 words) demonstrating how you meet the essential criteria for the role outlined on the Job Description.

We will assess your CV and Personal Statement against the Essential criteria for the role.

At interview and we will assess you against a task and the following Behaviours at interview:

• Seeing the Big Picture
• Changing and Improving
• Working Together
• Delivering at Pace

Interview Arrangements

Interviews will be held via MS Teams

The shortlisting process will take place during the week commencing 23/10/2026

Interviews will be held on the 04/11/2026

We will try to meet the dates set out in the advert. There may be occasions when these dates change. You will be provided with sufficient notice of the confirmed dates.

At the interview, the panel can then probe further and ask applicants to provide further specific examples that show how they best demonstrate their skills.

We reserve the right to raise the score required at any stage of the process to manage numbers.

Behaviours:

The distinguishing Behaviours (the required skills, knowledge, and behaviours) for this role are set out in the Civil Service Behaviours Framework 2018 (Success Profiles - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)) and should be referred to when making this application.

You are required, under the Behaviours approach, to describe how you have dealt with a specific situation.

You must give evidence of your knowledge, skills, and behaviours and how you have applied this, such as what you did or said and how you interacted with other people.

When you are giving your examples, do not spend too many words on description and background information. Avoid using general or unspecific statements. Instead say what the situation was, what you did, what your thought process was and what was the result.

This post is full time however those applicants who do or wish to work an alternative working pattern are welcome to apply. The preferred working pattern may or may not be available. You should discuss this with the vacancy holder.

Reasonable Adjustment:

If a person with disabilities is put at a substantial disadvantage compared to a non-disabled persons, 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 Charitycommissionrecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk 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 an interview, or if you’re deaf, a Language Service Professional.

Reserve Lists:

If we have more successful candidates than available vacancies, we will hold a 12-month reserve list as standard.

During that time, we may use the list to fill the same, or similar roles with closely matching essential criteria, without further testing of merit. Any appointments from the Reserve list will be made in strict merit order.

Applying:

We recognise everyone as an individual, accepting people for who they are and treating everyone fairly.

All applications for these vacancies must be made online. There are limited exceptions to this. Paper applications will only be considered if you have a disability that will prevent you from applying online. If this is the case, please email Charitycommissionrecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk

Once you have submitted your application it cannot be amended; only submit your application when you have completely finished and answered all the relevant questions.

Please note that late applications will not be accepted.

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

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

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

Feedback

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

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a basic (or equivalent) 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.

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 : Karen Lysaght
• Email : Recruitment@charitycommission.gov.uk

Recruitment team

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

Further information

The Charity Commission’s recruitment processes are underpinned by the Civil Service Commissioner’s Recruitment Principles, which outlines that selection for appointment is made on merit based on fair and open competition.
If you feel your application has not been treated in accordance with the values in the Civil Service Code and/or if you feel the recruitment has been conducted in such a way that conflicts with the Civil Service Commissioner’s Recruitment Principles, and wish to make a complaint, then you should contact in the first instance hrselfservice@charitycommission.gov.uk.
If you are not satisfied with the response that you receive, then you can contact the Civil Service Commission. For further information on bringing a complaint to the Civil Service Commission please visit their web page here.

Attachments

Senior Software Dev - JD Opens in new window (pdf, 324kB)HEO Senior Software Dev - JD (Welsh) Opens in new window (pdf, 421kB)Benefits Opens in new window (pdf, 169kB)Benefits - Welsh Opens in new window (pdf, 170kB)