
Senior Ruby Developer (Ref: 20284)
Job summary
This position is based nationally.Job description
Senior Ruby Developer
Location: National*
Closing Date: 4th August
Interviews: W/C 10th August (subject to change)
Grade: G7
(MoJ candidates who are on a specialist grade, will be able to retain this grade on lateral transfer)
Salary**: London: £63,343 - £73,875 (which may include an allowance up to £10,532). National: £58,511 - £69,150 (which may include an allowance up to £10,639).
Working pattern: Full-time, Part-time, Flexible working, Job share.
Contract Type: Permanent.
*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
Please note that unless you are an existing member of staff at Justice Digital, Data and Science, the only London location being recruited to is 10 South Colonnade, E14 4PU. We are no longer recruiting to 102 Petty France, SW1H 9AJ.
The Role
Please note this role requires you to pass Security Check clearance. Please click on the link for details.
We’re recruiting for a Senior Developers here at Justice Digital, Data and Science, to be part of our warm and collaborative Central Digital team.
This role aligns against Software Developer from the Government Digital and Data Framework
At Justice Digital, we're dedicated to leveraging technology to drive impactful change across the justice system. As a Senior Software Developer, you'll play a pivotal role in enhancing access to justice and improving outcomes for offenders through innovative digital solutions.
You can find more details of the Benefits we offer here. To help picture your life at MoJ Justice Digital, Data and Science please take a look at our blog.
Key Responsibilities:
As a Senior Software Developer at the MoJ you will have technical and people responsibilities.
Technical:
- Securely designing, building and maintaining APIs, services and systems
- Working on pre-existing codebases
- Improving the resilience and stability of software
- Applying practices to enable continuous delivery
People:
- Developing and influencing people via line management duties, informal and formal coaching, and mentoring
- Supporting lead developers in building high performing teams
- Helping to build and maintain a diverse, inclusive culture across the development community, growing awareness, inclusivity, and balance
Collaboration:
- You’ll collaborate closely with user researchers, product managers, designers, delivery managers, technical architects, and content specialists who share our vision of leveraging technology to transform government services.
Technologies:
We use a range of technologies and we’re looking for people who have experience of building web applications or back-end systems in an object-oriented language, and love learning new languages and frameworks.
Application Code: Ruby
CI/CD: Circle CI, GitHub Actions
Monitoring: Sentry
Containerization: Kubernetes, Docker
Cloud Infrastructure: AWS
Web Interfaces: GOV.UK and MoJ Design Systems
Front-End Development:
We value a deep understanding of web technologies, emphasizing semantic HTML, performant CSS, and JavaScript or TypeScript. Accessibility is a core consideration across all our services.
We’re happy to help you learn our tech stack once you’re part of our team, and do not require an exact match in your experience of languages. Check outGitHub for a closer look at the technologies we use, and a complete list of services that we build and maintain. We subscribe to themanifesto for agile software development.
Our community:
We currently have over 300 experienced developers who make up the engineering community across the MoJ. You will coach and mentor junior colleagues and take part in informal support networks with your peers. You will be encouraged to play an active role in the engineering community and culture.
We take the responsibility of supportive and effective line management very seriously. We will value the skills you bring to the civil service and help you to build on them. When the time is right, we will support moving between teams or government departments to learn different technologies, or take on more responsibility, according to your career goals.
If this feels like an exciting challenge, something you are enthusiastic about, and want to join our team please read on and apply!
Person Specification
Essential
- Proven experience of delivering large and complex software solutions
- Demonstrate proven experience of working in a modern object-oriented language and be confident learning new languages
- Apply modern development and deployment techniques to your work, including continuous integration and continuous delivery
- Champion software maintenance, clean code, coding standards and practices that make change and consistency easier
- Write automated tests to continuously validate your work
- Thrive when you work as part of a team that abides by the spirit of the manifesto of agile software development
- Enjoy sharing knowledge and working in a multi-disciplinary team
- Solve problems in a systematic way
Willingness to be assessed against the requirements for SC clearance.
We welcome the unique contribution diverse applicants bring and do not discriminate based on 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.
Our values are Purpose, Humanity Openness and Together. Find out more here about how we celebrate diversity and an inclusive culture in our workplace.
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.
Salary Information**
Base salary for this role is National: £58,511 to £65,329. London: £63,343 to £70,725.
- New entrants to the Civil Service joining the MoJ are expected to start at the minimum of the pay band.
- Existing Civil Servants moving on a level transfer will retain their current base salary or move to the minimum of the pay band for the role, whichever is higher.
- Existing Civil Servants who are promoted will either move to the bottom of the new grade’s pay band or receive a 10% uplift, whichever provides the greater increase.
- Candidates may also be eligible for a non‑pensionable Government Digital & Data Allowance of up to £10,532 per year (London) or £10,639 (National). This is a temporary allowance, reviewed annually and may be retained, amended, or withdrawn.
The final offer will reflect the skills and experience you demonstrate during the assessment process.
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.
Terms & Conditions
Please review our Terms and Conditions which set out how we recruit and provide further information related to the role and salary arrangements.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact digitalanddatarecruitment@justice.gov.uk
Person specification
Please refer to attached Job DescriptionBenefits
Alongside your salary of £58,511, Ministry of Justice contributes £16,950 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).- 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
In Justice Digital, Data and Science, we recruit using a combination of the Government Digital and Data Profession CapabilityandSuccess Profiles Frameworks. We shall assess a combination of your Experience, Technical skills and Behaviours during the assessment process.
Stage 1 - Application and sift:
To apply for this position, you must submit the following as part of your application:
- A CV detailing your career history (including any relevant qualifications). Your CV will be assessed against the essential criteria being scored as part of the sift stage.
- A Personal Statement (no more than 750 words) which should outline your experience and skills, giving clear examples of work undertaken. It should specifically address the following 3 criteria listed below, using a separate paragraph for each.
- Proven experience of delivering large and complex software solutions (250 words)
- Apply modern development and deployment techniques to your work, including continuous integration and continuous delivery (250 words)
- Champion software maintenance, clean code, coding standards and practices that make change and consistency easier (250 words)
A diverse sift panel will review the information in your CV and Personal Statement to assess the sift criteria specified above. We operate an anonymous shortlisting process. Please ensure your CV and Personal Statement do not include your name or any other identifying details.
Should we receive a high volume of applications, a pre-sift based on the following criteria will be conducted before the sift -
- Proven experience of delivering large and complex software solutions.
- Apply modern development and deployment techniques to your work, including continuous integration and continuous delivery.
At the sift stage, the following essential criteria are being assessed -
- Proven experience of delivering large and complex software solutions.
- Apply modern development and deployment techniques to your work, including continuous integration and continuous delivery.
- Champion software maintenance, clean code, coding standards and practices that make change and consistency easier.
Please access the following link for guidance on how to apply - Application Guidance
Stage 2 - Interviews:
Successful candidates who meet the required standard will then be invited to a panel interview held via Microsoft Teams. At interview stage, you will be assessed against the following Success Profile elements
- Experience, Technical and the following Behaviours:
- Working Together
- Changing and Improving
- Developing Self and Others
- Making Effective Decisions
Candidates invited an interview will receive a short technical task to complete prior to attending. Further details around this task will be shared upon the conclusion of the sift stage.
Appointments are made strictly in merit order. In the event that two or more candidates receive identical interview scores, the ‘Proven experience of delivering large and complex software solutions’ will be applied as the primary lead criterion to determine the final merit order.
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.
We have mid-level Ruby Developer positions becoming available in the near future which we may offer to candidates from the merit or near miss lists from this campaign.
A reserve list may be held for up to 12 months, from which further appointments may be made.
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
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
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
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=1135
Attachments
NEW - Senior Ruby Developer - July 2026 (2) (1) Opens in new window (docx, 38kB)Salary range
- £58,511 - £70,725 per year









