Senior Software Engineer 2023-7467

Would you like to build and run the platforms that underpin public services in Scotland? In the cloud and platform services division, our mission is to design, build, and operate a Scottish Government platform for Public Sector bodies across Scotland, providing: Cloud Computing, Digital Payments, and Digital Identity. By establishing common platforms, we support organisational transformation, allowing bodies to deliver their services more efficiently, more quickly, and at scale.
As a Senior Software Engineer, you will have broad software development expertise and will understand the goals and strategy behind each project from inception to running as a live service. This will involve providing technical expertise at the project level and responsibility for successful delivery of individual applications or components.
HOW DOES IT FEEL TO WORK HERE?

• Adam Barclay, Software Engineering Manager

"I've found the Scottish Government to be a supportive working environment and appreciate that my colleagues are all working towards a common goal. As someone who was previously employed in the private sector, I enjoy having the opportunity to work on software projects that will have a positive impact on the lives of people in Scotland".
Hear from colleagues discussing Digital Careers at Scottish Government.
HOW WILL I SPEND MY TIME?
Contributing to the development of our secure, scalable, and resilient software platforms you will advise on the technical direction of solutions, review code, and mentor junior members of the team to make sure a high standard is maintained.
Working in a cross functional agile team, you will be responsible for the whole of the software development lifecycle, including interpreting the requirements, writing unit and integration tests, coding the solution, and automating infrastructure creation, software deployment, and monitoring.
You would be joining at an exciting time where we are investing in growing our team and supporting colleagues’ professional development to broaden their skills while increasing their depth of knowledge with the latest technologies.
What technologies will you use?
Our services and applications run on AWS using Kubernetes, backend services are written in Java, with Node JS and Typescript used for front end applications. Persistence is provided by S3, DynamoDB and Redis. We use Grafana/Prometheus for metrics and dashboarding; and Gitlab for CI/CD. The cloud platform team operate both an AWS and Azure platform., As a Senior Developer you will deliver and integrate software to form a complete service.
At this role level, you will:
+ Plan and lead development on sets of related stories.
+ Have an understanding of the whole system and take responsibility for teaching this to others.
+ Work with other disciplines to understand what needs to be built.
+ Coach and mentor more junior colleagues.
+ Operate the production services you build.
+ Find ways to improve system robustness, resilience, and stability.
Your main responsibilities will include:
Availability and capacity management
+ You manage service components to ensure they meet business needs and performance targets.
Development process optimisation
+ You identify process optimisation opportunities with guidance and contribute to the implementation of proposed solutions.
Information security
+ You participate in the information security process.
+ You design and implement embedded security controls in solutions and services.
Modern standards approach
+ You competently apply modern standards approach and guide others to do so.
Programming and build (software engineering)
+ You collaborate with others when necessary to review specifications.
+ You 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
+ You participate in team prototyping.
+ You advocate for the use of prototypes and testing with others.
+ You establish design patterns and iterate them.
+ You use a variety of prototyping methods and choose the most appropriate.
Service support
+ You identify, locate and fix faults.
Systems design
+ You design systems characterised by medium levels of risk, impact, and business or technical complexity.
+ You select appropriate design standards, methods, and tools, and ensure they are applied effectively.
+ You review the systems designs of others to ensure the selection of appropriate technology, efficient use of resources and integration of multiple systems and technology.
Systems integration
+ You define the integration build.
+ You co-ordinate build activities across systems.
+ You understand how to undertake and support integration testing activities.
User focus
+ You collaborate with user researchers and can represent users internally.
+ You champion user research to focus on all users.
+ You prioritise and define approaches to understand the user story, guiding others in doing so.
+ You offer recommendations on the best tools and methods to use.
WHAT IMPACT WILL I HAVE?
Looking back on a successful first year you can take pride knowing your work has made life easier for public sector colleagues and the people of Scotland; delivering a scalable, modern, accessible platform which is valued by a rapidly ever-growing user base., Delivering a successful national service for Scotland is impossible without ensuring we consider the diverse needs, perspectives, and backgrounds of everyone in Scotland in our work.
We welcome applications from candidates of all backgrounds, and work to ensure a positive recruitment experience where everyone is treated fairly, and with respect regardless of the outcome.
It’s not essential to be in a similar role right now. You may be working in another field or returning from a career break - the experiences you have gained through this can bring fresh perspectives to our teams and work.

+ Communications and Engagement
+ Improving Performance
+ Analysis and Use of Evidence, 1. You write it. Your experience building solutions to problems of high complexity allows you to use agreed specifications to independently design, code, test and document programs or scripts of high complexity, using the right standards and tools.
2. You run it. Your experience developing and deploying an application, allows you to define the monitoring, alerting, and operational procedures of an application in order to consistently identify, locate and fix faults.
3. You design. Your experience engineering systems, with a variety of technologies and patterns allows you to design systems, choosing appropriate technology, approaches, and embedded security controls.
4. You deliver. Your experience implementing features, enables you to take end-to-end ownership of defining and implementing a feature.
5. You know your user. Your collaboration with product and design teams enables you to define the user needs in a story and communicate them to technical colleagues.
6. You work in a team. Your experience participating and improving team processes means you are able to identify opportunities to optimise processes and contribute to the implementation of proposed solutions; and help the recruitment and onboarding of new staff members., Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.
People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

A meaningful and rewarding career, a collaborative culture and support for your career goals, while promoting a healthy work-life balance. We offer a valuable range of benefits to attract, develop and retain the best talent. These include:
o Salary between £57,141 and £71,243
o £5000 Digital (DDaT) Pay Supplement after a 3-month qualifying period
• 
  o Generous Pension Scheme with employer contribution 28.9%
  o Flexible working arrangements including compressed hours and flexi time, with potential to accrue up to 4 days off a month.
  o 36.5 Days Annual Leave - including public and privilege holidays. This increases to 41.5 days after 4 year service.
  
• Digital (DDaT) Pay Supplement:

This post attracts a £5000 DDAT pay supplement after a 3 months DDaT competency qualifying period. Pay supplements are temporary payments and are subject to regular review.
To learn more about our full range of benefits, please visit our career's page
REMOTE WORKING
We operate a flexible location policy, with a contractual named base in Scotland of either Atlantic Quay (Glasgow) or Victoria Quay (Edinburgh).
The team currently works on a hybrid basis and are fully flexible. We meet in person when it is useful to do so, such as a divisional away day. If you wish, you can work throughout the week at the base office (or another Scottish Government office subject to availability). Commuting costs to the named base office are not reimbursed.
While staff are assigned to the base office, there may be a need for travel to other Scottish Government offices/other locations depending on assigned work., Alongside your salary of £57,141, Scottish Government contributes £16,513 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.