software engineer Newcastle upon Tyne, England
Job description
Details
Reference number
Salary
Job grade
Contract type
Business area
Type of role
Information Technology
Working pattern
Number of jobs available
Contents
Location
About the job
Benefits
Things you need to know
Apply and further information
Location
About the job
Job summary
See what it’s like to work at HMRC: find out more about us or ask our colleagues a question. Questions relating to an individual application must be emailed as detailed later in this advert.
Are you a Developer with COBOL programming skills?
Do you have a passion for Test Driven Delivery?
This is an exciting role if you’re looking to deliver technological change against a background of organisational transformation, as well as a chance to make a real difference to people’s lives by delivering great digital and paper products.
Within Borders and Trade, we provide skilled resources to enable us to meet the needs of our customers in an Agile way helping to drive high levels of collaboration and innovation.
If you have experience of the COBOL language and have the ability to read, understand, modify, and debug existing COBOL code, then this might just be the role for you!
Job description
You’ll be a key member of the delivery team, collaborating with all members throughout the full delivery lifecycle to ensure delivery of highest-quality software products.
We are passionate about Test Driven Delivery, working closely with business analysts, testers and product owners within a truly collaborative environment.
As a Senior Developer, you will be developing software to meet user needs, follow best practice guidelines and providing continuous improvement. This will include writing clean, secure and maintainable code and operate the services they build and identify any issues in production.
You’ll be providing coaching and mentoring to junior colleagues, helping them to grow and develop professionally within the team.
As an ideal candidate, you will be able to demonstrate a rational and organised approach to the tasks undertaken and an awareness of the need to achieve quality; have some knowledge of testing procedures; take a logical, analytical approach to problem solving, paying close attention to detail.
Candidates new to the team, for the first nine months after taking up duty, will work normal office hours, but will be required to occasionally attend the office outside of normal working hours (for example, to support software releases). For the next three months the post holder will continue to work normal office hours and on an ad-hoc basis to shadow a colleague already providing on-call support. On completion of 12 months in post, the post holder will then be required to provide part of a 24/7 on-call rota.
Responsibilities:
- Plan and lead development on sets of related stories.
- Have an in-depth knowledge of the whole system and take responsibility for teaching others to have an understanding of the system.
- Work with other disciplines to understand what needs to be built.
- Coach and mentor junior colleagues.
- Operate the production services you build.
- Find ways to improve system robustness, resilience and stability.
- Have excellent interpersonal skills and the ability to quickly develop strong working relationships.
- Ability to communicate complex technical problems to stakeholders with clear communication that’s understood by all.
Person specification
Essential Criteria:
It is essential for you to demonstrate experience of:
- Working as part of an agile software delivery team, leading on aspects of development work.
- Leadership experience, setting direction, coaching/managing staff to ensure efficient service delivery within the Live Service and Delivery Team’s.
- Extensive knowledge in COBOL programming.
- Experience of VME.
- Full understanding of code error resolution, software backup and recovery strategies.
- Strong analytical skills.
- Experience of operating in a live service.
Desirable Criteria:
- Application Master (AM) and System Control Language (SCL).
- C programming skills.
- Experience of Unix.
Behaviours
We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:
- Delivering at Pace
- Leadership
- Managing a Quality Service
Benefits
- Learning and development tailored to your role
- An environment with flexible working options
- A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
- A Civil Service pension with an average employer contribution of 27%
Find more about HMRC benefits in 'Your little extras and big benefits handbook' for further information or visit Thinking of joining the Civil Service
Things you need to know
Selection process details
As part of the application process, you will be asked to complete:
- A name-blind CV - your employment history will detail your responsibilities, skills and accomplishments, plus your qualifications and relevant training.
- Personal statement of no more than 500 words – please provide details on how you meet the essential criteria for this role, by stating what you have done and how you went about it. It should be aligned to demonstrate your suitability for this role.
Candidates will be sifted on their CV and Personal statement which will be assessed against your experience and suitability for the role based on evidence provided for the essential criteria listed in the advert.
Interviews will be based on behaviour based questions, experience and suitability for the role. You will also be assessed against the essential criteria and on how your CV and personal statement meet this.
Those successful at the sift stage will be invited to interview.
Interviews will take place via Teams.
After interview, a single merit list will be created, and you will only be considered for posts in locations you have expressed a preference for. Appointments will be made in strict merit order in line with the set number of roles in each location.
We reserve the right to raise the score required at any stage of the process in order to manage numbers.
Interview dates to be confirmed.
A reserve list may be held for a period of up to 12 months from which further appointments may be made for the same or similar roles – if this applies to you, we’ll let you know via your Civil Service Jobs account.
Eligibility
To check that you are eligible to apply, review this eligibility information
Important information for existing HMRC contractual homeworkers:
This role may be suitable for existing HMRC employees who are contractual homeworkers. Occasional attendance to the office will be required where there is a business need, so please review the advertised office locations for this role when applying and only select locations from the ‘location preferences’ section that you are able to travel to.
Reasonable Adjustments
We want to make sure no one is put at a disadvantage during our recruitment process because of a disability, condition, or impairment. To assist you with this, we will reduce or remove any barriers where possible and provide additional support where appropriate.
If you need a reasonable adjustment or a change to be made so that you can make your application, review this information on reasonable adjustments, and contact [email protected] as soon as possible.
Equality and Diversity
We’re committed to creating a great place to work for all our colleagues here at HMRC. We want everyone to feel valued, supported and comfortable being their true self at work.
We’re proud to be a diverse and inclusive employer, supporting social mobility by giving opportunities to people from all walks of life. We want to maximise the potential of everyone who chooses to work for us and offer a range of flexible working patterns and support. Our aim is to make a fulfilling career at HMRC accessible to you.
For more information on how we make this happen, review this information on our culture and values.
Applications received from candidates with a criminal record are considered fairly in accordance with the DBS Code of Practice and the Recruitment of ex-offenders Policy.
We welcome applications from those who need to work a more flexible arrangement and will agree to requests where possible after considering operational and customer service needs. We can’t guarantee that we can meet all requests to work flexibly, as agreement will be subject to business ability to accommodate, and any request to work a more flexible arrangement should be made prior to your acceptance of the provisional offer.
Customer facing roles in HMRC require the ability to converse at ease with members of the public and provide advice in accurate spoken English and/or Welsh where required. Where this is an essential requirement, this will be tested as part of the selection process.
The Civil Service runs 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.
Locations
HMRC has a presence in every region of the UK. For more information on where you might be working, review this information on our locations.
Security Update
For more information on the level of security checks we will carry out, review this information on security checks
Further Information
The Civil Service values honesty and integrity and expects all candidates to abide by these principles. The evidence you provide in your application must relate to your own experiences.
Any instances of plagiarism or other forms of cheating will be investigated and, if proven, the relevant application/s will be withdrawn from the process.
Duplicate applications for the same vacancy will also be withdrawn.
Transferring into HMRC from Civil Service If you are currently working for an ‘Other Government Department’ (OGD) and would like to consider the impact on your pay when joining HMRC, please see the attached document "Combined T&C and OGD Pay English”, found at the bottom of this advert. Further information on staff transfers can be found on gov.uk
Problems during the application process
If you experience accessibility problems with any attachments on this advert, please contact the email address in the 'Contact point for applicants' section.
If you think you’ve made a mistake on a submitted application (e.g. you’ve ticked the incorrect eligibility box), please contact [email protected] at least two working days before the vacancy closes. After this, we won’t be able to reopen your application.
Please use the subject line to insert appropriate wording e.g. Please re-open my application - 289934 & vacancy closing date 23/06/2023.
For reasonable adjustments queries or requests, please see details within reasonable adjustments section above.
Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.
Security
Nationality requirements
This job is broadly open to the following groups:
- UK nationals
- nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
- nationals of the Republic of Ireland
- nationals from the EU, EEA or Switzerland with settled or pre-settled status or who apply for either status by the deadline of the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
- relevant EU, EEA, Swiss or Turkish nationals working in the Civil Service
- relevant EU, EEA, Swiss or Turkish nationals who have built up the right to work in the Civil Service
- certain family members of the relevant EU, EEA, Swiss or Turkish nationals
Working for the Civil Service
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).
Apply and further information
Contact point for applicants
Further information
About HM Revenue and Customs
CEO: Jim Harra
Revenue: $500 million to $1 billion (USD)
Size: 10000+ Employees
Type: Government
Website: www.hmrc.gov.uk
Year Founded: 2005
