Lead Node Developer

Salary: National: £54,470 – £61,000, London: £59,900 – £67,090 plus a digital capability supplement ranging from £0 to £24,543.

Our team of Software Developers are passionate about making a difference to our environment and the lives of people in the UK and we are now looking for experienced Full Stack Node.js Developers to become a part of a close-knit development team.

What your day-to-day will look like:

Using the latest cloud technologies, you may be working on our ‘Flood services’ – developing government digital services to share information about current and future flood risk with the public. It will be your job to ensure they are accessible to all, especially in times of bad weather!

Alternatively, you could be involved with our Farming and Countryside Programme which is about delivering services to make farming sustainable, increase biodiversity, promote high animal health and welfare standards, and contribute to the Government’s Net Zero commitment, ensuring ‘public money for public good’.

Other projects require us to maintain and develop several externally facing digital services and internal applications. As part of a multidisciplinary team, you will have responsibility for ‘owning’ the functionality you develop.

If you are as enthusiastic as us about building great solutions for Defra and our Arm’s Length Bodies, then this is the job for you. As Lead Developer you will review colleagues design and development thinking, making sure the most appropriate technology is selected, and that code is maintainable, performant and secure. You will be leading the integration of multiple systems and technologies whilst collaborating with senior stakeholders and suppliers, providing direction and challenge to find the most appropriate solutions.

What technology do we use?

Node.js
API development – REST, OpenAPI
Web development – HAPI
Databases – PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Redis
Unit testing – Jest, Lab
Source Control – Git
Cloud hosting – Azure/AWS
Containerisation – Docker, Kubernetes, ECS
CI and release – ADO, Jenkins, Github Actions
Work Management – Jira, ADO

Please note for this role you will require SC Clearance. To gain SC clearance all applicants are required to have been a UK resident for a minimum of 5 years. If this requirement is not met, the individual will not be able to progress their application further.

Responsibilities

• A dedication to learn new technologies and to explore new industry concepts
• Leading more junior developers on the team, including both permanent staff and contractors
• Translating requirements into viable system designs
• Putting users first, identifying needs based on evidence, developing services to meet those needs, and engage in meaningful interactions and relationships with users
• Create code that is open by default and easy for others to reuse
• Working with common Defra technologies including Node.js, PostgreSQL, Redis
• Applying knowledge and experience to investigate and resolve issues
• Establishing relationships and embedding ways of working across projects
• Awareness of secure development practices including vulnerability scanning and OWASP

Skills and experience

• Ability to provide leadership and direction to a team of software developers
• Ability to communicate clearly and with confidence to senior stakeholders
• Ability to communicate complex technical concepts to a non-technical audience
• Work management including refining and breaking down tasks, and defining acceptance criteria
• Awareness of Clean Coding practices and approaches to mitigate and address technical debt – refactoring, test coverage
• Software architecture – layers, separation of concerns, microservices
• Lead Developer Government Digital and Data Profession Capability Framework skills. Please see the Technical skills below for further information on these