HMRC is building a modern, digital tax administration and runs the biggest digital operation in Government, providing digital services for 45 million individuals and 4.9 million business customers. Our digital programme is multi-award winning and the envy of other government organisations.

This is an exciting time to join an organisation that probably doesn’t work how you’d imagine a government organisation would. 

Our role sits within HMRC’s Chief Digital & Information Group (CDIO) we’re increasingly delivering in-house through our growing network of digital delivery centres – hi-tech, state-of-the-art facilities across the UK.

Valuation Office Agency Customer Group (VOA CG) provides digital services and IT support to the Valuation Office Agency (VOA): drawing on HMRC’s digital expertise to ensure our customer (the VOA) gets the right level of service as well as building and supporting specialist, unique services.

There are some important attributes that we are looking for in anyone joining VOA CG. You must have a collaborative approach and a passion to communicate effectively. You will take accountability and ownership and have the ability to coach, mentor, reflect and to give and receive feedback. You will be flexible and adaptable, working with a sense of urgency and be passionate about having ‘The Customer’ at the heart of what you do.

As a Lead Developer in HMRC, you will be a skilled practitioner and a role model in software craftsmanship. Responsible for building elegant, accessible and scalable services that meet user needs.

You will be responsible for ensuring best practices are adhered to across the department and guiding teams on how to deliver quality software products. You will also assist in the design of software products that make up citizen services in collaboration with Architecture and Engineering principles. With a focus on operational stability, robustness, resilience, availability and quality you will be accountable for the code your teams produce.

You will have expert level knowledge of modern web development stacks, web standards, user experience, progressive enhancement, performance, accessibility, browser compatibility, tooling and pipelines.

Responsibilities • Scala or Java programming
• Collaborate with other disciplines like architecture and security to understand what needs to be built
• Line managing Senior Developer/s
• Coach and mentor junior developers and software developers
• Identify opportunities to improve system robustness, resilience and stability
• Uses a modern standards approach throughout automation and testing
• Uses agreed security standards and specification to design, create, test and document new or amended software
• Experience in designing systems to meet use needs in an agile environment
• Experienced in integrating and testing components, systems and interfaces to create operational services using code repository and continuous integration tools
• Experience of working with complex data schemas and developing APIs to integrated heterogeneous services, including SaaS products, and microservices
• Coaching & mentoring peers and wider community

Essential criteria:

• Scala or Java programming
• Experience of building scalable, secure web applications and a detailed knowledge of server-side Javascript programming
• Understanding of front-end web development (HTML, CSS and JavaScript)
• Experience in agile development, software design patterns, continuous integration, test driven development and version control (preferably GitHub)
• Knowledgeable about cyber security, designing solutions and services with security controls embedded, specifically engineered as mitigation against security threats as core part of the solutions and services
• Experience in building robust and accessible interfaces that work for as many users as possible, regardless of their needs

Desirable criteria:

• Having experience of other Cloud platforms and programming languages (e.g. AWS, PHP, Java) is an advantage as is having experience of Azure AI & Machine learning services
• You have a professional qualification at practitioner/professional level (e.g. BCS Practitioner Certificate in Systems Development Essentials, Microsoft Certificate) or are willing to study for a qualification within a reasonable length of time

We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, colour, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. We will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable adjustments to participate in the job application or interview process.