Senior Software Engineer

Job summary

The Infected Blood Compensation Authority (IBCA) is a new arm’s-length body set up, at unprecedented pace, to administer compensation to people whose lives have been impacted by the infected blood scandal.

IBCA will ensure payment is made in recognition of the wrongs experienced by those who have been infected by HIV, Hepatitis B or C, as well as those who love and care for them. They have been frustrated and distressed by the delays in achieving proper recognition, and we must help put this right.

We are committed to putting the infected and affected blood community at the centre of every decision we make and every step we take to build our organisation to deliver compensation payments.

IBCA employees will be public servants. If successful in this role you will be appointed directly into IBCA, on IBCA terms and conditions as a public servant.

Successful applicants will join the Civil Service Pension Scheme.

Please note that the mission of IBCA means that it is likely to be fully operational for a period of approximately up to 5 years, after which IBCA will become a smaller residual service. When IBCA’s work begins to wind down, IBCA employees will receive support and practical guidance to find a new role, whether in the Civil Service, another Arm's Length Body (ALB), or an external employer.

Job description

We are looking for a motivated, collaborative and compassionate Senior Software Engineer to join in our mission to deliver compensation to people whose life has been impacted by infected blood products. This is a rare opportunity to apply modern software engineering processes in making a tangible difference to people’s lives.
We work in multidisciplinary teams at the Infected Blood Compensation Authority (IBCA), which are organised around delivering our mission and priorities:

• To create a user-centred, empathetic end-to-end service at the heart of IBCA;
• To provide the means of paying compensation to those eligible;
• To iterate our service through starting small and scaling fast.

Joining IBCA at this stage in the lifecycle gives you a unique platform to influence tech decisions, build capability, and implement best in class engineering standards, while supporting teams in converging towards common engineering patterns and approaches. You will operate in a fast-paced environment that expects technical excellence, agility and a deep commitment to user needs.

Key Responsibilities

• Collaborate in a fast-paced Agile environment, with technical and non-technical colleagues;
• Refine user stories into actionable items of work;
• Work with interface designers and architects to develop frontend and backend services, applying a rigorous testing approach to ensure applications are functionally sound, secure, performant, and maintainable;
• Ensure user interfaces are compliant with accessibility standards and perform well on all target devices;
• Work with infrastructure engineers (DevOps) to design continuous integration and deployment pipelines that deliver incremental releases frequently and reliably;
• Ensure the solutions follow modern engineering approaches, adhere to our engineering standards and comply with required standards, as well as fulfil functional and non-functional requirements;
• Have line management responsibilities.

Person specification

Essential Criteria

• AWS Infrastructure: Proven experience implementing applications as part of complex, multi-component services running on multiple environments and AWS accounts;
• Data Management: Proven experience working with relational and non-relational databases and safeguarding sensitive data, applying appropriate design patterns to ensure robustness in communicating with operational data stores.
• Scalable Infrastructure: Experience building and running containerised applications as part of a Kubernetes cluster (e.g.: EKS), as well as asynchronous and event-driven architectures (e.g. SNS).
• Modern Languages: Demonstrable skills in modern development languages (e.g. Java, Python, TypeScript), and aptitude to learn more.
  Software Design: Deep understanding of software design patterns and applying them effectively to produce testable solutions that can adapt to changing needs.
• Agile & Influence: Adaptable team player who understands the Agile methodology and can influence others.
• Engineering at Scale: Harnesses engineering standards and documentation to shape engineering across the organisation, pioneering new approaches and documenting existing patterns.

Additional information:

A minimum 60% of your working time should be spent at your principal workplace. Although requirements to attend other locations for official business will also count towards this level of attendance.

Behaviours

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Managing a Quality Service

Technical skills

We'll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:

• Designing complex systems

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £60,708, Infected Blood Compensation Authority contributes £17,587 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).

• Premium allowance paid monthly after probation
• Learning and development tailored to your role
• An environment with flexible working options
• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
• A Civil Service Pension which provides an attractive pension, benefits for dependants and employer contributions of 28.97%
• 32.5 days of paid annual leave plus 8 bank holidays
• Family friendly policies to support you and your everyday responsibilities
• Enhanced maternity and paternity leave, up to 12 months shared parental leave

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

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours, Strengths, Experience and Technical skills.

Application information

As part of your application, you will be asked to complete an anonymised CV, which should include your career history, skills, experience and qualifications.

You will also be asked to complete a Personal Statement, of no more than 750 words, that demonstrates how you meet the Essential Skills for the role.

At sift, you will be assessed on your CV and Personal Statement.

Should you be successful at sift, you will be invited to attend an interview where you will be assessed on experience, strengths, behaviours and a written exercise that reflects the techni