Senior Software Developer - Python

Job summary

The Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade (BIST) helps businesses invest, innovate, export and grow across the UK. The Digital, Data and Technology (DDaT) directorate helps to deliver this by designing, building and running the services, platforms and technology that businesses and colleagues rely on every day.

Our teams work on a wide range of services and technologies, including:

• digital services that help businesses access government support, guidance and opportunities
• data and AI products that support decision making and enable innovation
• internal tools and services that help colleagues work more effectively
• secure technology and platforms that support critical government services
• cyber security services that protect systems, data and users

By joining DDaT, you'll work on services used by businesses, colleagues and citizens across the UK. You'll be part of multidisciplinary teams focused on improving services, solving complex problems and delivering better outcomes for users.

We are committed to creating an inclusive and supportive workplace. In recognition of this, we were named Best Public Sector Employer at the Women in Tech Employer Awards 2025!

Job description

As a Senior Software Developer, you will play a key role in designing, building and running robust, maintainable software that meets the needs of our users. You will work across the full software development lifecycle, from understanding requirements and shaping technical solutions through to development, deployment and supporting services in production.

Working as part of a multidisciplinary agile team, you will develop a strong understanding of the wider service and use this to solve complex technical problems, improve system reliability and make informed technical decisions. You will work closely with developers, technical architects, designers, user researchers and analysts to turn user needs into practical, high-quality digital solutions.

You will also contribute to our wider engineering culture by reviewing code, sharing knowledge and supporting colleagues. You will help us continually improve how we build and operate software, championing maintainable code, modern development practices and resilient services.

Main responsibilities

You will:

• Design, build, test and maintain high-quality software, delivering new functionality and improving existing services in line with agreed architecture and coding standards
• Work across the full software development lifecycle, including development, testing, deployment, monitoring and production support
• Collaborate with multidisciplinary colleagues to translate user needs and designs into working software, iterating services based on evidence and feedback
• Work closely with Technical Architects and other developers to make informed technical decisions and identify appropriate solutions to complex problems
• Develop and maintain REST APIs, web applications, microservices and containerised applications
• Build a strong understanding of the wider service, including dependencies, data and system interactions, to improve reliability and resolve underlying technical issues
• Investigate and resolve live service incidents, identifying root causes and implementing sustainable improvements
• Build and maintain continuous integration and deployment pipelines that support reliable software delivery
• Review code, share technical knowledge and support colleagues to improve quality and consistency across the team
• Contribute to continuous improvement of engineering practices, including exploring and prototyping potential solutions where appropriate

Person specification

It is essential that you have:

• Strong experience developing REST APIs and/or web applications using Python and Django, with experience working with SQL (Lead Criteria)
• Experience designing, building and supporting microservices and containerised applications using technologies such as Docker
• Experience developing web applications using technologies such as JSON, HTML, SCSS and JavaScript, and deploying or supporting services in AWS
• Experience working within an agile multidisciplinary team to design, build and iteratively improve digital services based on user needs
• Experience building and maintaining continuous integration and deployment pipelines to support reliable software delivery
• Experience supporting live services, including identifying, investigating and resolving incidents and implementing improvements to reliability

It is desirable that you have:

• Experience of using AI-assisted development tools as part of modern software development practices
• Experience using monitoring and observability tools such as Datadog, ELK, Grafana or Splunk

Behaviours

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

• Developing Self and Others
• Working Together

Technical skills

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

• Modern development standards
• Programming and build (software engineering)
• Service support
• Systems design
• User focus

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £68,732, Department for Business and Trade contributes £19,911 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).

If you join us, you will get:

• Learning and development tailored to your role
• A flexible, hybrid working environment with options like condensed hours
• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
• A Civil Service pension with an average employer contribution of 28.97%
• Annual leave starting at 25 days rising to 30 days with service
• Three paid volunteering days a year
• An employee benefits programme including cycle to work

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, Experience and Technical skills.

How to apply