Other Locations - Bristol and Manchester

Job summary

The Government Digital Service (GDS) is the digital centre of government — we are responsible for setting, leading and delivering the vision for a modern digital government.

Our priorities are to drive a modern digital government, by:

1. joining up public sector services
2. harnessing the power of AI for the public good
3. strengthening and extending our digital and data public infrastructure
4. elevating leadership and investing in talent
5. funding for outcomes and procuring for growth and innovation
6. committing to transparency and driving accountability

We are home to the Incubator for Artificial Intelligence (I.AI), the world-leading GOV.UK and at the forefront of coordinating the UK’s geospatial strategy and activity. We lead the Government Digital and Data function and champion the work of digital teams across government.

We’re part of the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) and employ more than 1,000 people all over the UK, with hubs in Manchester, London and Bristol.

The Government Digital Service is where talent translates into impact. From your first day, you’ll be working with some of the world’s most highly-skilled digital professionals, all contributing their knowledge to make change on a national scale.

Join us for rewarding work that makes a difference across the UK. You'll solve some of the nation’s highest-priority digital challenges, helping millions of people access services they need.

Job description

You’ll join the GOV.UK App programme as a mobile developer, helping a growing team to deliver a personalised, proactive government experience to UK citizens.

You’ll build and maintain either the GOV.UK iOS or Android application, as part of a multidisciplinary team. The apps are native, written in Swift and Kotlin and use UIKit, SwiftUI and Jetpack Compose

As a mobile developer in GDS, you’ll:

• work as part of a multi-disciplinary agile team, getting involved with every part of the lifecycle of the application, from user research to releasing and monitoring the application
• build accessible apps, taking responsibility for the quality of code you produce
• build automated tests to maintain software quality
• share knowledge of tools and techniques with your wider team, both developers and non-developers
• support the live operation of the services we run, and participate in out-of-hours support rotas where necessary - you'll be paid an allowance, and a further hourly payment, for any duties you perform when on call
• be involved in helping recruit developers and, where appropriate, helping sift and interview
• provide technical leadership within team, advising and working with developers to identify the best solutions
• take responsibility for developing others, through line management and/or mentoring
• take responsibility for solving complex issues

You’ll share the responsibility for the digital transformation of the government. You’ll ensure high quality code is delivered in line with programme goals and delivery cycles. You’ll thrive using agile methods and enjoy working openly, collaboratively and as part of a multidisciplinary team focused on one or more services. Above all, you’ll want to make the government better, which may sometimes involve challenging the status quo.

Person specification

The skills we would expect a Developer to have:

• experience in relevant native mobile application development, with detailed knowledge of the Swift or Kotlin ecosystem, and familiarity with SwiftUI or Jetpack compose
• be familiar with modern accessibility standards and WCAG guidelines
• have familiarity with Apple Human Interface Guidelines and App Store Review Guidelines
• familiarity with modern software development approaches such as automated testing, test-driven development (TDD), continuous integration, pair programming, code review and version control
• have experience working in a collaborative environment, and an understanding of the benefits of agile and multi-disciplinary approaches

Sponsorship

DSIT cannot offer Visa sponsorship to candidates through this campaign. DSIT holds a Visa sponsorship licence but this can only be used for certain roles and this campaign does not qualify.