Head of Software Development - G6

Pay

• Salary band for this role is £60,504,049 to £72,000 (£63,866 – £76,000 for candidates based within the M25)
• New recruits to the Civil Service are expected to join at the band minimum
• A generous digital allowance is also available
• The final allowance awarded will be based on an assessment of your skills and experience as demonstrated at interview.

These are exciting times at Her Majesty’s Court and Tribunals Service (HMCTS). As an agency of the MoJ, we provide the supporting administration for the judiciary across England and Wales. Within that portfolio, Digital and Technology Services (DTS) has a clear ambition to create an organisational culture where diverse and inclusive multi-disciplinary teams bring together in-house digital, data and technology specialists to build capability, work smarter and more efficiently. Please visit https://www.hmctsjobs.co.uk/dts/ for further details!

We’re building better justice for everyone by harnessing technology, curiosity and our burning mission to make a momentous impact. You have the chance to influence that change and own your mark.

With the scale and size of transformation, you’ll get exposure to bigger opportunities and new ways of learning that will push your potential. It’s a massive challenge doing career defining work, but we also embrace your individuality and life outside of work. So through flexible working we’ll trust you to shape the future in a way that suits you.

Sound like a challenge you’re up for?

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for.everyone

The Role

As the Head of Development, you will be an experienced agile practitioner who exemplifies what good looks like across the delivery role, particularly with Software Development You will represent and champion the role within your jurisdiction department (one of three), across government and in industry as well as lead the community of practice for this role and build capability and excellence. You will also support professional development and continuous improvement of their community and work with other heads of roles to promote effective cross-functional delivery. You will be a skilled team leader of software developers and application architects who is able to confidently communicate the value of the role to digital and non-digital stakeholders whilst being credible and influential across departments.

Technologies:

We rely heavily on

• Java to write our backend services
• Node.js and Angular to write our frontend services
• Jenkins for deployment
• Dynatrace for application monitoring
• Kubernetes and Docker to run our services
• Azure for most of our infrastructure
• Terraform and scripting (python, bash etc.) for managing it
• PostgreSQL and Redis as our databases
• GOV.UK Design System for our web interfaces
• Macs to do all of the above
• We’re happy to help you learn our tech stack once you are part of our team.

What will you be doing?

• Lead a tribe and upto 8 development squads, focused on the Development Engineers
• Can create or tailor new ways of working; you are always innovating.
• Drive the creation of the business case for complex projects, co-ordinate activities across stakeholder groups
• Iterate the business case throughout the lifecycle of the project
• Know how to optimize the delivery flow of teams
• Identify, test and champion the adoption of emerging technologies working in collaboation with the Application Architect and the Enterprise Architects
• Lead a development practice utilising evolving technologies and practices such as agile, DevOps, cloud platforms, AI/ML, chatbots, multiexperience development and IoT to deliver differentiating applications and user experiences
• Identify and compare the best processes or delivery methods to use, including measuring and evaluating outcomes
• Ability to adapt and reflect, is resilient and can see outside of the process.
• Able to help teams to manage and visualise outcomes, prioritise work and work to agreed minimum viable product (MVP)
• Development process optimisation (management). You can set strategy and manage resource allocation for solution development programmes. You liaise with product managers and delivery managers to clarify business requirements; you can identify, propose, initiate and lead these technical delivery programmes.

What are we looking for?

• Previous experience of leading and managing teams within a large digital organization
• Demonstrable understanding of large digital organisations operate in the context of this role
• Good knowledge of working with technical and business stakeholders and the wider development team
• Senior experience of problem solving and working with others to deliver at pace
• Can speak and represent the community to large audiences inside and outside of government
• You have a depth of knowledge in information security. You can design, quality review and quality assure solutions and services with security controls embedded, specifically engineered as mitigation against security threats as a core part of the solutions and services.
• You will have a critical influence on the organisation’s overall direction and reputation with internal and external stakeholders and partners
• Experience of how to successfully lead teams through the full product life cycle
• Know how to coach and lead teams in Agile and Lean practices and are a recognized expert that advocates these approaches, continuously reflecting and challenging the team
• Understand how to optimize the delivery flow of teams
• Can work with key stakeholers to negotiate with contracted suppliers and get good value out of contracts and suppliers
• Can mediate between people and mend relationships, communicating with stakeholders at all levels

What can we offer you?

• A generous pension scheme on average of up to 27%!
• 25 days leave, plus 8 bank holidays, plus 1 privilege day usually taken around the Queens’ birthday
• Flexible working; whether it’s working from home or remotely, working part-time, job sharing, or working compressed hours, we have people doing it and are happy to discuss options with you
• Great maternity, adoption, and shared parental leave, with up to 26 weeks leave at full pay, 13 weeks with partial pay, and 13 weeks further leave. And maternity support/paternity leave at full pay for 2 weeks, too!
• Bike loans and secure bike parking (subject to availability and location)
• Season ticket loans, childcare vouchers, and eye-care vouchers.
• Up to 5 days paid leave per year for voluntary work you may wish to undertake
• We also currently have employee-run networks for colleagues of minority ethnic origin, employees with disabilities, those with caring responsibilities, women employees, and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender employees with which you will eligible to join

We are passionate about career development and in order to help support this, we offer a number of training and development platforms that employees will have access to. Working with your manager, you will be given the support and time required to complete agreed courses, as part of your personal development plan.

• Pluralsight – Over 7000 video training courses created by over 1400 subject-matter experts, covering a wide range of software development related skills.
• Microsoft Enterprise Skills Initiative – a range of Azure focused courses that can lead to Microsoft Certification.
• Civil Service Learning – a wide variety of online training to help support your role as a Civil Servant.