Vacancy -- Lead Drupal Developer

Working for the Civil Service

The Welsh Government's recruitment processes are underpinned by the principle of selection for appointment on merit on the basis of fair and open competition as outlined in the Civil Service Commission’s Recruitment Principles.

The Civil Service Code sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

Vacancy Details

Office of the First Minister
Communications – Corporate Digital Team
SEO - £41,700 - £49,370
Up to £44,950, dependant on experience
Full time (applications are welcome from people who work part time, as part of a job share or who work full time)
Fixed term
This job is a 2 year fixed term post, with the possibility of being made permanent.
Pan Wales, Outside Wales
Flexible
TBC

Purpose of Post:

This is an exciting time to join the Welsh Government as we modernise and develop our online services

We want to expand our team of developers and we’re looking for an experienced Drupal developer to fit into our growing digital team.   You’ll be a self starter with great people skills. You're also a driven, pro-active, pragmatic problem-solver who cares about the details.

Mostly, you’ll be part of an agile delivery team working a range of interesting projects aimed at improving the Welsh Government’s online presence.  

Key tasks:

  • Implement new functionality on our gov.wales Drupal 8 platform, writing custom modules and using contrib code
  • Support and maintenance of our Drupal 8 sites
  • Supporting our Drupal themers with Drupal and Twig
  • Work with the team to troubleshoot problems
  • Scope effective technical solutions, using your wide knowledge of the Drupal ecosystem
  • Develop software that elegantly meets our functional requirements, by writing robust and maintainable code
  • Communicating plans and developments and responding to challenge from others
  • Considering the impact of changes on system performance, and the means available to mitigate any degradation
  • Writing Behat tests, to support our test-driven development practice
  • Share best-practice with the team, and participate in code reviews

Development opportunities:

This is a demanding, rewarding role in a key area. We encourage and support skills development through relevant accreditation and conference events such as Drupalcon.

We offer a variety of equipment choices for the role.

This position is initially offered on a fixed two-year contract with the possibility of being made permanent.


Closing Date:

03/12/2018, 16:00

Eligibility

Posts recruited to as part of this recruitment campaign are broadly open to UK nationals, those with right to remain and work in the UK and those that meet the Civil Service Nationality Rules only. Check your eligibility here:

Prior to appointment, all successful applicants will be required to produce original, acceptable documents as part of the pre-employment checks. If it becomes apparent at a later stage in the process that you aren’t eligible to apply, your application will be withdrawn, or offer retracted.

Equality and Diversity

The Welsh Government is committed to providing services which embrace diversity and which promote equality of opportunity. This is underpinned by the Equality Act 2010 and will be adhered to at each stage of the recruitment process. Our goal is to ensure that these commitments are also embedded in our day-to-day working practices with all our customers, colleagues and partners.

We are committed to being an anti-racist organisation and increasing diversity in the Welsh Government by removing barriers and supporting all our staff to reach their potential. We are committed to recruiting Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic people and disabled people who are currently under-represented in Welsh Government.

We welcome applications from everyone regardless of age, marriage and civil partnership (both same sex and opposite sex), impairment or health condition, sex, sexual orientation, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, gender identity or gender expression.

We are a Stonewall Diversity Champion and a Disability Confident Level 3 (Leader) organisation. Key to supporting this work and providing peer support are five Board sponsored Staff Networks (Disability Awareness and Support (DAAS); Minority Ethnic Support Network (MESN); Mind Matters (Mental health and well-being); PRISM (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex +) and Women Together.

Disability Confident

A Great Place to Work for Veterans

This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans initiative.

Welsh Language Requirements

The Welsh Government is a bilingual organisation and Welsh language skills are considered an asset to the organisation. We encourage and support staff to learn, develop and use their Welsh language skills in the workplace. 

The following list of language requirements represents an objective assessment by the line manager on behalf of the Welsh Government of the Welsh language skills required to undertake the duties of this particular post.

Not necessary to undertake the duties of this post

Social Partnership

In Welsh Government, the relationship between the employer and trade unions is based on social partnership. We believe our goals can best be achieved by management and trade unions working together.

Our 3 recognised trade unions are:
•         PCS
•         Prospect
•         FDA

This relationship is underpinned by a partnership agreement. This sets out how our unions work with Welsh Government on issues such as:
•         pay
•         terms and conditions
•         policies and procedures
•         organisational change.

Our Welsh Government trade union colleagues work together to give their members a real say in the workplace. They make sure that the interests of their members are promoted and protected. They also help reduce inequalities and improve terms and conditions.

The Welsh Government has an excellent track record of working in partnership with its trade unions. We encourage staff to get involved. We support you to join a recognised trade union, to ensure your voice is heard in the workplace. and to learn more about trade unions and partnership working.

Competencies / Job Specific Criteria

Person specification – skills/abilities required

  1. Has the ability to evaluate technology and identify dependencies and blockers. Has the ability to work out how stories should be broken down and can illustrate how you implement stories.
  2. Being able to change your approach and having a willingness to change. You should be suggesting continuous improvements.
  3. Collaborating and partnering through pairing and working with other professions. You should understand the benefits of working with others.
  4. Being able to write and maintain clean code which is production ready, maintainable and documented.

Job specific criteria

  1. Demonstrable track record in building and maintaining large-scale multilingual Drupal 8 sites within an agile environment and extensive experience with the LAMP stack.
  2. A high level of experience in Drupal site-building & custom module development, wide knowledge of Drupal modules, and an active participant in the Drupal community.
  3. Experience of test-driven development and continuous integration, using git with a feature branch workflow and container based development environments.

Assessment Process

Other Information

  • Unless stated otherwise in ‘actual starting salary’, all candidates will start at the minimum of the pay scale being appointed to (this includes existing civil servants).This is not negotiable.
  • Unless stated otherwise in ‘type of opportunity’, this recruitment advert is not open on a Loan or Secondment basis.
  • For more information on the eligibility criteria and terms and conditions for Loan and Secondment positions in Welsh Government, please see external recruitment candidate guidance.
  • Unless stated otherwise in ‘Location of Post’ the role/s recruited to via this campaign can only be worked in the UK, not overseas.

The applications we get will go through two sift stages.  The first stage will look at the job specific criteria for the role. Only those meeting the minimum requirements for the job specific criteria will have their applications sifted further. Please include a link to your drupal.org profile with your application.

We keep all candidate details for 12 months for similar roles.  Direct applications from candidates please (no agencies)


Aeddan Davies - Aeddan.Davies@gov.wales - 03000 251647

How to apply

All applications for this vacancy should be made online via the Welsh Government's online application system.  If you have a disability which would prevent you from applying on-line, please e-mail SharedServiceHelpdesk@gov.wales to request an application pack in an alternative format, or to request a reasonable adjustment related to a disability in order to submit your application.

To apply, you'll need to have an account on our online application system.  Click the 'Apply' button below, and you'll be asked to 'Log in' if you already have an account, or 'Register' if you don't yet have an account.  Registration takes just a few minutes to complete.  You'll need an e-mail address to be able to register.  Once you've registered for an account and logged in, you'll be taken to the online application form, which you'll need to fully complete and submit before the deadline on the closing date.  

If you’d like to apply for this vacancy in Welsh, please use the ‘Newid Iaith / Change Language’ link at the top of this page, to take you to the Welsh version of this advert, from which you can apply in Welsh.

For further information regarding the Welsh Government recruitment process, please see the Recruitment Guidance for External Candidates (link).

When evidencing your suitability for the post, it is recommended that you refer to the Civil Service Competency Framework (link)

Grievance and Complaints

Anyone who believes they have been treated unfairly, or has a grievance or complaint, about how the process was conducted should either write to the Head of Resourcing, Welsh Government, Cathays Park 2, Cardiff CF10 3NQ or email SharedServiceHelpdesk@gov.wales.  If you are unhappy with the outcome of the complaint raised with the Welsh Government and feel that the principles of appointment on merit through fair and open competition have not been met you have the right to pursue your grievance with the Civil Service Commission.

This vacancy is closed to applications.