Vacancy -- 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

Economy, Skills and Natural Resources
Programme Controls & Funding
HEO - £32,460 - £39,690
£29,100
Full time (applications are welcome from people who work part time, as part of a job share or who work full time)
Permanent
Pan Wales
'Pan Wales' means that the location in which the vacancy can be based is flexible, subject to the needs of the business. Please note it may not always be possible to accommodate a preference for a specific office location, but requests will be taken into consideration.
TBC

Purpose of Post:

Background

The Welsh Government is the devolved government for Wales with an annual budget of around £15 billion. It is responsible for key aspects of public life in Wales including health, education, the economy, transport, agriculture and the environment.

Welsh Ministers are supported by a workforce of more than 5,000 civil servants with offices in Wales, London, Brussels and overseas.

Welsh Government priorities are outlined in Taking Wales Forward with an overall ambition to build a Wales which is self-confident, prosperous, healthy nation and a society which is fair to all. The Welsh Government has also set out clear priorities for Wales following the UK’s exit from the European Union.

The Welsh Government is looking to attract people who can provide excellent support and advice, can focus resources and have energy and expertise.  The Well Being and Future Generations Act provides context for our work. 

Digital transformation of public services is vital to delivering the services the people of Wales expect and need. Welsh Government currently delivers a number of digital services to people and business across Wales. We also provide information on our websites. 

Led by our Chief Digital Officer, the Welsh Government is increasingly delivering more services online. The Chief Digital Officer provides a consultancy service of digital and data expertise across Welsh Government.

SHELL are responsible for overseeing higher education, further education and the wider post-16 education, training and skills sector in Wales along with the funding of approved vocational qualifications and  the development of employability policy.  They are also responsible for leading the contribution that the post-16 education and training system makes to developing highly educated and skilled people who are able to gain and retain high quality jobs that pay well and make a contribution to the wider Welsh economy and society.

The Role:

As a Developer you will participate as a member of an internal software development team to provide development and maintenance for in-house supported applications; some of which are both inward facing and external to the organisation. Primary focus will be assisting the Senior Developer on coding/web development, data analysis, database development and software testing.

 

Key tasks:

Your main responsibilities will be:

  • Support the Senior Developer to manage the design, delivery and management information functions, including design, development and customisation of complex bespoke reports using multiple data sources.
  • Apply technical knowledge to design, create, test and document new and amended programs from supplied specification in accordance with agreed standards.
  • Undertake analysis of business requirements to inform impact assessments, use cases, test scenarios, and use agile methodologies to maintain a strong focus on delivery priorities and swiftly respond to changing requirements.
  • Undertake 1st (where requirements cannot be delivered by service desk) and 2nd line support of critical applications, services, and platforms on issues as they arise within the agreed SLA’s or in conjunction with commercial partners.
  • Work with stakeholders to identify and manage the adoption of best practice to deliver business change and continuous improvement initiatives in accordance with organisational standards and policies
  • Assist the team with the unit testing of the application release cycle. Support the testing lifecycle, in conjunction with partner organisations and policy teams, to ensure developments meet business need
  • Ensure all strands of non-functional requirements e.g. information assurance; web standards are compliant within the system.
  • Contribute to the development and continual enhancement of applications, services, procedures and processes, including generating and maintaining documentation.
  • Provide support to the Senior Developer, Lead Developer and Principal Developer around activities such as technical support, stakeholder engagement, delivery of continuous improvements (CI) and projects.

Development opportunities:

Your role will form part of Welsh Government’s Digital, Data and Technology (DDaT) profession.  This is a growing profession and you will have the opportunity to be part of shaping and growing it.

We are committed to developing the skills and capability of our staff and encouraging them to use five days of learning a year.  To support this we offer a range of opportunities which could include:

  • Shadowing
  • Mentoring
  • Work based learning
  • Qualifications
  • Coaching
  • Short Term Experience Programme (STEP)

Proactively making links and working with a wide range of Welsh Government teams and external partners including other Governments in the UK. 

Closing Date:

19/05/2019, 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

Competencies:

  1. Making effective decisions – Using sound judgement, evidence and knowledge to arrive at accurate decisions.  Ensure public information is handled securely and with care.
  2. Managing a quality service – Ability to write and maintain clear code which is production ready, maintainable and documented.
  3. Information security - Maintains the security, confidentiality and integrity of information systems through compliance with organisation standards and processes.  Designs, implements and operates controls to allow this.
  4. System Design - Ability to create the specification and design of systems to meet defined business needs.  Works with business and technology stakeholders to translate business problems into technical designs.  Able to visualise the ideal user service, come up with design ideas and possible design approaches.  Explores different approaches to solving problems.

Job specifics:

  1. Demonstrable experience of software development and the ability to understand and translate requirements into the design and delivery of digital applications and services using relevant design methodologies, techniques and technologies.
  2. Experience of relevant design methodologies, techniques and technologies.  The role is predominantly based on design methodologies, techniques and technologies such as SQL server and SSRS, C#, ASP.NET, MVC and MVVM Design Patterns, SQL, XML and Entity Framework, Dependency Injection, HTML, JavaScript (incl. JQuery, Angular, JSON, Bootstrap, etc), Unit Testing and Application Testing such as Software Acceptance Testing (SAT), Source Control (TFS, GIT) and User Acceptance Testing (UAT). Experience with development IDE’s such as Visual Studio.NET, Soap UI. It would be desirable if you could evidence experience in Microsoft Azure, DevOps and Continuous Integration (CI).
  3. Ability to provide service support and assist with fixing faults following agreed procedures.

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.

To apply for this role you will be asked to attach the following:

  • A Personal Statement explaining how your experience and skills provide evidence against the competencies and job specifics of the role. 
  • An up to date CV including evidence of the essential technical skills and any desirable job specific capabilities where applicable.

Please see the Recruitment Guidance for External Candidates

If you are successful at the sifting stage, you will be invited to interview.  The interview will focus on your skills and experience in relation to the essential requirements of the role.  We may also include a test or assessment if appropriate.

Following the interview, if unsuccessful, we may keep your details for up to 12 months on a reserve list should other similar posts become available.

PLEASE NOTE: It is important that you do attach both of these documents (both the Personal Statement and CV) in your online application to be considered for this role.

The Welsh Government offers a variety of benefits, including:

  • Support for improving or gaining Welsh language skills for all employees
  • Frequent development discussions and the training you need for your role and to grow
  • Annual pay increments, allowing you to progress to the top of your pay scale within 3-4 years
  • 31 days annual leave, plus a day for Christmas and the Queen’s Birthday
  • Generous parental leave, including 26 weeks at full pay for qualifying employees
  • Generous pension scheme with employer contributions
  • Childcare Vouchers Scheme, saving up to £933/year
  • Cycle to Work Scheme: choose a brand new bike up to £1000, saving at least 32%
  • Advances of Salary: request advances for Christmas, computer equipment or Tenancy Deposits
  • Season Ticket Loans
  • Flexitime policy

Mark Hodson - 03000 625765 - Mark.Hodson@gov.wales

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.