Power Platform Developer - His Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services

About the job

• Benefits
• Things you need to know
• Apply and further information

Location

His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) is a national organisation with a Head Office in Birmingham and regional offices in London and Salford. In line with the Places for Growth Programme HMICFRS will relocate more roles based outside London and the Southeast over the next six to seven years. This role is available in Salford, Birmingham and London, and may also be offered as a homeworking position.

Office-based staff: We currently operate a non-contractual hybrid working arrangement. Employees are required to attend the workplace for between 60% and 100% of their working time, depending on business need.

Homeworker: Your contractual place of work is your home address. You will normally work from home, travelling to HMICFRS offices, meetings, training events and other work-related activities as required. This designation is generally used for Home Office employees and other directly employed HMICFRS staff.

About the job

Job summary

HMICFRS independently assesses the effectiveness and efficiency of police forces and fire and rescue services – in the public interest. We promote improvements in policing and fire and rescue services to make everyone safer.

We are independent of the Government, police and fire and rescue services. We ask the questions that we believe the public wish to have answered and produce major reports that shine a light on issues at the very heart of policing and fire and rescue services.

Our reports are widely covered by the media and help inform the public of the performance of their local police forces and fire and rescue services. You can find out more about HMICFRS on our website and see some of our recent reports.

Working at HMICFRS gives you an opportunity to make a real difference to the quality of local police and fire and rescue services and the lives of the public.

HMICFRS is a unique organisation with staff seconded or loaned from across the Civil Service, police forces and fire and rescue services. We set ourselves high standards, taking great pride in the quality of work we achieve and the opportunities we create for our staff.

We are seeking candidates with a strong interest in digital delivery and Microsoft Power Platform to join our growing capability in this area. The postholder will support HMICFRS’s digital transformation by designing, developing and maintaining low-code solutions that improve business processes, support better decision-making and enable more efficient ways of working.

The role will involve the development of applications, workflows and reporting solutions using Microsoft Power Platform technologies, including Power Apps, Power Automate, Power BI and Dataverse. The postholder will work closely with business colleagues to understand requirements, deliver user-focused and secure technical solutions, and support the wider adoption of platform capability across the organisation.

This role will contribute to the continued growth of HMICFRS’s digital capability and support the organisation in making effective use of automation, data and modern development tools to improve services and outcomes.

Find out more

If you would like to talk to someone about this role and what it’s like working for HMICFRS we would be pleased to hear from you. Please contact James.Hart4@hmicfrs.gov.uk who would be happy to answer any questions you may have.

Job description

As a Developer working in an agile, multi‑disciplinary team, you will design, build and support digital solutions using the Microsoft Power Platform, with a strong focus on Power Apps (model‑driven and canvas apps).

You will work closely with senior colleagues to learn on the job while contributing to the delivery and continuous improvement of business applications that support inspection activity and public safety. Your work will be guided, structured and aligned to established standards and patterns.

You will be expected to:

Build and enhance model‑driven and canvas Power Apps, including forms, views, navigation and basic business logic.

Design and maintain Dataverse tables, relationships, choice fields and security roles, ensuring data is structured, secure and fit for purpose.

Create and iterate Power BI datasets and reports to support operational insight and analysis.

Develop Power Automate workflows to automate business processes such as notifications, approvals and data synchronisation.

Contribute to solution delivery across the full development lifecycle, from initial design through to deployment and live service support.

Support the resolution of issues in live services, following established processes and documentation.

You will be supported through training, coaching and mentoring, with opportunities to develop your technical capability in Power Platform and grow within the Digital profession. Your work will be procedural in nature, increasingly taking ownership of tasks as your skills develop.

An employee may be required to carry out other duties within the scope of the grade and within the limits of their skill, competence and training.

Due to business requirements, this post is full‑time only; flexible working is available.

Responsibilities

Your main day-to-day responsibilities will include:

• Delivering secure, reliable and scalable software undertaking a breadth of development tasks as a Power Platform SME.
• Taking a blended approach to development using a code-first approach where necessary to extend the platform.
• Leading on roadmap initiatives taking ownership from POC to production.
• Designing new software using appropriate tools in line with standards, proving designs through prototyping. For example, PowerShell scripting, re-usable app components, custom connectors, plug-ins, and PCF components.
• Reporting on system performance and supporting test activities; keeping documentation up to date.
• Supporting services, you have delivered through regular maintenance activities, balancing your work with your leadership.
• Potential to work with other engineers to deliver new capability, for instance improved CI/CD pipelines or test approaches.

Person specification

Essential criteria

You’ll have a demonstrable passion for Power Platform development with the following skills or experience in:

• Applying recognised design principles to implement components for Power Platform and cloud services (e.g. Azure), ensuring solutions are modular, secure and maintainable, and contributing to design discussions and refinements. (Software Design – SWDN)
• Developing solutions using Power Platform and code-first approaches (e.g. C#, JavaScript), including extending functionality through custom plug-ins and PCF components, and contributing to peer reviews and improved development practices. (Programming / Software Development – PROG)
• Defining and executing test cases, including automated and manual testing, and contributing to test coverage and quality assurance activities. (Testing – TEST)
• Supporting integration of Power Platform services with external systems, and contributing to build and deployment activities using CI/CD pipelines and version control tools such as Git. (Systems Integration and Build – SINT)
• Working with modern data platforms to implement secure data solutions, using technologies such as Dataverse, SQL Server, MySQL, NoSQL or PostgreSQL, and ensuring appropriate handling of sensitive data. (Data Management – DATM)
• Supporting live services through incident resolution and service improvement, maintaining documentation and contributing to improving reliability, performance and operability. (Application Support – ASUP)

Desirable criteria

• Experience of writing and using JavaScript in Model Driven Apps.
• Experience of deploying solutions using Azure Dev Ops.
• Experience of developing Logic apps and Function Apps.
• Experience of developing app components and managing a component library.

SFIA capability framework

Skills for the Information Age (SFIA) version 8 is the technical framework that sets the standard capability and development of all levels in the Home Office. This is a link to the capability framework:

All skills A - Z English www.sfia-online.org

We use set SFIA technical skills to form our interview questions and we will assess you against these technical skills during the selection process.

The essential skills listed above are reflective of the Home Office Government Digital and Data Profession Career Framework (based on the industry standard SFIA framework).

Use the SFIA Levels of responsibility to understand what would be expected for each technical skill listed below.

Technical skills

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

• Software design (SWDN) - Level 3
• Programming/software Development (PROG) - Level 3
• Testing (TEST) - Level 3
• Systems integration and build (SINT) - Level 3
• Data management (DATM) - Level 3
• Application support (ASUP) - Level 3

We only ask for evidence of these technical skills on your application form:

• Programming/software Development (PROG) - Level 3

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £49,850, His Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services contributes

£14,441 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).

• A Civil Service pension with an average employer contribution of 28.97%

See civil service pensions website for more information www.civilservicepensionscheme.org.uk

• You may be eligible for an additional non-pensionable allowance, pending a Capability and Skills Assessment, with a value of up to £10,200.
• Learning and development tailored to your role

We are committed to investing in our staff and providing all staff with opportunities to maximise their skills and achieve their potential. We offer a range of work-based training and development opportunities including access to coaching and mentoring, and five days volunteering per year.

• An environment with flexible working options

We promote flexible working that balances professional and personal commitments. We support virtual and smart working, making best use of our technology and building collaborative working models to help all staff to work from home and/or in the office in a ‘hybrid’ way.

• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity

The diversity of our people is a real asset to HMICFRS. We are committed to creating a welcoming, inclusive workplace where all our people are able to bring their whole selves to work and perform at their best. We particularly welcome applications from candidates from ethnic minority groups and people with disabilities, as they are currently under-represented within this grade level.

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 Experience and Technical skills.

This gives us the best possible chance of finding the right person for the job, drives up performance and improves diversity and inclusivity.

As part of the application process, you will be asked to complete a CV and Personal Statement (1250 words max).

Further details arou