Java Software Engineer

Job summary

Are you an experienced talented Java Engineer looking for the next challenge?

Are you ready to shape the future of digital services that impact millions of lives?

Want to work on meaningful technology that drives real-world change?

Would you like to join our Software Engineer team to help DWP Digital modernise the way it delivers public services?

We’re looking for outstanding Software Engineers, who wants to contribute to demanding and exciting digital services for the UK Government. Be part of changing the face of public services with the potential to dramatically transform the future of millions of people.

Our Engineers will build and run applications as part of a multi-functional agile delivery teams. What really excites the successful candidate is problem-solving and the opportunity to deliver innovative technology that carries real value for users. The candidate will be expected to draw value from collaboration with others, actively seek input from colleagues and value a multidisciplinary team over hierarchy.

We use modern technologies including AWS, Kubernetes, Java, Python, and CI/CD pipelines. You’ll have access to excellent learning and development, flexible working, and a strong engineering community that supports your career progression.

Make an impact. Build something that matters.

Job description

As a Software Engineer you will develop and maintain software products that make up citizen and organisation facing services and contribute towards their design.

Key Responsibilities

You will be responsible for the operational stability of the products you build and be able to affect change in the on-going robustness and resilience of those products.

You will work within, and contribute to, the overall Software Development Lifecycle Process as part of a multi-functional Agile delivery team focused on one or more products.

Our Software Engineers are skilled practitioners and role models for software craft within DWP.

You will:

• Work as part of multidisciplinary teams, in collaboration with architects and engineers, to design software products that make up services used by millions of people.
• Building and consuming APIs, with a focus on an API first design approach.
• Monitoring system robustness, resilience and stability.
• Collaborating with other areas to help build comprehensive suites of automated tests to improve product quality.
• Participating directly in agile ceremonies and contributing ideas.
• Help make sure we follow best practice and will guide our teams on how to deliver quality software products.
• Help design and support the strategies for building reusable libraries and services.
• Support Software Engineering teams providing technical leadership and guidance.
• Contribute to setting strategic direction for product team and the wider Software Engineering community.

Occasional travel between the Digital hubs for business purposes will be required.

Person specification

See selection process for further details.

If you would like to learn more about the role, please contact Oliver.Canham1@dwp.gov.uk

Technical skills

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

• System Design

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £44,447, Department for Work and Pensions contributes

£12,876 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).

We also have a broad benefits package built around your work-life balance which includes:

• Working patterns to support work/life balance such as job sharing, term-time working, flexi-time and compressed hours.
• Generous annual leave – at least 25 days on entry, increasing up to 30 days over time (pro–rata for part time employees), plus 9 days public and privilege leave.
• Support for financial wellbeing, including interest-free season ticket loans for travel, a cycle to work scheme and an employee discount scheme.
• Health and wellbeing support including our Employee Assistance Programme for specialist advice and counselling and the opportunity to join HASSRA a first-class programme of competitions, activities and benefits for its members (subscription payable monthly).
• Family friendly policies including enhanced maternity and shared parental leave pay after 1 year’s continuous service.
• Funded learning and development to support progress in your role and career. This includes industry recognised qualifications and accreditations, coaching, mentoring and talent development programmes.
• An inclusive and diverse environment with opportunities to join professional and interpersonal networks including Women’s Network, National Race Network, National Disability Network (THRIVE) and many more.

Hybrid Working

This role may be suitable for hybrid working, which is where an employee works part of the week in their DWP office and part of the week from home. This is a voluntary, non-contractual arrangement and your office will be your contractual place of work.

If a hybrid working arrangement is suitable for the role and for you, you will normally be required to spend a minimum of 60% of your contracted working hours from your DWP office.

If you have a disability, caring responsibilities, or other circumstances that may affect your ability to meet the minimum office attendance requirement, please discuss this with us using the contact details in this advert.

Salary Information

Pay for this role is from £44,447 to £59,813.

The maximum salary for the grade is £46,547, however a Digital Allowance of up to £13,266 per annum is available for exceptional candidates. Digital Allowance is non-salary, and non-pensionable, and is classed as a temporary allowance. It is reviewed annually where it could be retained, amended, or removed.

Our offer to successful candidates will be based on an assessment of your skills and experience as demonstrated at interview.

Existing Civil Servants who secure a new role on lateral transfer will maintain their current substantive salary.

Civil Servants who gain promotion will move to the bottom of the grade pay scale or receive a 10% increase applied to their current substantive salary, whichever is greater.

Any temporary allowances that you are currently in receipt of will not form part of the calculation to determine your pay. Any allowances that are in payment will cease when you move into your new role.

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.

Stage 1: Application

Your application will consist of four parts:

1. A Personal Details application form.

2. Employment history - this should contain your work experience and any skills, qualifications and accomplishments relevant to the jobs you have completed.

3. Personal statement - up to 1000 words. This statement should be used to provide examples of how you meet the essential criteria below:

• Knowledge and experience of APIs, RESTful services and Microservice Architectures.
• Demonstrable experience in developing on cloud-based environments such as AWS or Azure.
• A good understanding of Test Driven Development(TDD) and Behaviour Driven Development(BDD).
• Experience of SQL or NoSQL database applications such as Postgres, MySQL, and MongoDB.
• Experience and the skills to build up a useful, robust automated test suite to support a continuous deployment environment.

4. Technical statement (up to 250 words). The following statement is aligned to the required technical skill of System Design. This statement should be used to provide example(s) of how you meet the criterion below:

• Please provide evidence of your knowledge and proven experience of developing large scale systems using open-source technologies using Java 21 or above.

Ensure that all examples provided in your statements are taken directly from your own experience and that you describe the examples in your own words. If you choose to use gen-AI to support your statements, you must follow the guidelines outlined in the Artificial intelligence and recruitment guide.

The sift panel will use the information in your employment history, personal statement, and technical statement to assess your experience, skills and knowledge.

An initial sift will be conducted using the technical statement. Candidates who pass the initial sift will be progressed to a full sift.

If you do progress to a full sift, you will be provided with one combined overall assessment score for both your employment history and Personal Statement.

For Hints and Tips on completing your application visit Applying for jobs at DWP Digital.

Important Information

• You will be asked to complete your employment history. Any information that you would customarily share on a CV should therefore be entered onto the application form.
• Personal details that could be used to identify you including your name, contact details and address must be removed for your application to be considered.
• If your employment history, personal statement or technical statement contain any personal details your application will be withdrawn.

Stage 2: Coding Test

Candidates who are successful at the sift stage will be sent a coding test to complete remotely. The exercise will focus on the technical elements listed in the Essential Criteria in this advert.

Full details will be sent to candidates when the exercise is issued. Candidates will have 7 days to complete the test from the date of receipt. Candidates that are not successful in the technical exercise will not progress to the interview stage.

Please add Digital.EngineeringRecruitment@dwp.gov.uk to your safe senders list or monitor your spam folder to ensure safe receipt of the code test via email.

The code test must be completed by the candidate using their skillset without using any AI or generative tools.

Stage 3: Interview

If you’re successful at the coding test, you’ll be invited to a video interview via Microsoft Teams. During the interview, you’ll be assessed against the experience criteria listed under both the essential criteria and technical skill.

If invited to interview, please ensure you have your coding assessment available as it will be discussed as part of the interview.

Interviews will take place from late October 2026. Interview dates to be confirmed.

Other information:

If high application volumes are received, the benchmark for candidates to proceed to the next stage may be raised. In line with our commitment to the Disability Confident Scheme (DCS), we aim to advance all candidates applying under the DCS who meet the minimum standard. However, we may only progress those candidates who best meet the required standards.

All successful candidates and those placed on reserve will be posted in merit list order by location.

For these vacancies, we strongly recommend that applicants consult with an immigration specialist or qualified advisor to assess their eligibility for Visa Sponsorship before deciding to apply. Please note that while we consider sponsorship requests in accordance with current DWP guidance and Home Office policy, sponsorship cannot be guaranteed.

Reasonable Adjustments

We consider visible and non-vi