Principal Developer

Job summary

From healthcare to artificial intelligence, energy to national security, we provide legal advice to government departments on nation-changing subjects.

At Government Legal Department we have a vital, single-minded purpose: to help the Government govern well within the rule of law. This is complemented by our exciting vision to be an outstanding legal organisation, committed to the highest standards of service and professionalism and a brilliant place to work where we can all thrive and fulfil our potential.

Our work touches almost every aspect of public life. We are the largest provider of legal services across government, working on high profile matters.

Our respected professionals are involved in everything from regulation and litigation to advice on drafting legislation. They provide expertise to the full range of government departments. We are at the heart of delivering the government’s priorities and our success depends on our people.

GLD is a non-ministerial government department headed by the Treasury Solicitor, our Permanent Secretary, and employs nearly 3000 people, including over 2600 legal professionals. We have offices nationwide, in Bristol, Leeds, inner and outer London and Manchester. Our lawyers can also be located within other departments and overseas.

GLD also depends on a range of cross-government professionals to provide our corporate services. These play an essential part in helping GLD to achieve its purpose and truly deliver much more than law.

This is an exciting time to join GLD, with cutting edge legal work on global issues and a transformation agenda which is ensuring the Department exemplifies the Modern Civil Service .

To find out more about what we do you can view our introductory film here and visit the GLD’s microsite . You can also read more about the future vision for GLD in our GLD Strategy 2024 – 2027 .

The Digital, Data and Cyber Team is transforming the way GLD works through modern technology, data and digital services.

We are building a modern digital workplace that empowers our people, strengthens collaboration and enables the organisation to operate efficiently, securely and sustainably.

Through agile delivery and user-centred approaches, we design and deliver products and services in partnership with the people who use them, ensuring solutions meet real needs and deliver lasting value.

As part of the wider Government Digital and Data profession , we play a key role in transforming how government operates, enabling better outcomes for colleagues, stakeholders and the public we serve.

Job description

The Role

We are looking for an experienced Principal Developer to pioneer new legal SaaS solutions, lead the removal of legal technical debt and champion the adoption of emerging legal technologies. You will be an expert developer with demonstrative experience within the legal development sector, with detailed legal data knowledge and a deep understanding of the government legal landscape.

This role sits in Digital, Data and Cyber division, within the Product team, which is responsible for delivering and maintaining cutting edge legal and enterprise solutions.

Key Responsibilities

The key responsibilities include but are not limited to:

• Solution architecture – design scalable, resilient, secure and cost-effective technology solutions utilising legal SaaS solutions.
• Problem solving and expert analysis – resolve complex programmatic and service issues, identifying root causes and solutions to prevent reoccurrence.
• Cloud development expertise– lead legal cloud adoption, legacy to cloud migration, and service optimisation across multi-cloud and multi-tenant organisations.
• Information security– embed secure-by-design principles, ensuring compliance with government and industry security standards.
• Service transition – oversea the successful transition of new services from project delivery into live operational support.
• Prototyping – drive the strategic design of end-to-end services, sharing best practice, using a variety of prototyping methods.
• Technical leadership – provide technical direction as the subject matter expert across GLDs current and future developmental platforms.
• System design - develop effective implementation and procurement strategies, consistent with business needs. Influence industry-based models for the development of new technology applications. ensure adherence to relevant technical strategies, policies, standards and practices. control system design practice within an enterprise or industry architecture
• Strategic thinking – set the strategy and manage resource allocation for solution development initiatives.
• User focus - collaborate with user researchers and can represent users internally. Explain the difference between user needs and the desires of the user. Champion user research to focus on all users. Prioritise and define approaches to understand the user story, guiding others in doing so. Offer recommendations on the best tools and methods to use.
• System integration - define the integration build. Co-ordinate build activities across systems. Understand how to undertake and support integration testing activities.

Candidate Information Session

We will be holding a candidate information session for these roles on Microsoft Teams from 10:00am – 11:00a m on Friday 25 th September 2026 .

Candidates will have the opportunity to hear from members of the Digital, Data and Cyber Team about what they do and their experiences working for government. There will also be an opportunity to ask questions about the role.

If you are interested in further information on this role please join the link below:

• Friday, 25 th September 2026, 10:00-11:00am
• Join the meeting now
• Meeting ID: 314 084 849 904 69
• Passcode: n9r5vX3G

Please note that candidate information sessions are not filmed and any presentations cannot not be shared afterwards.

Person specification

Behaviours

Below are details of the Success Profiles that make up this role. Demonstrating all the behaviours listed below is essential at either application or interview. You can read more about Success Profiles and how they are used as an assessment method before completing your application .

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

• Changing and improving
• Seeing the big picture

Key Skills and Experience

Essential – must be demonstrated at application and interview

• Legal IT development knowledge: Knowledge of Legal IT development solutions, design patterns, document management systems, service integration, legal reporting, matter management configuration and customisation, legal master data management and matter management systems.
• System experience of legal systems and services such as; MatterSphere , iManage , Clio Operate, Crystal reports, legal data transfer via SSIS, legal reporting via SSRS, Power BI and Business Objects, billing services and practice management integration.
• Systems design: Design systems characterised by high levels of risk, impact, and business or technical complexity. Control system design practice within an enterprise architecture. Ensure adherence to relevant technical strategies, policies, standards, certifications and practices.
• Modern development standards: Identify and apply modern development standards to support complex projects and programmes. Document and maintain standards. Lead others in applying modern development standards.
• Coding and scripting: Interact with, read and write code in SQL, C#, PowerShell, Angular, VBScript. Carry out baseline search, fix and repair activities of all code and scripting.
• Information security: Design solutions and services with security controls included, utilising secure by design principles, specifically engineered to mitigate security threats, in-line with NCSC best practice and DSIT Cyber Uplift recommendations.
• Ownership and initiative: Take accountability for issues that occur and be proactive in searching for potential problems. Achieve excellent user outcomes.
• Systems integration: Define standards and procedures across the service and development lifecycle, ensuring compliance and effective management of systems integration resources.
• Troubleshooting and problem resolution: Use lateral thinking to break a problem down into its component parts to identify and diagnose root causes.

Technical Professional Skills

We’ll be assessing your experience and specialist technical skills against the following skills defined in the Software developer - Government Digital and Data Profession Capability Framework for the 8. Principal Developer role.

Essential – must be demonstrated at application and interview

• Information security
• Modern development standards
• Programming and build (software engineering)
• Prototyping
• System design
• Development process optimisation
• Service support
• Systems integration
• User focus
• Availability and capacity management

Security Clearance Level

All GLD employees must successfully obtain Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS) clearance before starting employment.

This role requires Security Check (SC) clearance. You may start employment once BPSS clearance has been completed and while your SC clearance application is being processed; however, obtaining and maintaining SC clearance is a condition of employment. If you are unable to obtain or maintain SC clearance, you may not be able to remain in the role you have been appointed to and this may lead to the termination of your contract or offer of employment.

Current SC clearance requirements typically include a 5-year verifiable UK residency history , with no more than 6 months spent outside the UK in the preceding 12 months . You will be asked to confirm whether you believe you meet these requirements as part of your application. This information will not be used as part of the assessment process.

Some future workstreams associated with this role may require Developed Vetting (DV) clearance. Successful candidates must therefore be willing and able to obtain and maintain DV clearance if required. Current DV clearance requirements typically include a 10-year verifiable UK residency history .

As security vetting requirements are determined by the relevant vetting authority and may change over time, applicants are encouraged to review the latest UK Security Vetting guidance before applying via United Kingdom Security Vetting: Applicant Guidance .

Sponsorship and Visa Information

There is the possibility that GLD can provide sponsorship for skilled workers, as long as they meet the full eligibility criteria set down under current immigration legislation. GLD does not guarantee sponsorship will be provided or that an applicant will be successful in gaining a skilled worker visa.

Candidates with Limited Leave to Remain can apply but must have at least 12 months remaining on an existing visa which allows them to work for GLD when employment commences. Please allow three months for the onboarding process from the point of offer.

The expectation is that applicants have an existing visa, which at the point they start work with GLD has at least 12 months remaining on it. The share code you provide for your pre-employment checks must be linked to the visa that allows you to work for a minimum of 12 months in the role for which you have applied. This doesn’t not include having any outstanding visa applications in process during the recruitment process.

It is the responsibility of the applicant to ensure that they meet the criteria for sponsorship. They also have the responsibility to notify the Resourcing Team that they require Sponsorship at the start of the onboarding process into GLD. This applies to existing civil servants as well as external candidates.

Candidates with unlimited leave to remain can apply.

Behaviou