Ministry of Justice UK
Senior Developer (Ref: 22868)
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Senior Software Developer – WordPress PHP
Location: National*
Closing Date: 22/10/26
Interviews: 27/10/26
Grade: G7
(MoJ candidates who are on a specialist grade, will be able to retain this grade on lateral transfer)
Salary:
- National: £58,511-£69,150 which may include an allowance up to £10,639
- London: £63,343-£73,875 which may include an allowance up to £10,532
Working pattern: Full-time, Part-time, Flexible working
Contract Type: Permanent
Number of vacancies: 1
Vacancy number: 22868
We offer a hybrid working model, allowing for a balance between remote work and time spent in your local office. Office locations can be found ON THIS MAP.
Please note that unless you are an existing member of staff at Justice Digital, Data and Science, the only London location being recruited to is 10 South Colonnade, E14 4PU. We are no longer recruiting to 102 Petty France, SW1H 9AJ.
The Role
Please note this role requires you to pass Security Check clearance. Please click on the link for details.
We’re recruiting for a Senior WordPress/PHP Developer here at Justice Digital, Data and Science to be part of our warm and collaborative Website Builder Platform Team.
This role is aligned with the specification of Senior Developer from the Government Digital and Data Framework.
We currently have over 200 experienced developers who make up the engineering community across the MoJ. You will coach and mentor junior colleagues and take part in informal support networks with your peers. You will be encouraged to play an active role in the engineering community and culture.
You’ll be confident working with other developers on our tech stack and comfortable learning new technologies and systems. We use a variety of different technologies and will work with you to place you in a team that matches your skills, interests, and aspirations wherever possible.
We take responsibility for supportive and effective line management very seriously. We will value the skills you bring to the civil service and help you build on them. When the time is right, we will support moving between teams or government departments to learn different technologies, or take on more responsibility, according to your career goals.
Our Tech Stack
We use a range of technologies and we’re looking for people who have experience of building web applications or back-end systems in an object-oriented language, and love learning new languages and frameworks.
We use WordPress/PHP and React JS to write our application code, GitHub Actions for CI/CD, Sentry for application monitoring, Kubernetes and Docker to schedule and run our services (read about our Cloud Platform), AWS for most of our infrastructure and use a MacOS developer environment.
For front-end development, we value a robust understanding of the underlying web technologies. We value well-maintained, open-source tools that can be used to produce semantic HTML, performant CSS and unobtrusive JavaScript and we assess all our services against accessibility criteria.
Check out GitHub for a closer look at the technologies we use, and a complete list of services that we build and maintain. We subscribe to the manifesto for agile software development.
Benefits
You’ll receive a range of excellent benefits when you join our department, including:
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- A generous employer pension contribution of 28.97% through the Civil Service Pension Scheme.
- 25 days of annual leave, (increasing to 30 days once you have reached 5 years of service), plus 8 bank holidays and a privilege day for the King’s birthday.
- Flexible working arrangements including hybrid working, working part time or compressed hours. Designed to support a positive work–life balance.
- Employees are allocated 10% of their working time for personal and professional development.
- A £1k per person learning budget is in place to support all our people, with access to best-in-class conferences and seminars, accreditation with professional bodies, fully funded vocational programmes and e-learning platforms.
- Compassionate maternity, adoption, and shared parental leave policies, with up to 26 weeks leave at full pay, 13 weeks with partial pay, and 13 weeks further leave. And maternity support/paternity leave at full pay for 2 weeks, too!
You can find more details of the Benefits we offer here. To help picture your life at MoJ Justice Digital, Data and Science please take a look at our blog.
Key Responsibilities
Technical
- Expert knowledge of WordPress/PHP and React JS programming languages, CSS/HTML
- Experience in building and maintaining WordPress themes and plugins.
- Experience building and development WordPress Full Site Editor features.
- Experience in working with the WordPress full site editor.
- Building WordPress blocks from scratch.
- Version Control and GitActions.
- Building and working with microservices using containerization (Docker).
- Revise, refactor, update, and debug code.
- Collaborate with internal teams to design, create and maintain software.
- Knowledge of AWS architecture, tools, and resources.
Non-Technical
- Attention to detail.
- Strong verbal and oral communication skills.
- Time management and organisational skills.
- The ability to work independently or as part of a team.
People
- Developing and influencing people via line management duties, informal and formal coaching and mentoring.
- Supporting lead developers in building high performing teams.
- Helping to build and maintain a diverse, inclusive culture across the development community, growing awareness, inclusivity and balance.
If this feels like an exciting challenge, something you are enthusiastic about, and want to join our team please read on and apply!
Person Specification
Essential
- Demonstrate proven experience of delivering large and complex software solutions.
- Building and maintaining WordPress themes and plugins.
- Apply modern development and deployment techniques to your work, including continuous integration and continuous delivery.
- Champion software maintenance, clean code, coding standards and practices that make change and consistency easier.
- Write automated tests to continuously validate your work.
- Work effectively within multi-disciplinary teams, demonstrating a commitment to the principles of agile software development and fostering a culture of knowledge sharing and continuous improvement.
- Hold yourself and others to a high standard.
- Solve problems in a systematic way.
- Willingness to be assessed against the requirements for SC clearance.
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We welcome the unique contribution diverse applicants bring and do not discriminate based on culture, ethnicity, race, nationality or national origin, age, sex, gender identity or expression, religion or belief, disability status, sexual orientation, educational or social background or any other factor.
Our values are Purpose, Humanity, Openness, and Together. Find out more here about how we celebrate diversity and an inclusive culture in our workplace.
The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain, and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the Civil Service People Plan and the Civil Service D&I Strategy.
Salary Information
Base Salary For This Role Is From:
- National: £58,511- £65,329
- London: £63,343 - £70,725
New entrants to the Civil Service joining the MoJ are expected to start at the minimum of the pay band. Existing Civil Servants moving on a level transfer will retain their current base salary or move to the minimum of the pay band for the role, whichever is higher. Existing Civil Servants who are promoted will either move to the bottom of the new grade’s pay band or receive a 10% uplift, whichever provides the greater increase. Candidates may also be eligible for a non-pensionable Government Digital & Data Allowance of up to £10,532 per year (London) or £10,639 (National). This is a temporary allowance, reviewed annually and may be retained, amended, or withdrawn.
The final offer will reflect the skills and experience you demonstrate during the assessment process.
How to Apply
In Justice Digital, Data and Science, we recruit using a combination of the Government Digital and Data Profession Capability and Success Profiles Frameworks. We shall assess a combination of your Experience, Technical skills, and Behaviours during the assessment process.
Stage 1 - Application And Sift
To apply for this position, you must submit the following as part of your application:
- A CV detailing your career history (including any relevant qualifications). Your CV will be assessed against the essential criteria outlined within the Person Specification of this advert.
- A Personal Statement (no more than 750 words) which should outline your experience and skills, giving clear examples of work undertaken. It should specifically address the following 3 criteria listed below, using a separate paragraph for each.
- Demonstrate proven experience of delivering large and complex software solutions.
- Building and maintaining WordPress themes and plugins.
- Apply modern development and deployment techniques to your work, including continuous integration and continuous delivery.
A diverse sift panel will review the information in your CV and Personal Statement to assess the sift criteria specified above. We operate an anonymous shortlisting process. Please ensure your CV and Personal Statement do not include your name or any other identifying details.
Should we receive a high volume of applications, a pre-sift based on the following criteria will be conducted before the sift.
- Building and maintaining WordPress themes and plugins.
Please access the following link for guidance on how to apply - Application Guidance.
Stage 2 - Interviews
“It took my CV and asked me questions relevant to understanding what kind of jobs to suggest for me. Suggestions were almost perfect. Jobs were exactly what I’ve been looking for.”
Jessica, London
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