Senior Software Developer C# .NET and Angular (up to £83,918)

Person specification

Essential Criteria

We'll assess you against the following essential criteria.

• Strong practical experience of software development using C#.NET along with front-end development using Angular, HTML, CSS and JavaScript.
• Experience leading within technical teams to deliver user-focused services in an agile environment
• Strong experience of good software development practices such as Test-Driven Development, CI/CD, and DevOps as well as modern development workflows, ideally using GitHub or Azure DevOps, and experience implementing software design concepts such OOD, SOLID and design patterns
• Strong experience in designing and implementing RESTful APIs or other loosely coupled architectures such microservices
• Strong understanding of web application security and experience applying it
• Experience in sharing knowledge, coaching others, and working in a diverse and inclusive multi-disciplinary team

Behaviours

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

Changing and Improving

Alongside your salary of £60,222, Department for Education contributes £17,446 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).

Applicants currently holding a permanent post in the Civil Service should note that, if successful, their salary on appointment would be determined by the Department’s transfer / promotion policies.

As a member of the DfE, you will be entitled to join the highly competitive Civil Service Pension Scheme, which many experts agree is one of the most generous in the UK.

You will have 25 days leave, increasing by 1 day every year to a maximum of 30 days after five years’ service. In addition, all staff receive the King’s Birthday privilege holiday and 8 days’ bank and public holidays.

We offer flexible working arrangements, such as job sharing, term-time working, flexi-time and compressed hours.

Most DfE employees will be working a hybrid pattern, spending at least 60% of their time in an office or work setting. Changes to these working arrangements are available in exceptional circumstances but must be agreed with the line manager and in line with the requirements of the role.

Travel to your primary office location will not be paid for by DfE, but costs for travel to an office which is not your main location will be covered.

As an organisation, which exists to support education and lifelong learning, we offer our staff excellent professional development opportunities.

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 Behaviours and Experience.

Application/sift

At application you will be asked to provide your CV and a statement of suitability. Both should be anonymised (all personal information removed, such as your name, date of birth, gender, contact information, nationality etc).

Your CV should include details of previous roles held and responsibilities / previous skills and experience. Your statement of suitability (maximum 1,250 words) should demonstrate how you meet the essential criteria listed in the person specification section above.

Your CV and statement will be assessed together against the listed essential criteria.

You should also provide a 250 word statement demonstrating how you meet the advertised behaviour of changing and improving.

Interview

Longlisted candidates will be invited to attend an interview typically involving a commitment of up to 1 hour. The interview will consist of a series of questions to assess against the essential criteria for the role and the advertised behaviour.

Interviews will be on MS teams, which may be remote or from a DfE office - we will confirm which when you are invited to an interview.

Feedback

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview.

Timing

We expect to sift in week commencing 12 October 2026.

Interviews will likely take place in the week commencing 26 October and 2 November 2026.

Once a provisional offer has been made, you will be invited to participate in a capability assessment to determine the value of the CBP allowance we can offer you. The assessment compares your skills against the advertised role described in DfE’s local Software Development Capability Framework, which is based on the Government Digital and Data Profession Capability Framework.

Subject to your availability, we will aim to conduct the capability assessment and confirm the allowance offer to you within a week of the provisional offer being made.

This is a discretionary non-consolidated, non-pensionable allowance which, if awarded, is attached to the post. The value of the allowance is based on the outcome of a capability assessment and is reviewed annually. Allowance values range up to £19,400, with the highest values reserved for candidates whose capability is above the expected level for all of the skills.

We are also advertising for four Senior Software Developers in C#.NET in the Data Capture and Ingestion team and the School Account team – if you apply for both vacancies and are invited to interview for both, we will combine them into one interview for you.

Other Information

Interviews may be via Microsoft teams or face to face; the vacancy manager will confirm prior to the Interview.

In your application, please don’t include personal information that identifies you.

This means we can recruit based on your knowledge and skills, and not background, gender or ethnicity - it's called name blind recruitment (opens in a new window).

Please ensure that you remove from your application, all references to your:

• name/title
• educational institutions
• age
• gender
• email address
• postal address
• phone number
• nationality/immigration status

We reserve the right to raise the minimum pass mark in the event of a