Department for Education
Senior Software Developer C# .NET (up to £83,918)
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Coventry, West Midlands (England), CV1 2WT : Darlington, North East England, DL1 5QE : Manchester, North West England, M1 2WD : Sheffield, Yorkshire and the Humber, S1 2FJ : City of Westminster, London (region), SW1P 3BT
Job Summary
These are exciting times at the Department for Education (DfE). In 2026 we'll continue to build more user-centred digital services for all our users, children, adults, and those in social care.
As a senior software developer, you will be part of a team responsible for developing and supporting scalable, secure, and high-quality user-centric digital services. Working with senior colleagues, you will lead team members on the design and build of digital services and will work closely with colleagues within multidisciplinary agile teams, that focus on delivering work iteratively and at pace. You will innovate to radically transform how public services are delivered and improved.
If You Are Successful You Could Be:
- Helping the DfE School Account Team in transforming how schools access information and support from the department by developing and delivering a joined up and personalised offer for the sector. This is an exciting time to join the team as recent leadership changes has presented the opportunity to refresh the team’s strategy and future direction. (One post, open to all locations)
- Working in the Data Capture and Ingestion Team within Data Directorate. We’re on a mission to radically improve how public services are delivered and experienced—and data is at the heart of this transformation. We provide a full range of capabilities including data sourcing, management, governance, sharing, statistics, and visualisation, supporting users across DfE, the education sector, cross-government, and the public. (Three posts, open to all locations except London)
Data Capture and Ingestion (DCI) team plays a pivotal role in supporting over 50 DfE data collections developed using diverse and modern tech stack including C#.Net, SQL, Angular, JavaScript, Microsoft Dynamics 365, Microsoft SharePoint 365, Oracle Intelligent Advisor, and Granicus GovService. Our work ranges from creating simple one-page forms to architecting complex financial data collection systems. As we continue to evolve, we’re focused on building reusable shared components to streamline development and deployment—making it easier, faster, and more efficient to deliver high-quality digital services.
Job Description
We’re seeking highly capable Software Developers to join the Data Capture and Ingestion team to help us achieve our vision and to shape the future of public services. As a Senior Software Developer, you will design, build and support web, mobile, and desktop products, using both front-end and back-end technologies. You’ll be part of a multidisciplinary team of Digital and Data Professionals, working in agile delivery cycles and collaborating openly to deliver high-quality code that meets user needs and project goals.
As a Senior Software Developer, You Will:
- Lead and provide technical support for a group of developers within a multi-disciplinary team, sometimes including line management
- Develop software within the C#.NET technology stack to agreed standards
- Build automated tests to support our continuous deployment processes
- Create and sustain modern development standards, practices and techniques for our development community
- Work with the development community to ensure we build sustainable digital products
- Support the ongoing optimisation of automated integration processes
- Advocate user-centric, agile approaches which focus on rapid, effective delivery of high-quality digital services
- Support, coach and mentor less experienced developers and help them integrate into teams
- Transform government into a modern, agile development centre by embedding practices such as test-driven development, continuous integration & delivery
- Triage and lead support of software issues within projects you are familiar with
- Support sharing of methods and technologies across teams, government, and the industry by participating in and organising community events
- Help build and maintain a diverse, inclusive culture across the development community, growing awareness, and balance.
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Person specification
Essential Criteria
We'll assess you against the following essential criteria.
- Strong practical experience of software development using C#.NET along with 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, and experience implementing software design concepts such as 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.
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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 a Senior Software Developer in C#.NET and Angular in the Data Capture and Ingestion 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
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