Test Job 7

Position type: Permanent 

Working pattern: Full Time (37 hours per week); Job Share;  Flexible Working; Part Time; Condensed Hours

Grade: Grade 7 

Clearance level required:  SC 

Type of post:  Non Reserved 

Salary: £50,000 to £60,000 based on capability.

The base salary of this grade is £60,000 for London and £50,000 for other locations. Offers made above this will be made up with a specialist pay allowance

Closing date/time: 10/06/2026

 

Who we are

The Government Digital Service (GDS) is the digital centre of government. We are responsible for setting, leading and delivering the vision for a modern digital government.

Our priorities are to drive a modern digital government, by:

1. joining up public sector services
2. harnessing the power of AI for the public good
3. strengthening and extending our digital and data public infrastructure
4. elevating leadership and investing in talent
5. funding for outcomes and procuring for growth and innovation
6. committing to transparency and driving accountability

We are home to the Incubator for Artificial Intelligence (I.AI), the world-leading GOV.UK and at the forefront of coordinating the UK’s geospatial strategy and activity. We lead the Government Digital and Data function and champion the work of digital teams across government.

We’re part of the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) and employ more than 1,000 people all over the UK, with hubs in Manchester, London and Bristol.

The Government Digital Service is where talent translates into impact. From your first day, you’ll be working with some of the world’s most highly-skilled digital professionals, all contributing their knowledge to make change on a national scale.

Join us for rewarding work that makes a difference across the UK. You'll solve some of the nation’s highest-priority digital challenges, helping millions of people access services they need. 

 

What You'll do

We're recruiting for multiple roles within the GOV.UK directorate - three frontend Developers and two senior frontend Developers. We're conducting a single campaign and will assign a role based on interview performance and merit.

The GOV.UK directorate is the information engine behind the product suite. It manages the central source of trusted content, publishing infrastructure, overarching policy and consistent design that form the crucial foundation for a proactive, personalised user experience that spans multiple digital channels.

The roles are across these teams:

• Web, who build and maintain the central www.gov.uk domain with a focus on content

• Publishing, who look after content management tools for users across government to create and update content across all of GOV.UK's channels
• Insights and Analytics, who are responsible for the performance measurement of GOV.UK and generation of insights and analytics

• GOV.UK Design System, who provide the styles, components and patterns used by teams across government to build services consistent with the GOV.UK

Watch this video to find out more about what it's like to be a frontend developer at GDS.

As a frontend developer you’ll:

• build accessible components and patterns to serve a variety of citizen and government needs, taking responsibility for the quality of code you produce and ensuring that it follows our standards
• have and apply a broad knowledge of core web technologies, and help to define the strategy for frontend development with GDS and wider government
• consider the impact of your changes, versioning releases and collaborating on release notes and documentation to help users to navigate breaking changes
• design and implement automated testing plans to help us deliver with confidence
• share knowledge of tools and techniques with your team (both developers and non-developers) and with the wider frontend community
• participate in our in-house support rotas
• have the opportunity to share your experiences and the things that you’ve learnt with a wider audience, for example by writing blog posts, or speaking at government events

If appointed at senior level you will also:

• help to prioritise and direct technical work across the team
• potentially take on line management of one or more frontend developers
• act as a digital ambassador across government, supporting recruitment, identifying good practices for GDS to adopt and sharing experiences, e.g. through blog posts, tech talks at conferences etc

Who you are 

We’re interested in people who:

• experience in frontend development, with detailed knowledge of HTML, CSS and JavaScript
• experience in building robust and accessible interfaces that work for as many users as possible, regardless of their needs
• experience designing and implementing an asset build pipeline and other supporting tooling required as part of the frontend development environment
• an understanding of software design principles, including progressive enhancement
• the ability to research and learn new development tools and techniques in a supportive environment
• experience researching problems, identifying and evaluating different solutions, and making decisions whilst taking into account the views of peers and stakeholders
• experience of using testing to validate solutions
• understanding of agile environments and version control
• a basic understanding of web security principles
• an awareness of technologies used for web applications, e.g HTTPS, JSON and CDNs, and of Unix-like operating systems, eg Linux and/or Mac OS. 

 

The benefits of working at GDS

There are many benefits of working at GDS, including:

• flexible hybrid working with flexi-time and the option to work part-time or condensed hours
• a Civil Service Pension with an average employer contribution of 28.5%
• 25 days of annual leave, increasing by a day each year up to a maximum of 30 days 
• an extra day off for The King’s birthday
• an in-year bonus scheme to recognise high performance
• career progression and coaching, including a training budget for personal development
• paid volunteering leave 
• a focus on wellbeing with access to an employee assistance programme
• job satisfaction from making government services easier to use and more inclusive for people across the UK
• advances on pay, including for travel season tickets
• death in service benefits
• cycle to work scheme and facilities
• access to an employee discounts scheme
• 10 learning days per year
• volunteering opportunities (5 special leave days per year)
• access to a suite of learning activities through Civil Service learning 

Any move to Government Digital Service from another employer will mean you can no longer access childcare vouchers. This includes moves between government departments. You may however be eligible for other government schemes, including Tax Free Childcare. Determine your eligibility at https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk

 

Office attendance

The Department operates a discretionary hybrid working policy, which provides for a combination of working hours from your place of work and from your home in the UK. The current expectation for staff is to attend the office or non-home based location for 40-60% of the time over the accounting period.

DSIT does not normally offer full home working (i.e. working at home); but we do offer a variety of flexible working options (including occasionally working from home). 

 

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

The standard selection process for roles at GDS consists of:

• a simple application screening process - We only ask for an anonymised CV and answer 3 knockout questions
• an initial 20 minute video call
• a 60 minute assessment of your technical, communication and planning skills
• a 60 minute panel interview via video call with 3 people from GDS, including at least 2 people currently in technical roles. You'll also have a chance to ask questions at the end.

Depending on how many applications we get, there might also be an extra stage before the video interview, for example a phone interview or a technical exercise.

In the event we receive a high volume of applications, we will conduct the initial sift against the lead criteria which is:

• experience in frontend development, with detailed knowledge of HTML, CSS and JavaScript 

In the Civil Service, we use Success Profiles to evaluate your skills and ability. This gives us the best possible chance of finding the right person for the job, increases performance and improves diversity and inclusivity. We’ll be assessing your technical abilities, skills, experience and behaviours that are relevant to this role.

For this role we’ll be assessing you against the following Civil Service Behaviours: 

• working together
• changing and improving
• making effective decisions
• leadership 

We’ll also be assessing your experience and specialist technical skills against the following skills defined in the Government Digital and Data Capability Framework for the Frontend developer role: 

• Accessibility
• Communicating information
• Community collaboration
• Leadership and guidance
• Modern development standards
• Programming and build
• Systems design
• User focus
• Web performance optimisation 

Want to know more about who Government Digital and Data are? Click Here  

 

Recruitment Timeline

Sift completion: 

Phone screens: 

Panel interviews: 

Candidates that do not pass the interview but have demonstrated an acceptable standard may be considered for similar roles at a lower grade.

A reserve list will be held for a period of 12 months, from which further appointments can be made.

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.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Please check the top of the advert to see which security checks are required for this role.

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.

People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Counter Terrorist Check (CTC) 

CTC is required if an individual is working in proximity to public figures, or requires unescorted access to buildings assessed to be at particular risk from terrorist attacks (certain military, civil, industrial or commercial establishments and all Whitehall buildings).  

To gain CTC clearance, applicants will usually need to have been a UK resident for a minimum of 3 years. In addition to the checks performed as part of BPSS  CTC will also involve checks to prevent persons who may have connections with terrorist organisations, or who may be vulnerable to pressure from them, from undertaking certain security duties where sensitive information may be compromised. CTC normally takes 4 - 6 weeks 

SC

SC clearance normally requires 5 years’ UK residency in the past 5 years. This is not an absolute requirement, but supplementary checks may be needed where individuals have not lived in the UK for that period. This may mean your security clearance (and therefore your appointment) will take longer or, in some cases, not be possible.

For meaningful checks to be carried out, you will need to have lived in the UK for a sufficient period of time, to enable appropriate checks to be carried out and produce a result which provides the required level of assurance. Whilst a lack of UK residency in itself is not necessarily a bar to a security clearance, and expectation of UK residency may range from 3 to 5 years. Failure to meet the residency requirements needed for the role may result in the withdrawal of provisional jobs offers.

 

Sponsorship

DSIT cannot offer Visa sponsorship to candidates through this campaign. DSIT holds a Visa sponsorship licence but this can only be used for certain roles and this campaign does not qualify.

 

Nationality requirements

Please check the top of the advert to see if this a reserved or non reserved post.

Non reserved posts:

• UK nationals
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals from the EU, EEA or Switzerland with settled or pre-settled status or who apply for either status by the deadline of the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• relevant EU, EEA, Swiss or Turkish nationals working in the Civil Service
• relevant EU, EEA, Swiss or Turkish nationals who have built up the right to work in the Civil Service
• certain family members of the relevant EU, EEA, Swiss or Turkish nationals

Reserved posts:

• open to UK nationals only

Further information on nationality requirements

 

Working for the Civil Service 

 

Apply and further information 

This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans initiative.

The Civil Service welcomes applications from people who have recently left prison or have an unspent conviction. Read more about prison leaver recruitment.

Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

We encourage you to sign up for My Greenhouse (https://my.greenhouse.io/) and enable job alerts to stay informed about upcoming opportunities.

 

Contact point for applicants 

Recruitment team : gdsrecruitment@dsit.gov.uk

 

Complaints Procedure

If you feel your application has not been treated in accordance with the Recruitment Principles and you wish to make a complaint, you should contact gds-complaints@dsit.gov.uk in the first instance.

If you are not satisfied with the response you receive you can contact the Civil Service Commission by email: info@csc.gov.uk Or in writing: Civil Service Commission, Room G/8 1 Horse Guards Road, London, SW1A 2HQ.