Overview
Junior Software Developer – Industrial Placement – Newcastle-upon-Tyne
About the job
Job summary
Discover a career in your hands at HMRC. Whether you’re seeking purpose, growth, or a workplace that gives you a true sense of belonging, hear from some of our employees as they share their story about what it’s really like to work at HMRC.
Visit our YouTube channel to watch the full series and come and discover your potential.
This is an exciting role for those looking to gain experience of delivering technological change against a background of organisational transformation, as well as an opportunity to make a real difference to people’s lives by delivering great digital products. A key enabler to this is HMRC’s award-winning Platform as a Service (PaaS), the Multi-channel Digital Tax Platform (MDTP), which has played an essential part in helping HMRC realise its digital ambitions, currently hosting over 1500 microservices that make up over 100 external-facing digital services.
Job description
This role will be in one of CDIO’s Chief Digital Product Office’s teams responsible for building digital services on HMRC’s Multi-Channel Digital Tax Platform (MDTP), which are an essential part of HMRC’s digital strategy. Following the Government Service Standard, these services are designed to be simple to use, work for everyone and put users’ needs first.
You will build digital services following a user-centred design approach as part of a multi-disciplinary team. You will follow a ‘you build, you run it’ ethos, following a DevOps approach where all developers are expected to take responsibility for writing, testing, and reviewing code. You will also be responsible for investigating, prioritising and fixing live service issues.
As part of this role, you will be expected to:
- Work as part of an agile multi-disciplinary team enabling change within a large scale organisation.
- Design, code, test, fix and document simple programs or scripts with support from your team, for example through pair-programming.
- Help identify and resolve live service issues following agreed procedures and runbooks.
- Show an awareness or understanding of user experience analysis and its principles.
- Explain the most important principles of modern development standards and how they apply to your work.
- Apply modern development standards principles with support from your team under the supervision of your lead or senior developer.
What Can we offer you?
During this placement, you will:
- Gain an understanding of how to apply an agile software development approach, working alongside other professions including product management, user research and interaction design.
- Contribute code to services built with a microservice architecture, according to the Government Service Standard approach, which form digital services that are used by many thousands or millions of external customers.
- Build your understanding of how large-scale organisations approach IT change at an enterprise scale.
Person specification
You must be able to demonstrate:
- Knowledge of at least one programming language.
- Experience exploring different approaches to solving a problem.
- Your ability to tailor communication to your intended audience.
- Your ability to work effectively as part of a team.
Essential Criteria:
Eligibility Criteria: To be eligible for the role you must meet the below criteria:
- Undergraduate student with a mandatory or optional 9-12 month industrial placement course requirement.
- You must be in the penultimate year of your degree course.
- You must be studying towards a degree in one of the following or similar subject areas, Information technology, Computer science, Software engineering, Web design and development, Computing, Maths.
Desirable Criteria:
You may also have experience of:
Developing web applications using technologies such as HTML, CSS and JavaScript.
Using a test framework to check the functional behaviour of your code.
Other Information
We’re here to answer any questions about the Industrial Placement Scheme or the role, if there is anything you would like to know please contact us – digitalapprenticeshipsandindustrialplacements@hmrc.gov.uk .
If you are successful, your placement will start once you have passed all pre employment checks. the Placement will be for a minimum of 9 months. We cannot accept placements any earlier than this.
Due to operational needs, these posts are full-time; however, applicants who need to work a more flexible arrangement are welcome to apply. We can’t guarantee that we can meet all requests to work flexibly as any agreement will be subject to business ability to accommodate. Any request to work a more flexible arrangement should be made prior to your acceptance of the provisional offer.
Benefits
Alongside your salary of £29,475, HM Revenue and Customs contributes £8,538 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.
HMRC operates both Flexible and Hybrid Working policies, allowing you to balance your work and personal commitments. We welcome applications from those who need to work a more flexible arrangement and will agree to requests where possible, considering our operational and customer service needs.
We offer a generous leave allowance, starting at 25 days and increasing by a day for every year of qualifying service up to a maximum of 30 days.
• Pension – We make contributions to our colleagues’ Alpha pension equal to at least 28.97% of their salary.
• Family friendly policies.
• Personal support.
• Coaching and development.
To find out more about HMRC benefits and find out what it’s really like to work for HMRC hear from our insiders or visit Thinking of joining the Civil Service
Things you need to know
Selection process details
How to Apply
As part of the application process, you will be asked to provide the following:
• A name-blind CV including your job history and previous experiences which will be scored against the experience required outlined in the advert. Think of your CV as a snapshot of your skills, knowledge, and experience. Don’t forget to mention the degree you’re currently pursuing and what year of study you’re in.
• A 500-word personal statement demonstrating “What excites you about this role, and why do you believe you’re a good fit based on the essential criteria.”
Please evidence any Desirable Criteria where applicable (up to 250 words max). This is not mandatory for the role but may be considered by the vacancy holder where candidates have the same score at interview.
Further details around what this will entail are listed on the application form.
We acknowledge that AI can assist you in your application. Find our guidelines here.
Sift
In the event of a large number of applications being received, we will focus on your personal statement.
At full sift, your CV and personal statement will be assessed, with the successful candidates being invited to interview.
We may also raise the score required at any stage of the process if we receive a high number of applications.
Interview
As part of the recruitment process at interview, you will be required to verify your student status by providing one of the following:
- A valid, in-date Student ID.
- Official university confirmation of your full-time undergraduate status and a 9 -12 month industrial placement requirement.
Please email these documents to digitalapprenticeshipsandindustrialplacements@hmrc.gov.uk upon request and before the interview. Failure to provide the required documentation may result in the withdrawal of your application.
During the panel interview, we’ll assess your experience. We’ll dive into your application, exploring your knowledge, experience, and skills related to the essential criteria. Just a heads up, feedback will only be given if you’re selected for an interview. Best of luck!
Interviews will take place virtually. Sift and interview dates to be confirmed.
Eligibility
Please take extra care to tick the correct boxes in the eligibility sections of your application form. We understand mistakes sometimes happen but if you contact us later than two working days (Monday-Friday) before the vacancy closes, we will not be able to reopen your application for you. If you do make a mistake with your eligibility form, please contact us via:
unitybusinessservicesrecruitmentresults@hmrc.gov.uk – Use the subject line to insert appropriate wording for example – ‘Please re-open my application – 399480 & vacancy closing date [insert date]
To check that you are eligible to apply for this role, please review the eligibility information before submitting your application.
Reserve List
A reserve list may be held for up to 12 months from which further appointments may be made for the same or similar roles – if this applies to you, we’ll let you know via your Civil Service Jobs account.
Merit List
After interview, merit lists will be created for each location advertised within the vacancy. If you are successful at interview, you will be placed on the merit list for any locations you have expressed an interest for. Appointments from each merit list will be made in strict merit order.
Criminal Record Check
Applications received from candidates with a criminal record are considered fairly in accordance with the DBS Code of Practice and the Recruitment of ex-offenders Policy.
Reasonable Adjustments
We want to make sure no one is put at a disadvantage during our recruitment process. To assist you with this, we will reduce or remove any barriers where possible and provide additional support where appropriate.
If you need a change to be made so that you can make your application, you should:
- Contact the UBS Recruitment team via unitybusinessservicesrecruitmentresults@hmrc.gov.uk as soon as possible before the closing date to discuss your needs.
Complete the “Assistance required” section in the “Additional requirements” page of your application form to tell us what changes or help you might need further on in the recruitment process. For instance, you may need wheelchair access at interview, or if you’re deaf, a Language Service Professional.
Important information for existing HMRC contractual homeworkers
Please note that this role is unsuitable for contractual homeworkers due to the nature and/or requirements of the role.
Terms and Conditions
Customer facing roles in HMRC require the ability to converse at ease with members of the public and provide advice in accurate spoken English and/or Welsh where required. Where this is an essential requirement, this will be tested as part of the selection process.
HMRC has a presence in every region of the UK. For more information on where you might be working, review this information on our locations.
The Civil Service values honesty and integrity and expects all candidates to abide by these principles. The evidence you provide in your application must relate to your own experiences.
Any instances of plagiarism or other forms of cheating will be investigated and, if proven, the relevant application(s) will be withdrawn from the process.
Recording of interviews is prohibited unless explicit agreement is sought in line with the UK General Data Protection Regulations.
Questions relating to an individual application must be emailed as detailed later in this advert.
Applicants who are successful at interview will be, as part of pre-employment screening, subject to a check on the Internal Fraud Database (IFD). This check will provide information about employees who have been dismissed for fraud or dishonesty offences. This check also applies to employees who resign or otherwise leave before being dismissed for fraud or dishonesty had their employment continued. Any applicant’s details held on the IFD will be refused employment.
A candidate is not eligible to apply for a role within the Civil Service if the application is made within a 5 year period following a dismissal for carrying out internal fraud against government.
New entrants will join on the minimum of the pay band.
Please note that, if you are applying for roles on a part-time basis, the salary agreed will be pro-rata, reflective of the working hours agreed within your contract.
If you experience accessibility problems with any attachments on this advert, please contact the email address in the ‘Contact point for applicants’ section.
Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.
Security
Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.
People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.
Nationality requirements
This job is broadly open to the following groups:
- UK nationals
- nationals of the Republic of Ireland
- nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
- nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
- nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
- individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
- Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service
Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)
Working for the Civil Service
The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.
We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission’s recruitment principles (opens in a new window).
The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.
The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.
Diversity and Inclusion
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 (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).
