Senior Software Developer - Python


Company:	Government Recruitment Service
Salary:	£68,732 to £88,423 a year
Hours:	Full-time
Location:	Darlington
Job type:	Permanent
Posting date:	23 Oct 2026
Closing date:	9 Nov 2026

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Summary

The Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade (BIST) helps businesses invest, innovate, export and grow across the UK. The Digital, Data and Technology (DDaT) directorate helps to deliver this by designing, building and running the services, platforms and technology that businesses and colleagues rely on every day.

Our teams work on a wide range of services and technologies, including:

digital services that help businesses access government support, guidance and opportunities
data and AI products that support decision making and enable innovation
internal tools and services that help colleagues work more effectively
secure technology and platforms that support critical government services
cyber security services that protect systems, data and users

By joining DDaT, you'll work on services used by businesses, colleagues and citizens across the UK. You'll be part of multidisciplinary teams focused on improving services, solving complex problems and delivering better outcomes for users.

We are committed to creating an inclusive and supportive workplace. In recognition of this, we were named Best Public Sector Employer at the Women in Tech Employer Awards 2025!

As a Senior Software Developer, you will play a key role in designing, building and running robust, maintainable software that meets the needs of our users. You will work across the full software development lifecycle, from understanding requirements and shaping technical solutions through to development, deployment and supporting services in production.

Working as part of a multidisciplinary agile team, you will develop a strong understanding of the wider service and use this to solve complex technical problems, improve system reliability and make informed technical decisions. You will work closely with developers, technical architects, designers, user researchers and analysts to turn user needs into practical, high-quality digital solutions.

You will also contribute to our wider engineering culture by reviewing code, sharing knowledge and supporting colleagues. You will help us continually improve how we build and operate software, championing maintainable code, modern development practices and resilient services.

Main responsibilities

You will:

Design, build, test and maintain high-quality software, delivering new functionality and improving existing services in line with agreed architecture and coding standards
Work across the full software development lifecycle, including development, testing, deployment, monitoring and production support
Collaborate with multidisciplinary colleagues to translate user needs and designs into working software, iterating services based on evidence and feedback
Work closely with Technical Architects and other developers to make informed technical decisions and identify appropriate solutions to complex problems
Develop and maintain REST APIs, web applications, microservices and containerised applications
Build a strong understanding of the wider service, including dependencies, data and system interactions, to improve reliability and resolve underlying technical issues
Investigate and resolve live service incidents, identifying root causes and implementing sustainable improvements
Build and maintain continuous integration and deployment pipelines that support reliable software delivery
Review code, share technical knowledge and support colleagues to improve quality and consistency across the team
Contribute to continuous improvement of engineering practices, including exploring and prototyping potential solutions where appropriate

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Disability Confident is a government scheme. It encourages employers to recruit and retain disabled people and those with long term health conditions.