Lead Software Engineer

Job Description

Pay up to £92,522, plus 28.97% employer pension contributions, hybrid working, flexible hours, and great work life balance.

Are you ready to lead at scale - shaping how complex digital services are built, mentoring engineers and influencing senior leaders across one of the UK's largest technology organisations?

As a Lead Software Engineer, you'll join our Engineering community, providing technical leadership across multiple agile teams delivering critical public services. You'll sit at the intersection of deep technical expertise and strategic leadership, helping define engineering direction while remaining close to the realities of delivery.

You'll work on high-profile, business-critical services that support millions of citizens every day - from core benefit systems like Universal Credit and Working Age Services, to Digital Payments Services, which process around £230bn in payments annually.

This is a rare opportunity to influence how modern software engineering is done at true national scale, within a complex, safety-critical environment where quality, resilience and trust really matter.

What skills, knowledge and experience will you need?

• Experience leading and influencing multiple engineering teams, setting direction and supporting engineers to do their best work
• Ability to explain complex technical concepts clearly to non-technical stakeholders, including senior leaders, and influence decisions at that level
• Strong, hands-on knowledge of modern open-source technologies, such as Java, JavaScript and Node.js
• Deep experience building and running systems in cloud environments (AWS or Azure), including APIs, RESTful services and microservice architectures
• Strong practical experience using Test-Driven Development (TDD) to build reliable, maintainable software
• Experience working with SQL and NoSQL databases, such as Postgres, MySQL or MongoDB

You and your role

As our Lead Software Engineer, you'll provide technical leadership across a portfolio of teams and products, shaping how we design, build, test and run software across DWP Digital.

You'll work closely with architects, product managers and delivery leaders to define medium- to long-term strategies for our services, ensuring they are resilient, secure and fit for the future.

You'll be working on either:

Working Age Services Digital -supporting some of the UK government's most high-profile citizen-facing services, including Universal Credit and the green-field Jobs and Careers Service.

Or Digital Payments Services - responsible for payment platforms that support 22 million citizens and handle roughly a third of the UK's BACS traffic.

You'll guide teams through complex technical decisions, promote modern engineering practices, and help embed consistent standards across the wider engineering community. While this is a senior leadership role, it remains grounded in real delivery - you'll understand the systems, the trade-offs and the day-to-day challenges facing engineering teams.

This role will suit someone who enjoys complexity, cares deeply about quality and engineering excellence, and is motivated by purposeful work. Your decisions will shape how critical public services are delivered, ensuring they remain reliable, scalable and trusted by the people who depend on them.

Details. Wages. Perks.

Location: You'll join us in one of our brilliant digital hubs in Birmingham, Blackpool, Leeds, Manchester, Newcastle or Sheffield, whichever is most convenient for you.

Hybrid Working: We work a hybrid model - you'll spend some time working at home and some time collaborating face to face in a hub.

Pay: We offer pay up to £92,522. That's £80,267 salary plus a Digital Allowance of up to £12,255 subject to our assessment of your capability at interview

Pension: You'll get a brilliant civil service pension with employer contributions worth 28.97%.

Holidays: A generous leave package starting at 26 days rising to 31 days over time.

You can also take up to 3 extra days off a month on flexi-time. You'll also get all the usual public holidays.

We have a broad benefits package built around your work-life balance which includes:

• Flexible working including flexible hours and flex-friendly policies
• Time off volunteering and charitable giving
• Bring your authentic self to work with 'I Can Be Me in DWP'
• Discounts and savings on shopping, fun days out and more
• Interest-free loans to buy a bike or a season ticket, so it's even easier for you to get to work and start making a difference
• Sports and social activities
• Professional development, coaching, mentoring and career progression opportunities.

And we have an award-winning environment and culture:

• DWP have been recognised as 2024 Diversity Employer of the Year at the Computing Women in Tech Excellence awards
• Diverse and Inclusive Leadership at Digital Leaders Awards 2024
• Commended as Best Place to Work in Digital category in the Computing Digital Technology Leaders awards 2025
• Recognised as one of the Best Public Sector Employers at 2025 Women In Tech Employer Awards

Process

We know your time is valuable so our application and selection process is just two stages:

Apply: complete your application on Civil Service Jobs. There'll be full instructions when you click through.

Interview: a single stage interview online.

Click APPLYfor more information and to start your application.

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