PERSON SPECIFICATION

We’re looking for experienced software engineers with a passion for building products that augment human capabilities and improve citizens’ lives.

ESSENTIAL SKILLS:

• Expertise in at least one, and ideally more than one, server-side programming language such as Python, Ruby, C# or Java
• Proficiency in JavaScript, CSS and HTML
• A solid grasp of web application fundamentals: HTTP, DNS, web servers and web browsers
• Ability to implement modern DevOps tools and practices: CI/CD, containerisation, automated testing including system-wide integration testing
• Ability to operate and monitor web applications in cloud environments
• Ability to rapidly prototype and iterate on products
• Experience designing software services with respect to infrastructure, considering dependencies like databases and message queues, cloud environments, and pre-existing services with which yours must collaborate
• Proven ability to collaborate with “non-engineering” disciplines, such as design and user research, to plan and deliver work of provable value as part of a product team, including prioritising, breaking down and sequencing technical work to achieve the best possible outcomes.
• The ability to translate between technical and non-technical domains for senior stakeholders
• Experience mentoring and supporting junior team members to excel

EXPERIENCE OF THE FOLLOWING WOULD BE BENEFICIAL BUT NOT ESSENTIAL:

• Working on projects where you have taken and/or supported a data-driven approach to product development
• Launching products from scratch in a startup or a similarly constrained environment
• Working alongside Machine Learning Engineers or AI Engineers
• Working with Web Components
• Working with React
• Working with a variety of API paradigms like REST/HATEOAS, GraphQL, RPC
• Working on tooling around AI, for instance around cost/carbon monitoring
• Working on applications involving LLMs
• Engagement on open source projects and with the wider software community
  Strong candidates come from many different backgrounds, and we encourage a broad range of applications to ensure we have a well-balanced team. Studies show that talented people, especially those from groups underrepresented in their field, are more likely to doubt themselves and feel like an “imposter”. Unique perspectives enrich teams, so we urge you to have confidence in your potential contributions. If aspects of this role resonate with you, please apply. We look forward to your application.

TECHNICAL SKILLS

We’ll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:

• Technical assessment at assessment

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)
• 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

ABOUT THE ROLE

Alongside AI engineering, software engineering is the core technical discipline in the Incubator. Whilst AI engineers focus on the implementation and evaluation of machine learning and LLM technology, software engineers are responsible for integrating that technology into working software that delights users and delivers against well-defined metrics.
Software engineers design systems and services, taking responsibility for the creation, testing and deployment of production-grade applications. They set the bar for engineering excellence at i.AI.

ROLE RESPONSIBILITIES

• Acting as i.AI’s engineering lead on one or more projects. These could be internal products, or services we’re building in collaboration with other departments. In practice, you are likely to be writing and reviewing code daily.
• Ensuring that the members of your technical team are delivering to the best of their ability at all times, ensuring continued investment in the project and in their own skills.
• Planning, sequencing and delivering technical work across the entire stack, from infrastructure (supported by the i.AI infrastructure team) to CI/CD pipelines, databases, backend frameworks, APIs and user interfaces, with appropriate levels of static analysis and automated testing to ensure quality and consistency.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams including researchers, product managers and senior stakeholders to quickly understand customer needs.
• Lead the design and establishment of frameworks, tools and processes to responsibly develop, deploy and monitor our products.
• Evangelise best practices in AI product design and delivery across government.

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

• Delivering at pace
• Communicating and influencing
• Leadershi