Job title: Lead Developer
Salary: PO4 £46,142 - £49,282
Hours: 37
Contract: Permanent
Location: Home and office based, chiefly Merrion House but attendance maybe occasionally required at other Leeds based locations
Leeds City Council is on a journey to modernise its financial management systems. Moving away from legacy technology onto Microsoft Dynamics F&O.
As part of that journey, we are seeking a highly motivated and experienced Lead Developer to focus on Azure based integrations. Along with the necessary governance and guardrails that are essential for their smooth running.
Leeds City Council is one of the largest employers in the region with over 14,000 employees. We seek to recruit and develop talented individuals who embody our council values and ambitions.
About you
Our ideal candidate will have:
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Minimum 4 years’ experience with Azure cloud infrastructure, including APIM, Function/Logic Apps, IaC and contributing towards a library of design patterns.
- Proven track record in delivering integrations within financial environments, ideally in the public sector.
- Strong analytical and communication skills, with the ability to translate business requirements into technical solutions.
- Experience mentoring others and working independently within a collaborative team.
About the role
This role will focus on the ongoing development and improvements of MS Dynamics system integration. It has a heavy emphasis on working with cloud hosted infrastructure supporting critical business systems and processes. A solid understanding of financial processes and procedures is highly desirable. As the Lead Software Engineer you will:
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Lead the design and delivery of large-scale, complex software solutions, ensuring they are robust, maintainable, and aligned with business needs.
- Collaborate closely with financial teams to identify opportunities for process improvement and integration.
- Mentor and support junior engineers, fostering a culture of continuous learning and peer review.
- Oversee technical design, provide constructive challenge, and ensure adherence to governance and best practices.
- Produce high-quality code and comprehensive documentation, including flowcharts and technical diagrams.
- Assess delivery risks and propose practical solutions based on current information.
- Provide accurate estimates for development work and report progress through stand-ups and project meetings.
You will not work alone but rather form part of a team of existing developers, managers and technical experts who will help you on this journey. Occasional out of hours\on call arrangements may be required but this can be discussed and will incur additional renumeration.
What we offer you
We take pride in offering the best employee experience, with benefits including:
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a competitive salary and annual leave entitlement plus statutory holidays
- membership of the West Yorkshire Pension Fund with generous employer contributions
- flexible and hybrid working arrangements subject to service requirements
- a clear career pathway and continuing professional development opportunities
- a range of staff benefits to help you boost your wellbeing and make your money go further
How to apply
Please upload your CV and complete a personal statement of no more than 500 words
Read our guidance for further advice. Please check your information carefully and ensure you complete all sections before submitting your application.
A Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check against the Children’s or Adults’ barred list as applicable will be carried out on preferred candidates. Read our recruitment of ex-offenders policy.
We welcome applications from everyone and actively seek a diverse range of applicants from all backgrounds and cultures. We particularly encourage applications from, but not limited to, women, carers, veterans as well as LGBT+, ethnically diverse, disabled and care experienced people.
This role is based in the UK. Home Office guidance states that candidates must evidence their right to work in the UK prior to commencing employment, either as a UK or Irish citizen, under the EU Settlement scheme or having secured any other relevant work visa.
If you do not have the right to work in the UK, you must consider your own eligibility for sponsorship for a particular role through the Skilled Worker visaroute before applying. To be eligible for sponsorship you'll usually need to be paid the standard salary rate of at least £41,700 per year or meet one of the other eligibility criteria. Ensure you are eligible before applying.
Job Description
Job purpose
Technical delivery and support on a range of varying proects and evolving technologies. Implement technical strategy as directed and ensure development best practices are in place and followed.
Responsibilities
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Lead the implementation of scalable, maintainable, and secure software solutions that align with LCC business goals.
- Design, build, test, and maintain software applications that meet the needs of business objectives, LCC users and citizens.
- Translate technical requirements into functional code, ensuring that software solutions are efficient, scalable, and secure. Collaborate across different service areas, 3rdparties, product owners, technical experts to support delivery of service. Mentor junior team members and support their development.
- Conduct technical reviews and enforce coding standards, best practices, and development methodologies.
- Guide and mentor developers, fostering technical growth and promoting a culture of continuous learning.
- Work closely with stakeholders, including product managers, designers, and other technical teams, to ensure alignment and successful delivery.
- Support the evaluation of emerging technologies and tools to enhance development efficiency and product capabilities.
- Address complex technical challenges, troubleshooting and support issues as they arise.
- Ensure applications are optimised for performance, scalability, and reliability while being cost effective.
- Ensure software solutions comply with relevant regulations, security standards, and organisational policies.
- Contribute to planning, estimation, and prioritisation of development tasks and projects.
- The duties outlined are not meant as an exhaustive list and will also comprise any other duties within the spirit of the post commensurate with the job evaluation outcome for this post.
Qualifications Degree level or equivalent knowledge skills and experience relevant to the service area
Essential requirements Candidates will only be shortlisted if they can demonstrate that they meet all the following essential requirements.
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Able to work effectively as part of a team and to demonstrate organisational and time management skills prioritising own and team’s work to meet conflicting deadlines
- Able to communicate appropriately and effectively with a wide range of people including internal and external partners and customers, through a variety of different methods
- Able to use initiative to promote and manage change, using negotiating skills to influence others
- Able to accurately enter and retrieve data and information from digital and manual systems preparing and presenting reports and data a wide range of audiences
- Able to develop constructive working relationships and work in partnership with others.
- Able to build inclusive, accessible, and user-friendly digital services that improve the lives of residents and support community wellbeing.
- Able to review solutions and services and implement continuous improvement based on feedback and performance data.
- Able to lead code reviews, technical workshops, and knowledge-sharing sessions to uplift team capability and ensure adherence to best practices.
- Proven ability to design and deliver robust, scalable, and secure software solutions that support critical public services and citizen engagement.
- Has built, deployed and managed complex cloud-based solutions using across AWS or Azure environments.
- Proficient in modern programming languages and frameworks (e.g., .NET, Python, React, etc as well as low code platforms) with the ability to architect and implement complex, enterprise-grade cloud-based solutions.
- Understand the role of AI withing local government. Knows the threats and opportunities it brings and how to utilise it effectively and appropriately.
- Proficiency in DevOps practices, including CI/CD pipelines, infrastructure as code, automated testing, and monitoring in secure, regulated environments.
- Understanding of public sector data governance, and compliance frameworks (e.g., GDPR, PSN, WCAG 2.2).
- Understanding of secure coding practices, experience with relevant tools and risk mitigation in public sector systems.
- Experience integrating with legacy systems and modern APIs, particularly in the context of local government platforms such as planning, housing, finance, and GIS systems.
- Experience in Agile delivery environments, with the ability to lead sprint planning, retrospectives, and backlog refinement.
- Demonstrable experience leading or contributing to large-scale digital transformation initiatives within local government or the wider public sector.
- Experience ensuring compliance with local government IT policies, data protection laws, and national digital service standards.
- Experience in supporting end-to-end project lifecycles, from requirem gathering and stakeholder engagement to deployment and post-implementation support.
- Experience of mentoring and developing junior and mid-level developers, fostering a high-performing, inclusive, and collaborative team culture.
Essential Behavioural & other Characteristics
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Understand and embrace Leeds City Council Values and Behavioursand codes of conduct
- Committed to continuous improvement in all areas and work towards delivering the Best City Ambitionof Health & Wellbeing, Inclusive Growth and Zero Carbon
- Able to understand and observe Leeds City Council policies and procedures.
- Carry out all duties having regard to an employee’s responsibility under Health, Safety and Wellbeing
- Willingness to actively participate in appraisal, training and development activities to ensure up, to date knowledge and skills.
- Flexible and adaptable to change to assist other services as required commensurate to grade.
- Be aware of and support difference and ensure equality for all working in an anti-discriminatory manner, upholding, equality & diversity of Leeds City Council.
- Recognise and appropriately challenge any incidents of racism, bullying, harassment, victimisation, and any form of abuse, reporting any concerns to the appropriate person
- The Council has adopted a flexibility protocol and the role will be expected to work within these parameters.
Desirable requirements Candidates are not required to meet all the following desirable requirements however these may be used to distinguish between candidates.
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Able to seek out opportunities to create effective change and suggest innovative ideas for process improvement.
- Able to review ways of working, including seeking and providing feedback.
- Able to implement manual and automated tests.
- Understand different levels of software testing (including black & white box, retrospective, performance, load, penetration, accessibility, etc) and their importance.
