Salary: London: £66,332 - £70,791. Manchester: £64,005 – 68,185 (depending on skills and experience) with an opportunity to qualify for additional allowances and a skills-related payment under the Government Digital and Data Profession Capability Framework (GDDPCF) - formerly known as DDaT. London roles - 36 hours per week, Manchester roles - 37 hours per week.
Flexible working: we support full-time, part-time, compressed hours and other flexible working patterns. This is primarily an office-based role, and therefore, opportunities for home or remote working will be limited and dependent on business needs.
About us
MI5 keeps the country safe from serious threats like terrorism and attempts by states to harm the UK, its people and way of life. We carry out investigations by obtaining, analysing, and assessing intelligence, and then work with a range of partners including MI6 and GCHQ to disrupt these threats. Through our protective security arm, we provide advice and guidance to government, businesses and other organisations about how to keep themselves safe. A role in MI5 means you'll do unique and challenging work in a supportive and encouraging environment, making a real difference to UK national security.
The role
Technology sits at the heart of everything we do at MI5. We're looking for Software Engineers with multiple years of experience who are prepared to take on a more senior role within a multi-disciplinary product team. You’ll develop solutions, mentor less experienced colleagues whilst working alongside a range of technical specialists including Product Owners, Business Analysts, Delivery Managers, Data Scientists and Machine Learning Engineers, to build and run secure applications and products. You’ll be using agile methodologies to deliver products that are core to MI5’s operations, and you’ll be using cloud technologies such as AWS and Azure as well, supporting on-premises platforms and long-established technologies and frameworks.
You’ll share our collective responsibility to keep the country safe and be keen to constantly improve yourself and your team, taking on ownership of large problems, breaking them down and working with the team to deliver new features throughout the engineering lifecycle. You’ll support the products owned by the team, working with users to identify and fix defects (providing on-call support if necessary) developing automated tests to maintain the assurance of our products and deploy through continuous integration pipelines.
You’ll support and mentor less experienced colleagues and help them to understand what great engineering looks like, promoting best practises, participating in our engineering community and guilds, and encourage cross-organisation initiatives to help build our community of engineers. Many of our engineers work directly within our mission teams and all engineers have a unique opportunity to see first-hand how their work contributes to UK national security, while remaining part of a supportive and inclusive technical profession.
Our tech stacks vary between products (such as Java, Python, C#, React.js, Oracle, Mongo, Elastic Search and Hadoop to name a few). We embrace DevSecOps mindset, and our teams automate, run and support what we build. You’ll be working under the Government Digital and Data Profession Capability Framework (formerly known as DDaT), which recognises and rewards specialist expertise. Due to the nature of our work, most of the teams only work from the office. There are limited opportunities to work in a hybrid way. This is not guaranteed and dependent on the business need. Whether it’s building a platform to enable the analysis of data systems to track the progress of our investigations, developing robust and scalable capabilities for our Data Science teams, compliance services to ensure we are operating legally or tooling to improve our developer experience, the nature of our work presents unique and fascinating engineering challenges.
About you
You’ll be proficient in developing enterprise or commercial software in at least one common language (for example Java, C#, Python or JavaScript) and are familiar with the principles of a modern standards approach such as continuous integration and delivery, test driven development and cloud services. You can demonstrate proficiency in the use of the agile methodology and have awareness of design patterns and how to implement them appropriately with security in mind.
We value your solid communication skills, as you communicate effectively with technical and non-technical colleagues. You’ll demonstrate competency in leadership and you’re continuously looking for opportunities to develop and learn new engineering practices and approaches.
Training and development
We’re committed to developing you and recognise this will look different for everyone. We’ll use the Government Digital and Data Profession Capability Framework (formerly known as DDaT). as a compass to provide guidance and tools to support you. You can find out more about the framework here: Government Digital and Data Profession Capability Framework. There’ll be opportunities to gain qualifications and pursue specialist pathways, as well as undertaking tailored training, coaching and mentoring. You will also have up to 20% innovation and personal development time.
As you develop, grow, and maintain your technical skills, you will have the opportunity to progress through GDDPCF pay points. You’ll need to regularly demonstrate and accredit your skills based on the framework. If you don’t maintain the required skills, you’ll be given the opportunity and support to rectify this, as you could revert to a lower level of capability and pay.
Rewards and benefits
You’ll receive a starting salary of between London: £66,332 - £70,791. Manchester: £64,005 – 68,185 (depending on skills and experience) plus other benefits including:
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25 Days Annual Leave automatically rising to 30 days after 5 years' service, and an additional 10.5 days public and privilege holidays
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opportunities to be recognised through our employee performance scheme
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dedicated development budget
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interest-free season ticket loan
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excellent pension scheme
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cycle to work scheme
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facilities such as a gym, restaurant and on-site coffee bars (at some locations)
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paid parental and adoption leave.
Equal opportunities
At MI5 diversity and inclusion are critical to our mission. To protect the UK, we need a truly diverse workforce that reflects the society we serve. This includes diversity in every sense of the word: those with different backgrounds, ages, ethnicities, gender identities, sexual orientations, ways of thinking and those with disabilities or neurodivergent conditions. We therefore welcome and encourage applications from everyone, including those from groups that are under-represented in our workforce such as women, those from an ethnic minority background, people with disabilities and those from low socio-economic backgrounds.
Find out more about our culture, working environment and diversity on our website.
We’re Disability Confident
MI5 is proud to have achieved Leader status within the Department for Work and Pensions’ Disability Confident scheme. This initiative encourages employers to think differently about disability and take action to improve how they recruit, retain, and develop disabled people. As a Disability Confident Organisation, we aim to ensure that a fair and proportionate number of disabled applicants who best meet the essential criteria for this position will be offered an interview, where it is practical for us to do so. (This is known as the Offer of an interview.)
To secure an interview for this role, you must meet the minimum criteria, all of which are assessed at the application sift. These criteria (in order of application process) are:
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Demonstrate ability in developing software in at least one common language (assessed at application form sift)
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Demonstrate an understanding of the principles of modern standards approaches such as continuous integration and delivery, test driven development and cloud services (assessed at application form sift)
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Demonstrate taking on a more senior role within a team. Provide technical direction and the ability to guide and support others with regards to software developing (assessed at application form sift)
There is a wide range of extra support available throughout the recruitment process to enable you to do your best, see our website for information on reasonable adjustments we can offer.
What to expect
Our recruitment process is fair, transparent, and based on merit. Here is a brief overview of each stage, in order:
1. You’ll be invited to upload your CV and complete an online application form.
2. If you pass, you’ll be invited to an interview where you will be asked questions relating to your motivation and our core competencies.
3. If you pass, you’ll be invited to a technical skill-based interview based on the Government Digital and Data Profession Capability Framework for the role. This will cover drawing upon your experience for the following areas:
a. Programming & Build including User Focus
b. Information Security
c. System Design
4. If you pass, you’ll be made a Conditional Offer of Employment, subject to vetting
Please note, you must successfully pass each stage of the process to progress to the next. Your application may take around 6 - 9 months to process including vetting, so we advise you to continue any current employment until you have received your final job offer.
Before you apply
To work at MI5 you need to be a British citizen or hold dual British nationality.
This role requires the highest security clearance, known as Developed Vetting (DV). It’s something everyone in the UK Intelligence Community undertakes.
Please note we have a strict drugs policy, so once you start your application, you can’t take any recreational drugs and you’ll need to declare your previous drug usage at the relevant stage.
Before you apply, we advise you to consider setting up a separate email address for your contact with us, to ensure your personal and application correspondence remain separate. Try to avoid including identifying information in your email address, such as your first and/or surname or date of birth. This is good practice and will help you manage your application with us more securely.
The role is based in either Central London or Greater Manchester, so you’ll need to live within a commutable distance. Please consider any financial implications and practicalities before submitting an application. An interest-free loan via our benevolent fund is available to assist with relocating into privately rented accommodation to take up the offer of employment.
We offer reasonable reimbursement of travel costs for candidates attending in-person appointments during the recruitment and vetting process. Full details will be provided with your interview or assessment invitation.
Reimbursement is discretionary and will only be made in line with the Candidate Expenses Policy, as amended from time to time. Candidates must book their own travel, using the most economical option, and provide original hardcopy receipts for reimbursement.
Please note, you should only launch your application from within the UK. If you are based overseas, you should wait until you visit the UK to launch an application. Applying from outside the UK will impact on our ability to progress your application. You should not discuss your application, other than with your partner or a close family member.
Right to withdraw statement:
Please be aware that we withhold the right to bring forward the closing date for this role from the original closing date once a certain number of applications have been received. Please be mindful of this and submit your application at your earliest convenience to avoid disappointment.
