Senior Frontend Developer

Archives are special. As a home of our collective memory, The National Archives plays a unique role. We hold records of events of national and international importance as well as documents that speak to our everyday lives, over the last one thousand years.
We’re looking for an enthusiastic and highly skilled Senior Frontend Developer to help shape and grow our frontend capability. Presenting The National Archives on the web is both challenging and endlessly fascinating, we develop services that work for the user, however complex the underlying systems may be. We believe that ensuring things work for end users is the only way to realise the efficiencies that come with digital transformation. The scale of the collection, diversity of audiences and variety of user needs, makes developing our digital services a challenge like no other. With your excellent coding skills, passion for accessibility and progressive enhancement your job is to ensure standards are defined, maintained and shared to help turn the ambition of being an archive for everyone into a user’s experience., If a person with disabilities is put at a substantial disadvantage compared to a non-disabled person, we have a duty to make reasonable changes to our processes.
If you need a change to be made so that you can make your application, you should:
+ Contact The National Archives via careers@nationalarchives.gov.uk as soon as possible before the closing date to discuss your needs
+ Complete the “Assistance required” section in the “Additional requirements” page of your application form to tell us what changes or help you might need further on in the recruitment process. For instance, you may need wheelchair access at interview, or if you’re deaf, a Language Service Professional
Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security
Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.
People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

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) (opens in a new window)
+ 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 (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service
The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.
We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window).
The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.
The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.

Diversity and Inclusion
The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the Civil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).

This is a full time post. However, requests for part-time working, flexible working and job share will be considered, taking into account at all times the operational needs of the Department. A combination of onsite and home working is available and applicants should be able to regularly travel to our Kew site for a minimum of 60% of their work time., + Significant experience coding clear, usable, accessible digital interfaces that work across a range of devices and browsers, which meet the latest WCAG standards at level AA.
+ Excellent skills in the fundamental frontend technologies - HTML, CSS (including pre-processors such as SASS) and JavaScript to create clean code that is open by default and easy for others to reuse.
+ Excellent experience of front-end development in Python using frameworks such as Django and Flask.
+ Modern development approaches including Agile (such as Scrum and Kanban) and Test-Driven development; version control with Git.
+ Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, with the ability to explain complex technical issues and concepts to non-specialists and to provide advice and guidance based on experience and sound judgment. Work collaboratively in the open and proactively share knowledge.
+ Experience of mentoring, coaching and supporting developers with both technical and non-technical aspects of their career development
+ Excellent ability to analyse and problem solve, understand new concepts and quickly assimilate the details of complex systems.
+ Experience of User Centred Design with the ability to take ideas from concept through to completion to create services which meet user needs in a way that is clear for all audiences.
Desirable Criteria:
+ Experience of delivering digital services in accordance with GDS Service Manual and Technology Code of Practice.
+ Good understanding of version control with Git and GitHub.
+ Knowledge of implementing and consuming APIs.
+ Experience of developing applications hosted on Amazon Web Services.
+ DevOps skills including experience of configuring CI/CD pipelines.
+ Understanding of containerisation using Docker and microservice architecture.
+ Data technologies and standards such as JSON, SQL, XSLT, XML Schema with an understanding of data structures including document, graph and relational models.

Alongside your salary of £55,549, The National Archives contributes £16,092 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.
Generous benefits package, including pension, sports and social club facilities, onsite gym, discounted rates at our on-site cafe and opportunities for training and development.
Any move to The National Archives from another employer will mean you can no longer access childcare vouchers. This includes moves between government departments. You may however be eligible for other government schemes, including Tax-Free Childcare. Determine your eligibility at https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk