Senior Software Engineer (Oracle Technologies)
Summary
Senior Software Engineer at the UK Office for National Statistics (Civil Service) building and maintaining business-critical systems for life events and longitudinal population data. Day-to-day involves designing, coding and testing secure applications, running CI/CD pipelines and supporting production services, centred on Oracle Database, APEX, PL/SQL and Java.
- Job grade: Senior Executive Officer
- Contract type: Permanent
- Business area: ONS - Digital and Technology - Digital Services (DS)
- Type of role: Digital, Information Technology
- Working pattern: Flexible working, Full-time, Job share, Part-time, Compressed hours
- Number of jobs available: 2
Location
Due to workforce controls you can only select Manchester / London / Darlington / Edinburgh / Belfast if you are an existing ONS employee contracted to that location. If you are not contracted at one of these sites, these options are not available to you.
Only existing ONS contractual homeworkers can select Homeworking.
Applicants who select a location they are not eligible for will be removed from the recruitment process and will not be considered for alternative locations. Please refer to attachments for further terms and flexibilities.
The induction process for the role will be conducted in person.
About the job
Job summary
Are you an accomplished Software Engineer looking for a role where you can make a real impact, using your technical experience to enable us to deliver our Statistics for the Public Good strategy for the UK?
We are looking for experienced Software Engineers to join us! We are looking for forward-thinking people with a passion for Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery working on the latest cloud and software applications. You will have an eye for detail and stakeholder management skills to provide technical and procedural expertise working within our Digital Services (DS) Directorate. Candidates should have demonstrable, recent practical experience of developing software solutions using Oracle technologies as a core part of their role.
Life Events Data Resource (LEDR) & Longitudinal Study (LS)
About the Role
We are recruiting for two Software Engineer positions within the Office for National Statistics (ONS) Life Events area. The successful candidates will join either the Life Events Data Resource (LEDR) team or the Longitudinal Study (LS) team, supporting systems that manage, process and analyse some of the UK's most important population data.
These roles offer the opportunity to work on nationally significant services that support the registration, processing, linkage and analysis of life events and longitudinal data. Successful candidates will contribute to the development, maintenance and modernisation of critical systems used by government, researchers and statisticians.
What You'll Be Doing
- Designing, developing and maintaining business-critical applications and databases.
- Working with large and complex datasets to support statistical production and research.
- Developing new functionality and enhancing existing systems.
- Producing high-quality, maintainable and secure code.
- Supporting data processing, validation and quality assurance activities.
- Collaborating with business analysts, testers, statisticians and technical colleagues.
- Participating in code reviews, technical design discussions and continuous improvement initiatives.
- Assisting with system upgrades, modernisation activities and technical debt reduction.
- Contributing to technical documentation and knowledge sharing across teams.
Technologies Used
Depending on the team joined, you will work with some or all of the following technologies:
LEDR Technology Stack:
- Java
- Oracle Database
- Oracle APEX
- Talend
- Oracle WebLogic
- GitLab
- Jenkins
- Maven
LS Technology Stack:
- Oracle Database
- Oracle SQL
- PL/SQL
- Oracle APEX
- Microsoft SQL Server
- T-SQL
Job description
Responsibilities
The role will include:
- Develop and enhance software solutions to meet user story needs.
- Follow best practice guidelines and help to improve those guidelines.
- Write clean, secure, and well-tested code.
- Coach and mentor colleagues.
- Support a continuous delivery environment, using effective delivery and deployment techniques
- Operate the services they build and identify issues in production.
- Design and execute a range of test techniques.
Person specification
Essential Skills Criteria:
- Programming and build (software engineering) (Practitioner) – Collaborates with others when necessary to review specifications. Uses these agreed specifications to design, code, test and document programs or scripts of medium to high complexity, using the right standards and tools. Contributes to code reviews and gives constructive feedback to others.
- Communicating between technical and non-technical (Practitioner) - Listens to and interprets the needs of technical and non-technical stakeholders and manages their expectations. Communicates effectively in both proactive and reactive contexts (for example, delivery updates, incidents and changes), adapting style and detail to the audience. Translates technical concepts, constraints and trade-offs into clear, information for non-technical stakeholders. Supports or facilitates challenging discussions within the team or with senior and diverse stakeholders, helping to reach shared understanding and agreed outcomes.
- Test Engineering (Practitioner) – Able to design, implement and execute functional and non-functional tests using a wide range of techniques and frameworks. Able to make decisions on running types of test cases, and environments for testing. Able to work with the team to develop and iterate on testing standards. Maintains and adapts CI/CD pipelines to ensure effective test integration and quality gates. Able to guide and coach others in creating and maintaining comprehensive and reliable tests that meet standards. Able to research and prepare for future testing needs, including tools, methodologies and techniques.
- Modern Developments Standards (Practitioner) – Able to apply modern development standards and support others in applying them. Contributes to continuous improvement of approaches.
- Service Support (Practitioner) - Identifies, locates and fixes service faults in production and non-production environments. Investigates and resolves complex or undocumented issues, using a variety of methods, tools and system knowledge. (Such as logs, test results etc). Triage incidents, assesses impact and priority, and create stories or tasks for fixes. Contributes to team support practices by documenting resolutions, improving processes and supporting colleagues in diagnosing issues.
Desirable Skills Criteria:
Experience in one or more of the following would be advantageous:
- Java development.
- Oracle Database development and administration.
- Oracle APEX development.
- PL/SQL and T-SQL programming.
- Talend ETL development.
- CI/CD tooling such as GitLab, Jenkins and Maven.
- Data integration, data quality or statistical processing systems.
- Working with large, sensitive or business-critical datasets.
You may have deeper expertise in some areas than others, but you must demonstrate a willingness to learn and develop across the full technical stack. Experience working collaboratively in agile teams and delivering reliable, production-grade services is essential.
We expect that you will have experience of using these technologies, accepting that experience of some might be more limited but you must be keen to learn all the technical stack above. Please ensure that your CV fully reflects those that you have used before. Your desire to learn and develop in a collaborative software environment will also be what we are looking for.
Behaviours
We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:
- Changing and Improving
- Managing a Quality Service
- Delivering at Pace
Technical skills
We'll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:
- Programming and Build (Practitioner)
- Test Engineering (Practitioner)
- Service Support (Practitioner)
- Communication between technical and non technical (Practitioner)
Benefits
The Office for National Statistics is part of the Civil Service, and as such we share a number of key benefits with other departments, whilst also having our own unique offerings to support our valued colleagues across the organisation.
Whether you are hearing about us for the first time or already know a bit about our organisation, we hope that our careers site will give you a great insight into the benefits and facilities available to our colleagues, and our fantastic working culture.
Inclusion & Accessibility
At ONS we are always looking to attract the very best people from the widest possible talent pool, and we are proud to be an inclusive, equal opportunities employer. As a Disability Confident Leader we’re committed to ensuring that all candidates are treated fairly throughout the recruitment process.
As part of our application process, you will be prompted to provide details of any reasonable adjustments to our recruitment process that you need. If you would like to discuss any reasonable adjustments before applying, please contact the recruitment team in the first instance.
If you would like an accessible version of any of the attachments or recruitment documents below or linked to in this advert, please contact the recruitment team who will be happy to assist.
Things you need to know
Artificial intelligence
Selection process details
Security Clearance
For ONS the requirement for SC clearance is to have been present in the UK for 3 consecutive years immediately prior to applying and the department will consider eligibility by exception on a case-by-case basis. You will be asked to provide information regarding your UK residency during your application, and failure to provide this will result in your application being rejected.
If you are unsure that you meet the eligibility above, please read the information available on Gov.uk on this link, or contact the recruitment email on the advert before applying to discuss, as failure to meet the residency requirements will result in your security clearance application being rejected and any offer of employment being withdrawn.
At the point of SC application, you will need to provide or give access to the following evidence:
- Departmental or company records (personnel files, staff reports, sick leave reports and security records)
- UK criminal records covering both spent and unspent criminal records
- Your credit and financial history with a credit reference agency
- Security Services records
ONS are unable to offer visa sponsorship for this role. Applicants are expected to hold a valid right to work in the UK when employment commences. If you are applying on a time-limited visa, this will need to be valid for at least 18 months at point of application.
To work at the ONS, candidates must meet both UK right to work and security clearance requirements (where applicable).
If you are unsure whether you meet the appropriate right to work or security clearance eligibility criteria, please refer to the guidance on or contact the recruitment email provided in the advert before applying. Failure to meet these requirements will result in your application being rejected and employment offers being withdrawn.
For full guidance in relation to the use of AI through the recruitment process, please read A candidate’s guide to artificial intelligence (AI) in recruitment
Please note that all campaigns may be subject to withdrawal at any stage if the internal resource position changes.
Application Process
Number of Stages: 2 stage process
Stage 1: Application
Stage 2: Interview
Stage 1 – Application
The assessment process at the application stage will be based on your work history, skills, experience, CV, and personal statement. It is important that your application is tailored to highlight the skills, knowledge, and experience relevant to the role.
A personal statement is required at application stage, the maximum wordcount allowed is 1250 words, which should not be exceeded. You should provide evidence for each essential skill criterion listed in the person specification. As these criteria are scored, it is advisable to give clear examples for each one, including the impact of your actions, ideally utilising the STAR technique (Situation, Task, Action, Result).
Please note that Success Profiles Behaviour examples are not required at this stage of the application process.
When a high volume of applications are received, the sift pass mark may be adjusted. Candidates will be invited to interview based on their merit order, with those achieving the highest scores being prioritised. Applicants who score below the adjusted pass mark but still pass will be placed on hold and may be invited to interview at a later date.
We often have similar roles available at different grades. If a candidate is suitable for a similar role or a lower grade than they have applied for, we may offer the candidate that role without the need to go through a further selection process providing the role has the same behaviours and essential skills.
Stage 2 – Interview
If invited to interview, you will be assessed using techniques aligned with the Civil Service Success Profiles framework, covering all behaviours listed in the job advert and any required technical skills.
You will be required to provide a 10 minute presentation at interview. The presentation topic will be emailed to candidates who have passed the initial online application stage, 1 week prior to interview. This presentation will assess candidates against the Success Profiles Behaviour Managing a quality Service.
Interviews may be in person or via Microsoft Teams.
A reserve list may be held for a period up to 12 months from which further appointments may be made.
Important Dates:
- The Sift will be conducted from 30/11/2026
- Interviews will be conducted from the New Year from 04/01/2027
For the full terms and conditions of the post, please see attachment.
GDD Pay
This role is eligible for the Government Digital and Data (GDD) Capability and Pay Framework. If you are successful at interview, your salary will be directly linked to your capability outcome, as determined by your performance in the Technical section of the interview.
- Capability Outcome: Assessed based on scores achieved during the technical interview.
- Salary Determination: Your starting salary will reflect the capability level assigned.
- Feedback: Full feedback on your capability outcome will be provided at the point of offer.
All successful candidates are required to undertake an annual capability assessment as part of their ongoing employment terms. The outcome of this assessment directly influences individual pay levels:
- Higher Capability Outcome: Results in an increase in pay.
- Lower Capability Outcome: Results in a decrease in pay.
Completion of the assessment is mandatory. Failure to complete the annual capability assessment will result in the individual being transitioned to ONS pay terms and conditions, with a corresponding adjustment to their pay.
If you're already in a GDD Group 1 role and receiving GDD pay, and you make a lateral move (i.e. same grade, different role):
- Initial Capability Assessment:
- Development Plan:
- Reassessment at 6 Months:
Starting salary for roles within the Government Digital and Data (GDD) Capability and Pay Framework is determined solely by the capability outcome achieved during the recruitment process.
Please note:
- Existing allowances (scarce skills) will not be taken into account when calculating starting salary.
- This policy applies to all candidates, including existing Civil Servants and ONS colleagues transitioning to the GDD Capability and Pay Framework.
Curious about Government Digital and Data? Dive into the Candidate Pack to learn more
Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.
Security
See our vetting charter (opens in a new window).
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
Working for the Civil Service
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).
Diversity and Inclusion
Apply and further information
Contact point for applicants
Job contact :
- Name : Government Digital and Data Recruitment Team
- Email : Government-Digital-and-Data-Recruitment@ons.gov.uk
Recruitment team
- Email : About.You@ons.gov.uk
Further information
Attachments
| 2721 DDAT Advert 1A Permanent - ONS London Inclusive v1-00 Opens in new window (pdf, 85kB) |
| Role1_Standard_Requirements Opens in new window (pdf, 76kB) |
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