AMS PSR

Lead Software Engineer
Insolvency Service
Apply before 11:59 pm on Sunday 18th January 2026

Reference number: 442897

Salary: £57,367 – £66,290

National:  £57,367 - £63,319

London:  £59,463 - £66,290

This post attracts an R&R allowance of up to £5,150. Please note, this is a temporary allowance that is currently under review and could be removed.

A Civil Service Pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%

Job grade: Grade 7

Contract type: Permanent

Business area: Insolvency - Change and Technology Services

Type of role: Digital

Working pattern: Flexible working, Full-time, Job share, Part-time

Number of jobs available: 1

Contents

Location

About the job

Benefits

Things you need to know

Apply and further information

Location

Birmingham, Cardiff, Croydon, Edinburgh, Exeter, Ipswich, Leeds, Manchester, Newcastle, Nottingham and Stratford.

About the job

Job summary

The Insolvency Service is a leading Government agency which plays a crucial role in providing essential services to the public and to business. The work we do is important to the proper functioning of markets, the economy in general and support for thousands of people each year who are in financial difficulty.

We have an exciting opportunity for a talented, enthusiastic Lead Software Engineer within our Digital Services team. We are responsible for delivering and maintaining digital services for the agency.

Inclusive and diverse teams are important to us. We welcome and encourage applications from everyone, including groups underrepresented in our workforce.

Insolvency Service strives to ensure that the agency is a safe, inclusive, and welcoming place for everybody to bring their true self to work and to help the agency to achieve its diversity objectives. We have 10 active employee network groups available to join or become an ally, these include: Carers Network, Disability & Health, FACES Network Group, Grass Roots, LGBT+, Mind Matters, No Limits, Part Time Workers, The Shed, and Women’s Network Group.

We offer full-time, part-time, job share and flexible ways of working. We value capability, technical skills and experience and we place great emphasis on lifetime development to support our people. We encourage our employees to become more involved in areas they feel strongly about, whether it be for the benefit of the agency, through our Engagement network or in their own local communities via volunteering opportunities.

The Insolvency Service is a great place to work, learn and grow your career!

Job description

Digital Services is a an in-house team, which has recently moved from using a 3rd party DevSecOps function to bringing it in-house. We are also consolidating our technology stack and moving away from legacy services, so this is a fantastic opportunity to help shape our digital services and the way we work for a sustainable, user-centric future. We would love to for you to be part of that team.

Digital services is part of Change and Technology Services (CTS) who support and improve applications and systems across the agencies IT landscape. CTS provide key services including digital services, cyber security and information governance, service architecture and governance and digital programme delivery.

Responsibilities
 
 As a Lead Software Engineer, You will:
 

Person Specification

The Successful Candidate will have:

Essential Criteria

The successful candidate will need to have or obtain Security Clearance before taking up this post.

Behaviours

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

Working Together

Leadership

Technical skills

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

A hypothetical technical scenario will be the given to candidates at interview. The candidate will be asked of their approach to that scenario and questioned regarding their response.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £56,799, Insolvency Service contributes £16,454 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

We want you to have a good work-life balance and want to support you in all that you do, so we offer a great benefits package including:  

• Flexible working arrangements and flexi-time  

• Full-time new entrants to the Civil Service and those Civil Servants on modernised terms and conditions will be entitled to 25 days leave, increasing on a sliding scale to 30 days after 5 years’ service  

• In addition to this, entitlement to 8 public/bank holidays plus an additional day of privilege leave  

• Competitive maternity, paternity and parental leave  

• 5 days paid leave for learning and development  

• 5 days paid leave for volunteering  

• A Cycle to Work scheme 

• Staff have access to an employee assistance programme, Workplace Wellness, for confidential, independent support and advice during difficult times in either professional or personal life  

Your pension is a valuable part of your total reward package where the employer makes a significant contribution to the cost of your pension. Your contributions come out of your salary before any tax is taken. This means, if you pay tax, your take-home pay will not be reduced by the full amount of your contribution; and your pension will continue to provide valuable benefits for you and your family if you are too ill to continue to work or die before you retire. For more information, visit www.civilservicepensionscheme.org.uk    

Things you need to know

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours, Experience and Technical skills.

As part of the sift process, you will be asked to complete:

CV

Personal Statement

Your CV should provide a clear overview of your employment history, key responsibilities, relevant qualifications, and the skills and experience you’ve gained throughout your career including any notable achievements.  

Your CV will be scored as part of the assessment process and will be assessed against the criteria outlined in the job advert.

Your personal statement should be no more than 500 words and must demonstrate how your personal skills, qualities, and experience align with the requirements of the role. Please ensure your statement references the essential criteria outlined in the person specification.

If successful at the sift stage, at interview, you will be assessed on the following:

Experience

Behavioural Competencies - assessed through:

Behaviour 1 - Working Together

Behaviour 2 - Leadership

Technical Skills

If successful at sift and invited to interview, a hypothetical technical scenario will be the given to all candidates. You will be asked your approach to the scenario and questioned regarding your response.

Expected timeline (subject to change)

Sift – Week Commencing January 19^th 2026

Interview – Week Commencing January 30^th 2026

Location - MS Teams or Address

Your interview will either be conducted face to face or by video. You will be notified of this if you are selected for interview. Candidates are asked to note the above timetable, exercising flexibility through the recruitment and selection process.   

Use of AI

Artificial Intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action.  Please see our candidate guidance for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Visa Applicants

To sponsor a candidate under the Skilled Worker visa, a sponsorship licence is required.  The Insolvency Service does not currently hold this licence and therefore, cannot legally sponsor Skilled Worker visa applicants.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.

Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check (opens in a new window).

See our vetting charter (opens in a new window).

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 presettled 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).

Apply and further information

Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Contact point for applicants Job contact :

Name :  Alan Yates

Email :  alan.yates@weareams.com

Recruitment team

Email : psrpermapplications@weareams.com

Further information

A candidate can raise a complaint to the Insolvency Service by emailing the contact point for applicants (as listed on the vacancy advert), if they think that: They have been discriminated against under the Equality Act 2010 there have been procedural irregularities at any stage of the recruitment process All complaints must be received by the contact point for applicants within 24 hours from the date the applicant is advised of their non-success at sift, assessment r interview. Complaints will be considered by an independent third-party outside of recruitment campaign. The decision will be conveyed to the applicant, in writing, within 5 working days of receipt of the complaint. The recruitment process will usually be put on hold until the complaint has been resolved. Complaints may also be made to the Civil Service Commission at any time if the individual believes their application has not been treated in accordance with the recruitment principles (appointment on merit through fair and open competition). However, complaints must first have been raised to the Insolvency Service