iOS/Android Mid & Senior Developers

Details

Reference number

470659

Salary

£57,550 - £81,720

£62,320 - £77,670 (London) / £57,550 - £72,900 (National) for mid-level and £69,220 - £81,720 (London) / £64,450 - £76,950 (National) for senior-level Based on capability. The base salary of this grade is £61,620 for London and £56,850 for other locations. Offers made above this will be made up with a specialist pay allowance.

GBP

Job grade

Grade 7

Contract type

Permanent

Business area

GDS - Digital Identity & One Login

Type of role

Digital

Information Technology

Working pattern

Flexible working, Full-time, Job share, Part-time, Compressed hours

Number of jobs available

12

Contents

Location

About the job

Benefits

Things you need to know

Apply and further information

Location

Bristol, London, Manchester

About the job

Job summary

The Government Digital Service (GDS) is the digital centre of government. We are responsible for setting, leading and delivering the vision for a modern digital government.

Our priorities are to drive a modern digital government, by:

joining up public sector services

harnessing the power of AI for the public good

strengthening and extending our digital and data public infrastructure

elevating leadership and investing in talent

funding for outcomes and procuring for growth and innovation

committing to transparency and driving accountability

We are home to the Incubator for Artificial Intelligence (I.AI), the world-leading GOV.UK and at the forefront of coordinating the UK’s geospatial strategy and activity. We lead the Government Digital and Data function and champion the work of digital teams across government.

We’re part of the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) and employ more than 1,000 people all over the UK, with hubs in Manchester, London and Bristol.

The Government Digital Service is where talent translates into impact. From your first day, you’ll be working with some of the world’s most highly-skilled digital professionals, all contributing their knowledge to make change on a national scale.

Join us for rewarding work that makes a difference across the UK. You'll solve some of the nation’s highest-priority digital challenges, helping millions of people access services they need

Job description

We have vacancies for both iOS and Android Developers and Senior iOS and Android Developers. We are running a single campaign and will offer one of the two roles based on performance at interview.

As a Developer or Senior Developer you can expect to have a central role in multidisciplinary teams building the future of government services. We are building in two main areas. Native iOS and Android applications power our identity proving service, allowing for a quick, easy and highly trusted way to prove your identity to government. We are also building a new Wallet application, allowing users to take control of their credentials and interact with the next generation of government digital services.

You’ll join the GOV.UK One Login programme as a Mobile Developer or a Senior Mobile Developer.

You’ll build and maintain either the GOV.UK iOS or Android application, as part of a multidisciplinary team. The apps are native, written in Swift and Kotlin and use UIKit, SwiftUI and Jetpack Compose

As a Mobile Developer in GDS, you’ll:

work as part of a multi-disciplinary agile team, getting involved with every part of the lifecycle of the application, from user research to releasing the application build accessible apps, taking responsibility for the quality of code you produce

build automated tests to maintain software quality

share knowledge of tools and techniques with your wider team, both developers and non-developers

support the live operation of the services we run, and participate in out-of-hours support rotas where necessary - you'll be paid an allowance, and a further hourly payment, for any duties you perform when on call

be involved in helping recruit developers and, where appropriate, helping sift and interview

provide technical leadership within team, advising and working with developers to identify the best solutions

take responsibility for developing others, through line management and/or mentoring

take responsibility for solving complex issues

You’ll share the responsibility for the digital transformation of the government. You’ll ensure high quality code is delivered in line with programme goals and delivery cycles. You’ll thrive using agile methods and enjoy working openly, collaboratively and as part of a multidisciplinary team focused on one or more services. Above all, you’ll want to make the government better, which may sometimes involve challenging the status quo.

To learn more about what developers do in government please review the DDaT Capability Framework

You will have the autonomy to scope work and find a route to solutions, whilst enabling those around you to do the same. You will be given the space to hone a mastery and grow in the role, whilst sharing your existing experience with the engineering community. All whilst doing work that improves government services for millions of users across vital services.

Person specification

We’re interested in people who have:

experience in relevant native mobile application development, with detailed knowledge of the Swift or Kotlin ecosystem, and familiarity with SwiftUI or Jetpack compose

experience prototyping and building with with Apple Human Interface or Material Design Guidelines

familiarity with modern software development approaches such as automated testing, test-driven development (TDD), continuous integration, pair programming, code review and version control

experience working in a collaborative environment, and an understanding of the benefits of agile and multi-disciplinary approaches

In addition to the above Senior iOS/Android Developers will also have:

experience supporting others in applying modern development standards

experience in management, helping colleagues with their career development and coaching more junior staff members

Benefits

There are many benefits of working at GDS, including:

flexible hybrid working with flexi-time and the option to work part-time or condensed hours

a Civil Service Pension with an average employer contribution of 28.97%

25 days of annual leave, increasing by a day each year up to a maximum of 30 days

an extra day off for the King’s birthday

an in-year bonus scheme to recognise high performance

career progression and coaching, including a training budget for personal development

a focus on wellbeing with access to an employee assistance programme

job satisfaction from making government services easier to use and more inclusive for people across the UK

advances on pay, including for travel season tickets

death in service benefits

cycle to work scheme and facilities

access to an employee discounts scheme

10 learning days per year

volunteering opportunities (5 special leave days per year)

access to a suite of learning activities through Civil Service learning

Any move to Government Digital Service 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

Office attendance

The Department operates a discretionary hybrid working policy, which provides for a combination of working hours from your place of work and from your home in the UK. The current expectation for staff is to attend the office or non-home based location for 40-60% of the time over the accounting period.

DSIT does not normally offer full home working (i.e. working at home); but we do offer a variety of flexible working options (including occasionally working from home).

Things you need to know

Artificial intelligence

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.

Selection process details

Please note that there are 12 roles available in total. Of these, six roles are based in London and six are based across our national locations.

The standard selection process for roles at GDS consists of:

a simple application screening process - We only ask for a CV and cover letter of up to 750 words. Important tip - please ensure that your cover letter includes how you meet the skills and experience listed in the “person specification” section above

a 30 minute telephone interview (conducted via Google Meet)

a 60 minute pair programming technical exercise - you'll work with a GDS engineer to solve a self-contained programming problem given to you in writing. You'll be asked to discuss the problem with the GDS engineer, devise a plan for solving it, and then to write code to solve the problem. As well as your programming and unit testing skills we'll be evaluating how you communicate and collaborate, and how you break down the problem. You'll use your own development environment for this (conducted over google-meet video conferencing)

a 75 mins google-meet interview (conducted over video conferencing)

Depending on how many applications we get, there might also be an extra stage before the video interview, for example a phone interview or a technical exercise.

In the event we receive a high volume of applications, we will conduct the initial sift against the lead criteria which is:

experience in relevant native mobile application development, with detailed knowledge of the Swift or Kotlin ecosystem, and familiarity with SwiftUI or Jetpack compose

In the Civil Service, we use Success Profiles to evaluate your skills and ability. This gives us the best possible chance of finding the right person for the job, increases performance and improves diversity and inclusivity. We’ll be assessing your technical abilities, skills, experience and behaviours that are relevant to this role.

For this role we’ll be assessing you against the following Civil Service Behaviours:

working together

changing and improving

making effective decisions

We’ll also be assessing your experience and specialist technical skills against the following skills defined in the Government Digital and Data Capability Framework for the Senior Developer role:

programming and build (software engineering)

modern standards approach

development process optimisation

information security

availability and capacity management

service support

Want to know more about who Government Digital and Data are? Click Here

Recruitment Timeline

Sift completion: week commencing Monday 27th July 2026

Phone screens: starting week commencing Monday 3rd August 2026

Paired programming exercise: starting week commencing Monday 24th August 2026

Panel interviews: starting week commencing Monday 7th September 2026

Candidates that do not pass the interview but have demonstrated an acceptable standard may be considered for similar roles at a lower grade.

A reserve list will be held for a period of 12 months, from which further appointments can be made.

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 and the Civil Service D&I Strategy.

Please note that this role requires SC clearance, which would normally need 5 years’ UK residency in the past 5 years. This is not an absolute requirement, but supplementary checks may be needed where individuals have not lived in the UK for that period. This may mean your security clearance (and therefore your appointment) will take longer or, in some cases, not be possible.

For meaningful checks to be carried out, you will need to have lived in the UK for a sufficient period of time, to enable appropriate checks to be carried out and produce a result which provides the required level of assurance. Whilst a lack of UK residency in itself is not necessarily a bar to a security clearance, and expectation of UK residency may range from 3 to 5 years. Failure to meet the residency requirements needed for the role may result in the withdrawal of provisional jobs offers.

Sponsorship

DSIT cannot offer Visa sponsorship to candidates through this campaign. DSIT holds a Visa sponsorship licence but this can only be used for certain roles and this campaign does not qualify.

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 .

See our vetting charter .

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)

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

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code 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 .

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 and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy .

Apply and further information

This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans initiative.

The Civil Service welcomes applications from people who have recently left prison or have an unspent conviction. about prison leaver recruitment (opens in new window).

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 : gdsrecruitment@dsit.gov.uk

Email : gdsrecruitment@dsit.gov.uk

Recruitment team

Email : gdsrecruitment@dsit.gov.uk

Further information

If you feel your application has not been treated in accordance with the Recruitment Principles and you wish to make a complaint, you should contact gds-complaints@dsit.gov.uk in the first instance.

If you are not satisfied with the response you receive you can contact the Civil Service Commission by email: info@csc.gov.uk Or in writing: Civil Service Commission, Room G/8 1 Horse Guards Road, London, SW1A 2HQ.