Backend Developer

SC Clearance is an essential requirement for this role, as a minimum you must be willing & eligible to undergo checks. Please note, due to the exceptional requirements of this position (short-term nature of this role and speed at which we require a postholder in situ) preference may be given to candidates who meet all of the essential criteria and hold active SV clearance.

On behalf of The Ministry of Justice, we are looking for a Backend Developer Inside IR35for a 6 month contract based Hybrid London

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) priorities include improving public safety and reducing reoffending by reforming prisons, probation and youth justice, and building a justice system which makes access to justice swifter and more certain for all citizens whatever their background. Project professionals in the MoJ help to improve the government's ability to protect the public and reduce reoffending, and to provide a more effective, transparent and responsive criminal justice system for victims and the public.

As a Backend Engineer, your main responsibilities will be:

Essential:

. Proven experience in Back End development, ideally within a microservices architecture.
. Strong knowledge of AWS infrastructure, including deployment, hosting, and service management.
. Skilled in building and deploying microservices for data ingestion and processing workflows.
. Experience handling CSV data ingestion from external systems (eg Police data feeds).
. Ability to design and implement APIs for secure data exchange between systems.
. Familiarity with modern Java or Kotlin for Back End development.
. Experience hosting and executing algorithms or data science models within Back End services.
. Understanding of secure data handling and compliance requirements, especially for sensitive or justice-related data.
. Experience with CI/CD pipelines and automated deployment in AWS environments.
. Knowledge of cloud-based monitoring, logging, and scaling tools (eg CloudWatch, ECS, Lambda).
. Familiarity with data science or machine learning integration in production systems (desirable).
. Comfortable working in environments with cross-team dependencies and evolving requirements.
. Strong problem-solving and analytical skills with attention to reliability and performance.
. Able to work independently to meet delivery timelines and project milestones.
. Collaborative and communicative approach, able to work effectively with data scientists, analysts, and operational teams.
. Commitment to creating a reusable, scalable solution that can serve as a blueprint for future projects across Probation.

Please be aware that this role can only be worked within the UK and not Overseas.

Disability Confident

As a member of the Disability Confident Scheme, MOJ guarantees to interview all candidates who have a disability and who meet all the essential criteria for the vacancy. In cases where we have a high volume of candidates who have a disability who meet all the essential criteria, we will interview the best candidates from within that group. This scheme encourages candidates with a disability and/or neurodivergence to apply. In exceptional circumstances, we may also need to apply the desirable criteria in our shortlisting process which may include holding active security clearance.

Armed Forces Covenant

The Ministry of Justice guarantees to interview veterans or spouses/partners of military personnel who meet all the essential criteria for the vacancy. In cases where we have a high volume of ex-military candidates/military spouses or partners, who meet all of the essential criteria, we will interview the best candidates from within that group. In exceptional circumstances, we may also need to apply the desirable criteria in our shortlisting process which may include holding active security clearance.

In applying for this role, you acknowledge the following "this role falls in scope of the Off Payroll Working in the Public Sector legislation. Any rates of payment quoted will reflect the gross rate per day for the assignment and will be subject to appropriate taxes and statutory costs. As such the payment to the intermediary and your income resulting from this contract will be different".