Front End Developer

On behalf of DWP, we are looking for a Front End/UI Developer for a 12 month (Inside IR35) contract based Hybrid in Birmingham, Leeds, Manchester or Newcastle.

We are looking for a highly skilled Frontend Developer to join our team and take a leading role in building greenfield applications from scratch. You'll help shape our technical approach, set best practices and deliver high-quality, scalable web solutions in a test-and-learn environment. You will have the opportunity to dramatically transform the future of millions of people by creating better digital services for the UK Government.

This role is suitable for someone with strong technical depth in Next.js and TypeScript, with a high focus on automated testing who's comfortable working in a fast paced, continuous deployment environment.

As a Frontend Developer, your main responsibilities will be to:
. Design and develop Front End applications using Next.js and TypeScript.
. Drive test automation with Playwright, ensuring high-quality automated releases to production (GitLab).
. Build accessible and performant user experiences, adhering to WCAG and accessibility standards. Perform cross-browser testing and ensure seamless multi-device experiences.
. Rapidly create proof-of-concepts to validate new ideas in a test-and-learn culture.
. Collaborate on end-to-end features, working closely with Back End services (Spring Boot, Java).
. Develop and integrate with WebSockets and asynchronous messaging (for chat/instant messaging).
. Coach and mentor colleagues, sharing Front End expertise, best practices and supporting agile delivery.
. Containerise applications with Docker and support deployment on Kubernetes.
. Implement cookieless analytics for A/B testing and behavioural insights, while ensuring Front End security (XSS, CSRF, CSP), data privacy and error logging (eg Sentry).

Essential:
. Proven experience in Front End development, with Next.js and TypeScript.
. Expert knowledge in HTML5, CSS and Sass.
. Strong background in unit/integration test automation.
. Comfortable with greenfield projects and setting up new codebases from scratch.
. Solid understanding of web accessibility standards and best practises.
. Passionate about working in an agile, test-and-learn environment.
. Detect and debug issues: client-side logging, catching Front End errors (Sentry, or similar).
. Background in performance optimisation and large-scale applications. Core Web Vitals, load times, performance audits, caching strategies, image optimisation.

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, DWP 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 Commitment

DWP 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".