Senior Software Developer/ Ruby Specialist
| Posting date: | 04 September 2025 |
|---|---|
| Salary: | £57,204 to £68,558 per year |
| Additional salary information: | National - Minimum £57,204 - Maximum £63,953 London - Minimum £62,988 - Maximum £68,558 Offers above the Band minimum are subject to our assessment of your skills and experience as demonstrated at interview. Salaries over the Band minimum will be paid as a non-pensionable allowance. |
| Hours: | Full time |
| Closing date: | 16 September 2025 |
| Location: | Manchester |
| Company: | Government Recruitment Service |
| Job type: | Permanent |
| Job reference: | 425393/3 |
Summary
As a highly skilled Ruby developer and technical lead, you will drive continuous improvement of Gov Wi-fi’s platform, ensuring a secure, scalable, and reliable service that meets SLA targets for millions of authentications monthly.
You will collaborate closely with SREs to maintain 100% uptime and operational resilience, lead automation efforts in certificate management, and innovate solutions for large-scale onboarding challenges, including major public sector organisations like the NHS.
In this role, you will mentor junior developers and foster a culture of agile delivery, quality code, and user-centric design. Ideal candidates have deep Ruby and Rails expertise, experience with AWS cloud deployment, CI/CD, and a proven track record in digital service resilience and security.
If you’re passionate about improving public services through technology and thrive in collaborative, fast-paced environments, this role offers a unique opportunity to shape the future of secure government Wi-Fi.
As the Senior Software Developer and Ruby Specialist on the Gov Wi-Fi team, you will take technical ownership of the mission-critical Ruby-based platform that enables secure Wi-Fi access across the UK public sector. Your day-to-day responsibilities will include:
- Leading the development and delivery of scalable, robust Ruby on Rails applications to support service growth and operational resilience.
- Collaborating closely with Site Reliability Engineers (SREs) and product leadership to maintain 100% service uptime and meet SLAs through proactive incident management and response.
- Designing, implementing, and automating key operational processes such as certificate rotation, deployment pipelines, and system monitoring.
- Serving as the technical escalation point for complex incidents, working to diagnose and resolve issues swiftly to minimise service disruption.
- Architecting and delivering solutions that support onboarding of large and complex clients, including pilot projects to enhance seamless WiFi experiences.
- Driving improvements to disaster recovery capabilities, security remediations, and platform monitoring, ensuring high resilience and compliance with IT health check standards.
- Mentoring and providing hands-on guidance to junior developers and cross-functional colleagues, fostering a culture of collaboration, code quality, and continuous improvement.
- Translating the product vision and strategic goals into clear, actionable technical tasks and sprint deliverables in partnership with the Product Manager.
- Staying abreast of emerging trends and innovations, including AI-based enhancements, to continuously evolve the platform and user experience.
- Supporting broader service modernisation initiatives and transitions involving technology migrations and integrations with key external tools.
- Preparing reports and briefings on technical progress, risks, and incidents for product leadership and central government stakeholders.
This role offers a unique opportunity to combine expert Ruby development skills with leadership responsibilities, influencing the future of a vital digital public service while working in a supportive, agile, and innovative environment.
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