14100 - Judicial Appointments Commission – Technical Lead (Lead Software Engineer)
| Posting date: | 22 January 2026 |
|---|---|
| Salary: | £63,343 to £70,725 per year |
| Hours: | Full time |
| Closing date: | 09 February 2026 |
| Location: | SW1H 9AJ |
| Remote working: | Hybrid - work remotely up to 3 days per week |
| Company: | Ministry of Justice |
| Job type: | Permanent |
| Job reference: | 14100 |
Summary
Judicial Appointments Commission Job Description – Technical Lead (Lead Software Engineer) (G7)
Summary
The Judicial Appointments Commission (JAC) plays a pivotal role in the justice system, identifying candidates for judicial office up to and including the High Court of England and Wales. We receive thousands of applications each year. To manage this volume and support the end-to-end selection process, the JAC has developed an online recruitment platform and continues to enhance its digital services.
We are seeking an experienced Technical Lead (Lead Developer) to take ownership of the technical direction of our digital platform. This role is critical in ensuring the delivery of secure, scalable, and user-focused services. You will lead development activities, mentor developers, and work closely with product and business teams to deliver high-quality solutions that meet organisational objectives.
This role is strategically important to JAC’s digital transformation, ensuring technical governance, secure-by-design principles, and alignment with Government Digital Strategy. It will also reduce reliance on external contractors, improving value for money and resilience.
About the Role
This is a new role, which will shape the technical delivery of the JAC’s digital service in order to ensure we are delivering the best possible service for both operational users and end users - judicial candidates.
As Technical Lead, you will:
• Provide technical leadership and set coding standards for the development team.
• Own the architecture and design of complex systems, ensuring best practices and maintainability.
• Lead on technical decision-making, balancing innovation with stability and security.
• Collaborate with Product Owner, Business Analysts, and wider stakeholders to translate business needs into technical solutions.
• Manage and mentor developers, fostering a culture of continuous improvement and knowledge sharing.
• Oversee code reviews, testing strategies, and deployment processes.
• Ensure compliance with accessibility, security, and performance standards.
• Act as the primary point of contact for technical queries and escalations.
• Provide technical design authority and enforce coding standards, testing strategies, and documentation practices.
• Champion secure engineering and ensure compliance with Secure by Design principles, e.g. through overseeing security rules management, penetration test remediation processes and undertaking threat modelling.
• Maintain a comprehensive library of support documentation (architectural diagrams, system overview, security and compliance, development guidelines, coding standards etc.)
• Lead technical governance, reporting to the Digital Board and contributing to roadmap planning.
About the JAC
The Judicial Appointments Commission (JAC) is an independent public body, established in April 2006, to select judges in the courts and tribunals, and non-legal tribunal members. The JAC selects judicial candidates through fair and open competition, encouraging a wide range of quality candidates to apply for the posts that it advertises.
The JAC is responsible for designing, planning, and running recruitment campaigns to select judicial office holders up to and including High Court judges. We have a statutory duty to select solely on merit, while keeping our selection processes open to the widest range of applicants. We launch a new campaign for judicial posts every one to two weeks. These range from high volume campaigns for ‘entry level’ posts, attracting upward of 2,000 applicants, to small campaigns for senior roles, attracting a handful of highly qualified people.
You can find out more about the JAC on our website.
Main Responsibilities
As a G7 Technical Lead, you will:
• Lead and manage the development team, setting priorities and ensuring delivery against agreed timelines.
• Drive technical modernisation through tasks such as refactoring, dependency management, adopting improved patterns etc, alongside managing technical debt using modern pay-down patterns.
• Deliver and oversee core DevOps practices in particular around Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment.
• Define and maintain technical standards, ensuring high-quality code and robust solutions.
• Drive architectural decisions, including around database design and maintain system integrity across multiple projects.
• Take ownership of coding on some work tickets.
• Manage, mentor, and coach developers, supporting their professional growth.
• Engage with stakeholders to understand requirements and provide technical guidance.
• Ensure compliance with government digital service standards and security best practices.
• Manage relationships with external suppliers and contractors where necessary.
• Contribute to strategic planning for digital services and future technology adoption.
The duties/responsibilities listed above for the post is not intended to be exhaustive. The job holder is expected to accept reasonable alterations and additional tasks of a similar level that may be necessary.
Summary
The Judicial Appointments Commission (JAC) plays a pivotal role in the justice system, identifying candidates for judicial office up to and including the High Court of England and Wales. We receive thousands of applications each year. To manage this volume and support the end-to-end selection process, the JAC has developed an online recruitment platform and continues to enhance its digital services.
We are seeking an experienced Technical Lead (Lead Developer) to take ownership of the technical direction of our digital platform. This role is critical in ensuring the delivery of secure, scalable, and user-focused services. You will lead development activities, mentor developers, and work closely with product and business teams to deliver high-quality solutions that meet organisational objectives.
This role is strategically important to JAC’s digital transformation, ensuring technical governance, secure-by-design principles, and alignment with Government Digital Strategy. It will also reduce reliance on external contractors, improving value for money and resilience.
About the Role
This is a new role, which will shape the technical delivery of the JAC’s digital service in order to ensure we are delivering the best possible service for both operational users and end users - judicial candidates.
As Technical Lead, you will:
• Provide technical leadership and set coding standards for the development team.
• Own the architecture and design of complex systems, ensuring best practices and maintainability.
• Lead on technical decision-making, balancing innovation with stability and security.
• Collaborate with Product Owner, Business Analysts, and wider stakeholders to translate business needs into technical solutions.
• Manage and mentor developers, fostering a culture of continuous improvement and knowledge sharing.
• Oversee code reviews, testing strategies, and deployment processes.
• Ensure compliance with accessibility, security, and performance standards.
• Act as the primary point of contact for technical queries and escalations.
• Provide technical design authority and enforce coding standards, testing strategies, and documentation practices.
• Champion secure engineering and ensure compliance with Secure by Design principles, e.g. through overseeing security rules management, penetration test remediation processes and undertaking threat modelling.
• Maintain a comprehensive library of support documentation (architectural diagrams, system overview, security and compliance, development guidelines, coding standards etc.)
• Lead technical governance, reporting to the Digital Board and contributing to roadmap planning.
About the JAC
The Judicial Appointments Commission (JAC) is an independent public body, established in April 2006, to select judges in the courts and tribunals, and non-legal tribunal members. The JAC selects judicial candidates through fair and open competition, encouraging a wide range of quality candidates to apply for the posts that it advertises.
The JAC is responsible for designing, planning, and running recruitment campaigns to select judicial office holders up to and including High Court judges. We have a statutory duty to select solely on merit, while keeping our selection processes open to the widest range of applicants. We launch a new campaign for judicial posts every one to two weeks. These range from high volume campaigns for ‘entry level’ posts, attracting upward of 2,000 applicants, to small campaigns for senior roles, attracting a handful of highly qualified people.
You can find out more about the JAC on our website.
Main Responsibilities
As a G7 Technical Lead, you will:
• Lead and manage the development team, setting priorities and ensuring delivery against agreed timelines.
• Drive technical modernisation through tasks such as refactoring, dependency management, adopting improved patterns etc, alongside managing technical debt using modern pay-down patterns.
• Deliver and oversee core DevOps practices in particular around Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment.
• Define and maintain technical standards, ensuring high-quality code and robust solutions.
• Drive architectural decisions, including around database design and maintain system integrity across multiple projects.
• Take ownership of coding on some work tickets.
• Manage, mentor, and coach developers, supporting their professional growth.
• Engage with stakeholders to understand requirements and provide technical guidance.
• Ensure compliance with government digital service standards and security best practices.
• Manage relationships with external suppliers and contractors where necessary.
• Contribute to strategic planning for digital services and future technology adoption.
The duties/responsibilities listed above for the post is not intended to be exhaustive. The job holder is expected to accept reasonable alterations and additional tasks of a similar level that may be necessary.