Principal Developer
| Posting date: | 29 January 2026 |
|---|---|
| Salary: | £76,117 per year |
| Additional salary information: | National: £76,117 London: £80,237 You may be eligible for an additional non-pensionable allowance, pending a Capability and Skills Assessment, with a value of up to £19,483. |
| Hours: | Full time |
| Closing date: | 10 February 2026 |
| Location: | Croydon |
| Company: | Government Recruitment Service |
| Job type: | Permanent |
| Job reference: | 445817/1 |
Summary
Our work spans Home Office mission-critical operations, such as enhancing Counter-Terrorism capabilities, transforming Border Security and immigration processes, to revolutionising asylum case management and enhancing Counter-Terrorism capabilities. Imagine developing technology that helps reunite families, creates safer communities, protects vulnerable people, and ensures smoother journeys for the millions travelling to and from the UK.
Where business needs allow some roles may be suitable for a combination of office and home-based working. Where this is the case, employees will be expected to spend a minimum of 60% of their working time in the office.
Watch this short video to hear from members of Home Office Digital talking about the projects they work on and their experience of working here: Working for Home Office Digital.
The Principal Developer works on challenging technical problems, which require broad thinking while remaining hands-on developing software. You will be expected to actively deliver but will have more of a focus on ensuring delivery quality and overall service value. You will be working on large scale problems on critical services setting strategy and standards for the wider team to follow
You will be working on the National Communications Data Service (NCDS) a critical capability within UK law enforcement, providing secure, reliable, and scalable services for the acquisition and analysis of communications data to support investigations and protect the public. Operating at the heart of national security and policing, NCDS ensures compliance with legal frameworks while delivering innovative technology solutions that enable rapid, accurate, and ethical data handling.
You may be called upon to take part in planning with senior stakeholders to make sure that technical designs match strategy. In this you will be expected to help ensure that all engineers, architects and other professions are working together. You will also identify, test and advocate for new tools or approaches.
You will support the assurance of our solutions and help resolve any discrepancy between approach and organisational strategy.
As a Principal Developer, you will be expected to mentor other senior engineers in technical tasks, as well as support recruitment and assessment activities.
You will be expected to understand and use the latest AWS technology as well as applying Secure by Design Principals.
We are currently looking for 2 roles. One is working in the Homeland Security Group and the other is within Policing.
Tools and Technologies we use:
We are keen for Engineers to continue learning new technologies, we have a large range in the Home Office but would especially welcome applications from candidates with experience in the below:
Role 1:
- Java (Current Versions), Spring, Spring Boot, Gradle, JavaScript
- Languages and Frameworks: React, Vue, Node.js
- Other Languages used across the service include: Python, PHP, Drupal, Databases, PostgreSQL and/or MySQL, AWS, Docker, Kubernetes, Jenkins, Terraform
Role 2:
- Databases: Oracle RDBMS Enterprise Edition 11gR1, Oracle WebLogic 11gR1
- Java (Java v8), Oracle PL/SQL, JavaScript
- Elastic
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