Senior Software Developer/Ruby Specialist - CO - G7

Full-time (Permanent) National - Minimum £57,204 - Maximum £63,953 London - Minimum £62,988 - Maximum £68,558

Location

Bristol, London, Manchester

About the job

Job summary

The Senior Software Developer / Ruby Specialist role is pivotal to the future success of Gov Wi-Fi, the UK's government-wide Wi-Fi authentication service.

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.

Person specification

Technical Skills:

• Expert in Ruby development and Rails framework.
• Proficiency in AWS and modern CI/CD pipelines.
• Experience configuring automation for security (certificates, updates).
• Knowledge of infrastructure-as-code and cloud monitoring.
• Familiarity with incident response and resilience strategies.

Behaviours:

• Leadership with mentoring ability.
• Collaborative mindset across multidisciplinary teams.
• Agile and continuous delivery focus.
• Innovative problem-solving approach.
• Customer focus and stakeholder engagement.

Other:

• Ability and willingness to adapt and learn.
• Commitment to Gov Wi-Fi mission and public sector values.

Additional information:

A minimum 60% of your working time should be spent at your principal workplace. Although requirements to attend other locations for official business will also count towards this level of attendance.

Qualifications

• Ruby and Ruby on Rails
• AWS

Behaviours

We\'ll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Delivering at Pace
• Developing Self and Others
• Leadership
• Making Effective Decisions
• Seeing the Big Picture

We only ask for evidence of these behaviours on your application form:

• Delivering at Pace
• Developing Self and Others
• Leadership

Technical skills

We\'ll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:

• Expertise in Ruby and Ruby on Rails
• Certificate Management
• Integration with Third-Party APIs and Tools
• Emerging Technologies & AI Proof-of-Concepts
• AWS Cloud: Deployment using IaC with Terraform.

We only ask for evidence of these technical skills on your application form: