Lead Developer (Java)

About The Job Job summary Discover a career in your hands at HMRC. Whether you’re seeking purpose, growth, or a workplace that gives you a true sense of belonging, hear from some of our employees as they share their story about what it’s really like to work at HMRC.

Visit our YouTube channel to watch the full series and come and discover your potential.

At HMRC we are committed to creating a great place to work for all our colleagues; an inclusive and respectful environment that reflects the diversity of the society we serve.

We want to maximise the potential of everyone who chooses to work for us and we offer a range of flexible working patterns and support to make a fulfilling career at HMRC accessible to you.

Diverse perspectives and experiences are critical to our success and we welcome applications from all people from all backgrounds with the experience and skills needed to perform this role.

At HMRC, we are already one of the most digital organisations in the UK. We have one of the largest data sources, and we’re creating a world-class IT function. HMRC is building a modern, digital tax administration.

With 50 million customers to serve, over 60 thousand colleagues to support, and £600 billion to collect to fund UK Plc, our IT operation is huge. Operating at this level isn’t for everyone, but those ready for the challenge will find unique opportunities to work with advanced technologies and create lasting impact.

Chief Digital and Information Office (CDIO) set the technology direction for HMRC and deliver the high-level design for all IT solutions.

We are responsible for building and running HMRC IT services along with providing IT change and operational support.

The Borders and Trade Delivery Group are responsible for the end to end service management and development of over 140 separate services, from the generation of Trade Statistics, to the administration of Customs and Excise duties.

This is an exciting role as a key member of the delivery team, collaborating with partners throughout the full delivery lifecycle to ensure delivery and support of highest-quality software products.

Our developers work closely with business analysts, testers and product owners within a truly collaborative environment.

Job Description As Lead Developer in HMRC, you will be responsible for setting technical strategy and direction, ensuring the delivery of high-quality, scalable, and secure services.

You will guide and support fast paced engineering teams across the full service lifecycle, providing expert judgement on complex technical issues and acting as the escalation point for high-risk challenges.

More broadly, your leadership within the Development Guild will shape engineering standards, development processes, and solution design, ensuring all work meets rigorous quality and security benchmarks while aligning with business needs.

You will contribute to the developer community, providing technical leadership, coaching and mentoring the guild, promoting knowledge sharing and adoption of good practice.

You will guide the ways in which the team works and be proficient in a wide range of technical systems and involved in identifying appropriate technology and approaches, deciding when software should be written.

You will lead delivery of high quality software that meets user needs, and be responsible for overseeing the development of clean, secure code following a test-driven approach.

Person specification This role will suit an experienced technical leader who is proactive and self-driven, able to anticipate risks and opportunities, take ownership of outcomes, and drive progress while maintaining high standards for quality, security and operational performance.

• Proactive and self-driven: spots issues early, initiates improvements, and follows through without needing close supervision.
• Strategic thinker with strong technical judgement: able to balance delivery speed, risk, cost and long-term maintainability.
• Leads through influence: sets clear engineering standards, builds alignment, and makes decisions transparently using appropriate governance.
• Coaching mindset: mentors engineers, grows capability across teams, and promotes knowledge sharing and consistent ways of working.
• Quality and security focused: advocates for clean code, test-driven development, secure-by-design principles an…