Software Engineer

DSIT • Full-time • Swansea, Swansea, Wales, United Kingdom • from £39.16k / year • 6d ago

Job summary

Are you an experienced Software Engineer who has a genuine ambition and aim to succeed?

Would you like to work with leading serverless, and cloud based technologies?

If so, we’d love to hear from you!

We are recruiting software developers, to work with us and help us build services that reach over 53 million people a year. In this role, you’ll work in an agile delivery team alongside lead and senior engineers to build modern, cloud-based services.

Joining our department comes with many benefits, including:

Employer pension contribution of 28.97% of your salary. Read more about Civil Service Pensions here
25 days annual leave, increasing by 1 day each year of service (up to a maximum of 30 days annual leave), plus 8 bank holidays and a privilege day for the King’s birthday
Flexible working options where we encourage a great work-life balance.

Read more in the Benefits section below!

Find out more about what it's like working at Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency - Department for Transport Careers.

Job description

The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) deliver wide reaching digital services to the UK public and industry. We maintain the national record of vehicles and drivers so if you have applied for a driving licence, taxed your vehicle or completed a vehicle enquiry you would have used one of our services.

Within and between our teams, we have a friendly and stable engineering community. Keeping work/life enjoyable is key to us, and we strive to ensure the efficient and secure use of software and infrastructure.

Our current deliveries include:

Two major programmes of work, modernising our drivers and vehicles services and systems.
Entirely new services including a new customer portal, mobile digital driving licence and identity platform.
The DVLA digital payment service that helps us collect around 6 billion pounds a year.

New versions of key driving licence services that will help us to reduce paper forms, reduce waiting times and to enable all of our customers to transact digitally.

If you are successful, you will be part of the new electronic Vehicle Excise Duty programme which is a new legislative, digital service being delivered by DVLA to modernise how Vehicle Excise Duty is administered and delivered digitally. This is an exciting time to join us!

As part of our core business services, you will work with Java and SpringBoot alongside tools like OpenAPI. No specific Java experience is needed. All you need is a passion for building clean, maintainable, and secure applications using an object-oriented language.

If you’re working on the front-end, you’ll be developing applications and reusable components using a combination of Ruby on Rails and React. You will also have the opportunity to build and develop our external and internal UIs, so this is an exciting opportunity to deliver far reaching, intuitive and accessible front-end systems.

We also make extensive use of serverless Node.js and TypeScript using AWS services such as Lambda, Step Functions and Dynamodb to build services using event-driven architecture patterns.

DVLA have been using AI coding assistants for over two years and actively encourage and support the appropriate use of AI coding tools. We have an AI coding group and are working together to understand how to use AI coding assistants responsibly to build better digital services.

As part of our ongoing mission to support and develop all staff within the DVLA, you will be given a high spec Macbook and we will help you to achieve certification in areas such as AWS and Java, as well as giving you the freedom and support necessary to perform in your role and continuously develop your skill set.

Your responsibilities will include, but aren’t limited to:

Developing Software to meet user needs.
Following Best Practice Guidelines and help to improve those Guidelines.
Writing clean, secure and well-tested code.
Coaching and mentoring more junior colleagues.
Operating the services they build and identify issues in production.

Great line management is important to us as an organisation, and we will equip and support line managers to develop the skills they need. We aim to empower line managers to create teams where people can flourish and deliver excellent outcomes for the public.

For further information on the role, please read the attached role profile. Please note that the role profile is for information purposes only - whilst all elements are relevant to the role, they may not all be assessed during the recruitment process. This job advert will detail exactly what will be assessed during the recruitment process.

Would you like to find out more about the role, the team and what it’s like to work in our department? If so, we are organising an open session where you can virtually 'meet the team' on 22nd July 2026 at 12:00pm. Sign up here.

Person specification

Required experience:

You will be experienced working as a software engineer across multiple projects, developing software using a variety of technologies and tools.
You will be able to work with a team to shape and define requirements and have the skills to build, test, and deliver features and services.
You will need an awareness of CI/CD tooling with an understanding of languages such as Java, Ruby, C#, HTML, Python or similar.
You may have experience delivering services using a public cloud provider such as AWS, Azure or Google Cloud, or a motivation to develop these skills.

Additional Information

Working for the DVLA Digital Team

At DVLA, licensing is just the start. Every project you implement, touch and deliver has a ripple effect that’ll wash across the nation. Here the work you’re doing has the capacity to change the way 53 million people interact with our services. As we aim to keep our roads some of the safest in the world, our innovative, transformative digital-led services help optimise a nation of individuals and business every single day.

To see how our people are transforming our digital services, head over to our DVLA Digital Services Blog and, to understand more about the great opportunities and benefits of working at DVLA read our Inside DVLA blog.

Our Principal Engineer covers some hot topics across our Software Development areas which you can find here, "DVLA Software Developer: Behind the Screens". To read about the DVLA’s engineering site please click here.

Working hours, office attendance and travel requirements

Full time roles consist of 37 hours per week.

This role is suitable for hybrid working, which is a non-contractual arrangement where a combination of workplace and home-based working can be accommodated subject to business requirements.

The expectation at present is a minimum of 60% of your working time a month will be spent at either your designated workplace (one of the locations cited in the advert) or, when required for business reasons, in another office/work location. There may be occasions where you are required to attend above the minimum expectation.

If you have a question about hybrid working, part time/job share hours, flexible working, travelling for work, or require a reasonable adjustment, please contact the Vacancy Holder during the recruitment process to avoid possible disappointment later in the process should your working arrangements not be compatible with the requirements of the role (see below for contact details).

Sponsorship

Please note that we do not hold a UK Visa & Immigration (UKVI) Skilled Worker Licence sponsor and are unable to sponsor any individuals for Skilled Worker Sponsorship. Candidates must ensure they have the appropriate rights to work in the UK before application.

Security Clearance

Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check. To allow for meaningful checks to be carried out, candidates will be required to have at least 5 years continuous residency in the UK. All applicants for this role must ensure that they meet this minimum residency requirement - if you do not, your application will be withdrawn.