UK Hydrographic Office Hiring for Apprentice Software Developer Job at Taunton, England Full Time

As an Apprentice Software Developer, you will work in our Agile/Scrum development environment. You’ll ensure delivery of our ambitious transformation programme, including working on projects that modernise our customer applications and deliver to them real time critical maritime and chart data.

You will be gaining expertise in the latest technologies, such as C#, .net, Angular, Web API, SQL, and Cloud with Azure and have the opportunity to apply this learning to different projects within the UKHO.

Your Apprenticeship will be delivered by Makers Academy. An initial concentrated period of full-time training with them will help you establish core software development skills to be able to make an immediate impact when you join one of our development teams.

To learn a bit more about the work of UKHO please click here and to learn a bit more about the types of jobs we have, how and where we work please click here

This role is a fantastic opportunity to kick start your career in Software Development with a business working with Agile. We have a successful track record of supporting Apprentices to develop their skills and grow their careers both with us with other employers. We look forward to receiving your application. To hear from some of our past Apprentices please click here to view a short video

You will develop a wide range of skills across the software development field:

• Work with product owners to build and develop UKHO products and services
• Code and configure solutions utilising standard tooling such as Github & Azure DevOps
• Deliver high quality products through techniques such as test-driven development, pair programming, and code review.
• Contribute to the ongoing improvement of your Scrum Team through the Agile Retrospectives.

As well as focusing on technical skills, the role will also include

• The understanding and application of good agile principles within a scrum team (This includes collectively working, presenting ideas and suggestions, challenging assumptions and looking as to how to improve current behaviours and processes)
• Ability to communicate at both a technical and non-technical level.

Initially you will work under close supervision of a members of your team, including a technical mentor, but it is expected that within 9-12 months you will be contributing the teams delivery. As your skill and experience increases via a planned development program, you will take on increased responsibility and ownership of tasks.

Responsibilities

A selection of the duties of the role are listed below:

As an apprentice Software Developer you will be paired with engineering colleagues to learn on the job whilst designing, running and improving software components. You can expect to benefit from training, coaching and mentoring to help you develop in this role. You will be learning to work to our technical standards writing clean and secure code. Alongside this you will be mentored to help develop a rounded set of skills and supporting knowledge:

• Working in a test driven manner; testing, correcting and documenting simple programs or scripts.
• Building your knowledge of different systems and software implementation.
• Providing crucial service support to users with difficulties or issues.

Apprenticeship

You will be enrolled (subject to acceptance on the course) on the Level 4 Software Development Apprenticeship.

At the start of your apprenticeship, you will have 3 months of concentrated development time with the Apprenticeship provider, Makers Academy. On completion of this period, you will join one of our development teams.

You will spend 20% of your week on learning related to your apprenticeship, the rest of the time you will be a core member of one of our delivery teams, working alongside other software engineers and testers solving problems and delivering new products and services for our customers.

Your team will be approx. 8 people, a delivery manager and then 5 or so developers and one or two test automation engineers. We work in a collaborative way so you will always have somebody to ask for help, suggest ways of tackling a problem.

Our apprentices are actively encouraged to put forward views, ideas, ways of doing things, from the day you join us.

We have a great track record of developing people, you will have a mentor to fully support your learning, access to a range of learning platforms including Pluralsight, as well as off and on the job training. Apprentices are the senior and lead test engineers of the future and we will fully support you on that journey with us.

Things you need to know

• This role is open to full time or part time. The UKHO will consider flexible working or workplace adjustments, where appropriate. As a full time apprenticeship, you are required to be able to work 29.6 hours per week. The first 12 weeks in February 2021 will be a full-time requirement to attend the Bootcamp (Remotely)
• Security – successful candidates must pass a disclosure and barring security check.
• This position is Fixed Term position non-reserved post which is open to full time and part-time candidates. The role will be contractually based at our Head Office in Taunton. We are working remotely at present but envisage a hybrid working model post pandemic whereby you will be able to balance your work location between working remotely and in the office. You must be able to travel to the office as and when required. The apprenticeship course has been delivered virtually during the pandemic; it is understood that this is likely to continue for 2022 but you must be willing to attend College if required.

Pay

Further information can be found in the attached Document “Additional Pay Information”.

Security Clearance

This is a Ministry of Defence non-reserved post and although open to UK, British Commonwealth and European Economic Area nationals, successful applicants will require a security clearance (SC) and therefore need to have resided in the UK for a minimum of 12 consecutive months within the last 5 years.

Nationality Statement

Candidates will be subject to UK immigration requirements as well as Civil Service nationality rules. If you’re applying for a role requiring security clearance, please be aware that foreign or dual nationality is not an automatic bar. However certain posts may have restrictions which could affect those who do not have sole British nationality or who have personal connections with certain countries outside the UK.

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

• Communicating and Influencing
• Working Together
• Developing Self and Others

We operate from a brand new state of the art, award-winning building with an onsite gym, cafeteria, and state of the art meeting rooms; a Chaplaincy service; and an Employee Assistance Programme. We have several internal networks available for you to join, including: Mental Health Group, STEM Ambassadors, Woman’s Network, Pride Network and Disabilities group. Travelling to UKHO onsite parking, electric car charging ports, and cycle-to-work scheme are available.

Full-time employees receive 26.5 days annual leave per year, increasing to 31.5 days annual leave after five years’ service (pro-rata for part-time employees).

We offer many flexible working options. These include: a flexible working hours scheme with up to two days per month Flexi leave, remote working, part-time working, job sharing, paid special leave, career breaks, and unpaid leave. We want you to feel part of something bigger and we encourage team-spirit and a community feel in our workplace.

Parents with children will be supported to enable you to manage work and family responsibilities. We offer an on-site independently run nursery with discounted prices for children of UKHO employees.

Any voluntary move to UKHO, from another employer will mean you can no longer access childcare vouchers. This includes moves between government departments. However, you may be eligible for other government schemes including Tax Free Childcare. You can determine your eligibility at https://childcarechoices.gov.uk

With regards to maternity, adoption, and/or shared parental leave the flexibility to have up to 26 weeks full pay, followed by 13 weeks statutory pay and a further 13 weeks unpaid leave. Paternity leave of up to two weeks is available with full pay, subject to certain qualifying criteria.

We offer at least 5 days’ learning and development to each employee per year, with professional membership subscriptions, mentoring, and Civil Service-Learning available to all.