Senior Back End Developer (Python)
Job Description
Department Digital Archiving – Access Team
Reports to Service Owner
Line manages None
Band Band F
Location Kew
Job Purpose
This role is part of the Access Digital Records team in the Digital Archiving department. As part of this
team, you will be working on the Access Your Records service. With the potential to work on other
access services in the future.
Access Your Records (AYR) is an access service for born digital records. AYR will provide government
departments with continued access to their records once they have been transferred to The National
Archives. These records may include sensitive content and will often be subject to access restrictions.
AYR is currently in an Alpha phase, exploring a proposed technical architecture for the service as it
progresses into private Beta.
The Access Digital Records team are committed to improving and developing this service. We are
looking for a Python developer to join our small multi-disciplinary team and grow their skills.
You will work in the open to contribute to the development of new features in response to emerging
user needs and as part of the Digital Archiving technical infrastructure. You will work with other
developers to maintain code bases and support data updates according to best practice.
This role would suit someone who is motivated to make public records accessible, enjoys working in
the open in a multidisciplinary agile team, and is keen to increase the quality of development and
implementation across the team.
Role and Responsibilities
In this role you will:
• Take responsibility for the back-end development of Access Your Records, applying your skills
and judgement to set technical direction, create and review code and maintain the highest
standards
• Use modern language features, libraries, tooling and workflows (Continuous Improvement, Test
Driven Development). Ensuring compliance with GDS Service Manual and Technology Code of
Practice
• Support production systems, taking ownership of issues through to successful resolution so
that the operation and availability of our systems is maintained effectively
• Find ways to improve system robustness, resilience and stability
• Work within a multidisciplinary product team alongside product and delivery managers, user
researchers, interaction designers, front and back-end developers
• Coach and mentor more junior colleagues. Proactively share your coding expertise with other
developers in the team so that we can build our capability in these technologies
• Understand the whole system and take responsibility for teaching this to others
• Engage actively with Agile working practices and maintain high levels of motivation and
performance
• Liaise with key stakeholders, building relationships, acting as a strong advocate for TNA’s digital
services and ensuring that the needs of the users and the business are met effectively
• Be an active part of the wider external development community, identifying good practices we
can adopt, sharing our experiences and promoting the adoption of beneficial standards and
practices
Working Conditions
Normal office environment
Display Screen Equipment user
Person Specification
Essential:
Good working knowledge of HTML, CSS, JavaScript.
Excellent experience of back-end development in Python / Django and REST frameworks.
Modern development approaches including Agile and Test-Driven development; source
control tools such as Git
Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, with the ability to explain complex
technical issues and concepts to non-specialists and to provide advice and guidance based
on experience and sound judgement. Work collaboratively in the open and proactively share
knowledge.
Experience of mentoring, coaching and supporting junior developers with their career
development
Excellent ability to analyse and problem solve, understand new concepts and quickly
assimilate the details of complex systems.
Experience of User Centred Design with the ability to take ideas from concept through to
completion to create services which meet user needs in a way that is clear for all audiences.
Desirable:
Data technologies and standards such as JSON, SQL, XSLT, XML Schema with a strong
understanding of data structures including document, graph and relational models.
Experience of delivering digital services in accordance with GDS Service Manual and
Technology Code of Practice
Experience of developing applications hosted on Amazon Web Services
DevOps skills including experience of configuring CI/CD pipelines
Experience of application containerisation and container orchestration tools
Knowledge of implementing APIs
Good understanding of version control with Git and GitHub
Other Requirements
Although TNA normally operate a hybrid working arrangement we are open to the possibility of
home based working for this particular role.
We are committed to continually improving the diversity of our workforce and therefore encourage applications
from people of colour, the LGBTQI+ community, the trans community, those who are neuro diverse, and those
with a disability.
