Pay up to £80,664, plus 28.97% employer pension contributions, hybrid working, flexible hours, and a strong focus on work-life balance.

Are you a Senior Java Engineer who wants to solve complex problems at true national scale - and see the real-world impact of your work every day?

Join DWP Digital’s Engineering team within Digital Payments Services, where you’ll help design, build and run highly resilient, high-volume payment systems which support 22 million citizens and process over £230bn every year. These services sit at the heart of the UK’s welfare system and are critical to making sure people are paid the right amount, at the right time, into the right bank account.

This is a senior role with real influence. You’ll lead by example within multidisciplinary agile teams, shaping technical direction, embedding great engineering practices, and mentoring other engineers. Alongside hands-on Java development, you’ll focus on building services that are secure, scalable and operationally excellent - improving outcomes for millions of users while contributing to one of the largest digital transformations in Europe

The scale of what we do is extraordinary, and our purpose is unique. We’d love you to join us.

What skills, knowledge and experience will you need?

• Strong, hands-on experience designing and building modern software using Java, following established design principles and patterns at scale
• Practical experience using Test-Driven Development (TDD) and Behaviour-Driven Development (BDD) to create well-tested, reliable software
• Experience building and consuming RESTful APIs and working within microservice architectures
• Confidence working in cloud environments such as AWS or Azure, including deploying and running production services
• Experience working with both SQL and NoSQL databases (for example Postgres, MySQL or MongoDB)
• Ability to build and maintain robust automated test suites that support continuous integration and deployment
• Experience leading or mentoring engineers within multidisciplinary agile teams, setting standards, supporting delivery, and creating an inclusive, collaborative team culture

You and your role

As a Senior Java Software Engineer in Digital Payments Services, you’ll design, build and operate software that underpins some of the most critical payment systems in the UK. These services must be highly available, secure and resilient - because millions of people rely on them every day.

You’ll work within agile, multidisciplinary teams, working closely with product managers, delivery colleagues, testers and architects to deliver high-quality digital services. You’ll not only write and review code, but also influence how services are designed, built, tested and supported in live operation.

You’ll take ownership of the stability and resilience of the systems you work on, using monitoring, alerting and continuous improvement to ensure services perform reliably at scale.

This is also a leadership role. You’ll coach and mentor other engineers, promote modern engineering practices, and help shape technical direction both within your team and across the wider engineering community. You’ll be someone who values collaboration over hierarchy, enjoys solving complex problems, and cares deeply about building technology that genuinely makes a difference.

If you’re motivated by large-scale engineering challenges, want to work with modern Java and cloud technologies, and are excited by the opportunity to improve essential public services, this is the role for you.

Details. Wages. Perks.

Location: You’ll join us in our brilliant digital hub in Newcastle upon Tyne

Hybrid Working: We work a hybrid model - you’ll spend some time working at home and some time collaborating face to face in a hub.

Pay: We offer pay up to £80,664. That’s £68,205 salary plus a Digital Allowance of up to £12,459 subject to our assessment of your capability at interview

Pension: You’ll get a brilliant civil service pension with employer contributions worth 28.97%

Holidays: A generous leave package starting at 26 days rising to 31 days over time.

You can also take up to 3 extra days off a month on flexi-time. You’ll also get all the usual public holidays.

We have a broad benefits package built around your work-life balance which includes:

• Flexible working including flexible hours and flex-friendly policies
• Time off volunteering and charitable giving
• Bring your authentic self to work with ‘I Can Be Me in DWP’
• Discounts and savings on shopping, fun days out and more
• Interest-free loans to buy a bike or a season ticket, so it’s even easier for you to get to work and start making a difference
• Sports and social activities
• Professional development, coaching, mentoring and career progression opportunities.

And we have an award-winning environment and culture:

• DWP have been recognised as 2024 Diversity Employer of the Year at the Computing Women in Tech Excellence awards
• Diverse and Inclusive Leadership at Digital Leaders Awards 2024
• Commended as Best Place to Work in Digital category in the Computing Digital Technology Leaders awards 2025
• Recognised as one of the Best Public Sector Employers at 2025 Women In Tech Employer Awards

Process:

We know your time is valuable so our application and selection process is just two stages:

Apply: complete your application on Civil Service Jobs. There’ll be full instructions when you click through.

Coding test: completed remotely

Interview: a face to face assessment centre.

CLICK APPLYfor more information and to start your application.