Technical Assessment

Ministry of Justice UK•National City, CA

4d•£71,381 - £85,257•Hybrid

About The Position

HM Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS) is seeking a Forward Deployed Software Engineer for its small, hands-on Courts AI engineering team within the CEO Office. The team builds and ships software to improve the operation of courts for the judiciary, staff, and service users. It works closely with court staff, digital teams, and the judiciary, with direct access to users and a mandate to address real operational problems. The role is hands-on and offers substantial autonomy to explore problems and make progress in an open-ended environment. The engineer will build and ship products across the HMCTS estate, including web services, integrations, data tooling, and, where useful, models and agents. The role includes spending time in courts and with operational teams to understand how work happens and co-design solutions with users. The engineer will lead technical delivery end to end, setting direction for new projects, making architecture and implementation decisions, and remaining responsible for building, deployment, adoption, and ongoing operation. The role also requires evaluating outcomes with evidence and being candid when a solution has not worked. The position is permanent and full-time. It is advertised nationally, with London and national salary ranges depending on base location. Employees are expected to work from an HMCTS office three days per week, and MoJ hybrid arrangements require at least 60% of working time in an office, subject to local capacity. The role requires frequent travel to HMCTS sites in line with business needs and can only be worked in the UK. Appointment is conditional on passing Counter Terrorism Check (CTC) security clearance; the posting says applicants will normally need at least three years' UK residency to meet the requirements.

Requirements

Substantial experience building and running software in production, including ownership of systems on which other people depend.
Breadth across the software stack, with comfort working from infrastructure-as-code through to user-facing interfaces.
Experience integrating with systems outside your control, including older systems.
Ability to work effectively in a complex organisation by negotiating, aligning stakeholders, and delivering without formal authority.
Sound judgement about when AI is useful and when it introduces risk without sufficient value.
Ability to work in an office at least three days per week and travel frequently to HMCTS sites in line with business needs.
Ability to obtain Counter Terrorism Check (CTC) clearance; the posting states applicants will normally need at least three years' UK residency to meet the requirements.

Nice To Haves

Cloud and infrastructure experience, including Azure, Kubernetes/AKS, or Terraform.
Experience deploying LLM-based systems in production, including evaluation and observability tools such as Langfuse or similar.
Experience working with sensitive or regulated data and associated assurance requirements.
Data engineering experience or experience making messy operational data useful.
Experience in startup, scale-up, or other high-ownership environments.
Prior public-sector delivery experience; helpful but not required.

Responsibilities

Develop high-impact AI products, models, and agents for use across the Ministry of Justice.
Build and ship products across the HMCTS estate, including web services, integrations, data tooling, and, where appropriate, models and agents.
Work in courts, prisons, probation, and with operational teams to understand user needs and challenges, and co-build solutions with users.
Lead technical delivery end to end, from identifying and framing problems through technical direction, architecture, implementation, deployment, adoption, scaling, and ongoing operation.
Measure whether solutions work, make evidence-based decisions, and be candid when they do not.
Work with court staff, digital teams, and the judiciary to develop practical improvements to court operations.

Benefits

Annual leave of 25 days on appointment, increasing to 30 days after five years' service.
Option for qualifying staff to buy or sell up to three days of annual leave each year.
Paid public holidays and one privilege day.
Choice of Civil Service pension schemes.
Extensive training and development opportunities.
Employee-run networks offering advice, support, and routes to raise minority-group employees' views with senior management.
Family-friendly policies, including opportunities to work reduced hours or job share.
Access to flexible benefits, voluntary benefits, retail vouchers, and discounts on goods and services.
Paid paternity, adoption, and maternity leave.
Free annual sight tests for employees who use computer screens.
Hybrid working arrangements where business needs allow.