Lead Software Developer

Salary: £61,000 - 101,000 per year

Requirements:

• Educated to degree level in a relevant subject, or equivalent level qualification, or significant experience working at a similar level in a specialist area.
• Post-graduate degree in Management Studies, or equivalent.
• Evidence of continued professional development.
• Demonstrated experience of coordinating projects in complex and challenging environments.
• Understanding of the public sector.
• Demonstrated experience in a healthcare environment.
• Comprehensive knowledge of project principles, techniques and tools such as PRINCE2 Foundation and Microsoft Project.
• Significant experience of successfully operating in a politically sensitive environment.
• Experience of creating and giving presentations to a varied group of internal and external stakeholders.
• Experience of setting up and implementing internal processes and procedures.
• Experience of managing a team without direct line management.
• Experience of managing risks and reporting.
• Experience of drafting briefing papers and correspondence at SMT level.
• Experience of monitoring budgets and business planning processes.
• Ability to prepare and produce concise yet insightful communications for senior stakeholders and a broad range of stakeholders.
• Ability to analyse very complex issues where material is conflicting and drawn from multiple sources.
• Demonstrated capability to act upon incomplete information, using experience to make inferences and decisions.
• Numerate and able to understand complex financial issues combined with deep analytical skills.
• Knowledge of financial systems, e.g. budget management, invoice processing and procurement.
• Demonstrated capability to plan over short-, medium- and long-term timeframes and adjust plans and resource requirements accordingly.
• Demonstrated capability to manage own workload and make informed decisions in the absence of required information, working to tight and often changing timescales.

Responsibilities:

• Design, develop and maintain software applications, automation solutions and analytics tools that support our data, intelligence and operational priorities.
• Work closely with analysts, data scientists, business intelligence teams and operational stakeholders to translate business and analytical requirements into robust, reliable and secure software solutions.
• Contribute to the design and delivery of systems that enable efficient data processing, reporting and operational insight across our organisation.
• Support the development of automated workflows, application services and system integrations while ensuring compliance with NHS information governance, cyber security and quality standards.
• Contribute to the full software development lifecycle, including requirements analysis, solution design, development, testing, deployment, documentation and ongoing maintenance.
• Develop and maintain APIs, microservices and system integrations to support interoperability between internal data platforms and external systems.
• Use programming languages and development technologies such as Python, R, .NET, JavaScript, SQL and cloud-based development frameworks.
• Apply user-centred design principles to ensure solutions are intuitive, accessible and aligned with user needs.
• Support application lifecycle management, including version control, monitoring, troubleshooting and enhancement of existing systems and automation tools.
• Ensure secure coding practices are followed and that all developments adhere to NHS cyber security principles and recognised industry standards.
• Contribute to continuous improvement activities within our software development function, supporting modern engineering practices including testing, documentation and collaborative development.
• Champion prototyping and iterative development, getting ideas in front of users early and learning quickly before full-scale development.
• Establish and maintain effective CI/CD, automated testing and deployment practices.
• Explore and appropriately adopt AI-assisted development tools and other emerging technologies where they can improve productivity, quality or speed of delivery.

Technologies:

• AI
• Business Intelligence
• CI/CD
• Cloud
• Support
• JavaScript
• Python
• SQL
• Security
• microservices
• ASP.NET
• Backend

More:

We are NHS Dorset Integrated Care Board, working under the Model ICB Blueprint and the 10 Year Health Plan to take on a more strategic commissioning role focused on population needs, reducing inequalities and delivering the three shifts while operating within strict financial limits. Our organisation will operate at a larger scale with a revised vision and purpose, managing a commissioning budget of around 8 billion, and we aim to transform our local NHS through exceptional commissioning and innovative, data-informed ways of working. We encourage our people to grow, develop new skills and embrace agile ways of working, with a listening and learning culture where insight leads to improvement. We work as a team of teams across services and professions to deliver the best outcomes for our communities, and we expect inclusive behaviours that value diverse perspectives and help create a workplace where everyone feels respected, supported and able to thrive. This is a full-time, flexible, permanent Band 7 role with locations in Dorchester, Chippenham and Yeovil.

last updated 36 week of 2026