Senior Software Engineer

On 1 April 2026, NSS and NES became one national organisation, focused on continuity today and a stronger, more connected service for tomorrow. As part of this transformation, NHS National Services Scotland (NSS) and NHS Education for Scotland (NES) have joined to form a new organisation: Public Services Delivery Scotland (PSD Scotland). This new organisation will play a pivotal role in supporting the renewal and ensuring the long-term sustainability of health and care services across Scotland. Flexible Location: PSD Scotland is a remote-friendly employer with staff based throughout Scotland. We support office-based and hybrid working arrangements. We welcome conversations about alternative working patterns—please get in touch during the application process to discuss.  Work Pattern: Fixed Term, Full Time, 36 hours per week Fixed-term or Secondment** until 31st March 2028 For NHS applicants, an NHS secondment will be offered in the first instance. For non-NHS applicants, a fixed-term or secondment would be considered. You must have eligibility and entitlement to work in the UK which is required to be maintained throughout your period of employment. Who We Are PSD Scotland unites expertise from NES and NSS in a way that will allow us to accelerate national programmes to support the NHS to deliver better care, now and in the future. We support staff with education and training, provide the tools and data that improve services, and run vital national functions such as procurement, logistics and blood, tissue and cell services. PSD Scotland Technology Service has created a strategic programme for the transformation of digital based services to allow PSD Scotland to become a leading digital organisation in Scottish Health, digital by default and fully aligned with the Scottish Government’s technology strategies.  Our Technology We are in the business of providing safe, secure and innovative technology products and services that aim to improve outcomes across education, training, workforce, health and care in the public sector in Scotland. Using modern cloud-based technology we deliver sustainable products and services for the future. The Opportunity We are looking for a highly skilled and motivated Senior Software Engineer to join our team. You will play a key role in the development and delivery of cutting-edge technology solutions that will help address some of the most complex challenges in Scotland’s digital health and care ecosystem. Do you enjoy working as part of a highly skilled multi-disciplinary agile team? Do you want to play a key role in the development of high quality, robust and scalable web applications that will directly improve the working lives of NHS colleagues and help improve patient care? Do you want to work in a culture of continuous improvement and development of best practices in areas such as application design patterns, cloud architecture, security, and test-driven development? Do you seek to continuously improve team processes and technical decision making? Do you enjoy working at pace and being adaptive to an ever-changing environment? Working within the PSD Scotland Technology Service team you will have the opportunity to define and drive innovation that will directly inform the development of digital services for the general public, health and care professionals, and developers of digital health and care products.. Does this sound like you? What We Love To See Senior Software Engineers offer a broad range of skills and experience, if you can offer some or all of these, we’d love you to apply: Ability to provide expert hands-on technical leadership and develop complex software across the entire product lifecycle within a multi-disciplinary agile team Strong knowledge of cloud native development using providers such as AWS or Azure and techniques such as infrastructure-as-code Able to work on your own initiative through complex challenges, understanding users’ needs, breaking down the problem, planning an approach and delivering a solution Ability to collaboratively design, code, deploy, test, and document high complexity software using the right standards and tools A clear understanding of, and advocate for, architectural principles, patterns, and security best practices Highly effective communicator knowing how to make complex technical information and language simple for a diverse range of senior internal and external stakeholders (both verbally and in writing) An agent for continuous improvement; keen to understand non-functional requirements (e.g. security, performance) and team processes to find opportunities to improve Mentoring and support of other members of the team, driving knowledge sharing and adoption of best practices Demonstrate honesty, integrity, care and compassion when dealing with others, utilising tact and persuasion skills when necessary Ability to work on own initiative, to organise and prioritise own workloads, to meet strict deadlines Benefits Which Matter As a valued employee of NHS Scotland, you can enjoy an extensive range of benefits including: Life-work balance - with opportunities for flexible working and hybrid working Generous NHS pension scheme Annual incremental salary progression (up to the maximum of the salary band) plus annual NHS salary scale review Annual Leave - 27 Days increasing in line with service plus 8 days public holiday NHS discounts and more Diversity and Inclusion Developing a successful national service for Scotland means considering the diverse needs, perspectives, and backgrounds of everyone in Scotland. We are focused on hiring the very best talent and actively encourage applications from candidates of all backgrounds. Our aim to ensure that everyone is treated fairly, with respect, and has a positive recruitment experience—regardless of the outcome. We welcome applications from all under-represented groups, including racially minoritised people and disabled people. It is not essential to be in a Senior Software Engineer role right now—you may be returning from a career break (e.g., maternity, paternity, caring) or coming from another field. Your experiences can bring a fresh perspective to our work. If you are considering applying and would like to discuss the opportunity, any adjustments or alternative work patterns, please contact Andrew McCallum (andrew.mccallum@nhs.scot) or Simon Maishman (simon.maishman@nhs.scot). Next Steps *NHS candidates will be considered firstly on a secondment basis, and so are strongly encouraged to discuss this with their current NHS employer at the earliest opportunity, ideally prior to application. All applicants who are shortlisted for interview will be contacted by e-mail. In person OR online interviews will take place on Monday 26th to Friday 30th October 2026. For further information please refer to the Job Information Pack below. Unless otherwise stated the deadline for applications is 23:59 hours on the closing date. Please note, CVs will not be accepted. Please be advised that if you are successful in being offered the role following the recruitment process, you will be expected to attend the office prior to your start date to complete face-to-face pre-employment checks. If you require any adjustments to support this, please let us know. To work in the United Kingdom, there is a legal requirement for an individual to demonstrate that they have the relevant permission to work in the country. This permission is, without exception, granted by the UK Visa and Immigrations Service. As part of the pre-employment checks for a preferred candidate, NHS Scotland Boards will check your entitlement to work in the UK. It can be evidenced through a number of routes including specific types of visa as well as EU settled and pre-settled status. To find out more about these routes of permission, please refer to the GOV.UK website here.  For specific types of post, if you do not have the necessary eligibility to work in the UK, it might be possible (though not guaranteed) to secure sponsorship via a UK Skilled Worker/Health & Care Worker Visa. However, this is only possible if the employer is a licenced Sponsor, and if the post does not fall below the current minimum salary threshold or ‘going rate’. Further information on these criteria can be found here. It is ESSENTIAL that you have checked that you either already have an appropriate right to work in the UK or that the post would be eligible to be sponsored BEFORE submitting your application form. If you have any queries regarding the NHS Scotland National Recruitment Portal or the recruitment process, please don't hesitate to contact our recruitment partners, the East Region Recruitment Service, at: EoS.ERRS@nhs.scot