Principal Developer
Job summary
North West Ambulance Service (NWAS) is seeking a Principal Developer to lead the development of innovative digital solutions that directly support our mission: delivering the right care, at the right time, in the right place--every time. As the technical lead for application development, you'll set standards, mentor the developer community, and drive continuous improvement, ensuring our digital services are robust, secure, and future-ready.
This role is central to NWAS's digital transformation, supporting our Digital Strategic Plan. You'll help deliver outstanding, inclusive care, enable staff through digital innovation, and contribute to a culture of continuous improvement and partnership working.
Main duties of the job
Main Duties
- Lead the design, development, and support of digital solutions using modern technologies and frameworks.
- Define and promote coding standards and best practices across the developer community.
- Collaborate with stakeholders to understand requirements and translate them into effective technical solutions.
- Mentor and support the professional development of the developer team.
- Ensure systems are secure, scalable, and aligned with NHS and NWAS standards.
- Oversee the implementation of new technologies, tools, and methodologies, supporting the Trust's digital roadmap.
- Manage resources, budgets, and third-party relationships to maximise value and ensure service continuity.
- Support business continuity, risk management, and compliance with data protection and information governance.
Shaping the Digital Future
As Principal Developer, you'll play a key role in delivering the Trust's digital ambitions, including:
- Building digital foundations and infrastructure for a future-ready, data-driven organisation.
- Supporting intelligent triage, personalised care, and clinician empowerment through digital tools.
- Enabling staff with digital automation, AI, and continuous learning.
- Driving integration with health and social care partners for seamless, responsive care.
- Embedding innovation and data-driven improvement to ensure sustainability and resilience.
About us
North West Ambulance Service NHS Trust provides 24 hour, 365 days a year accident and emergency services to those in need of emergency medical treatment and transport.
Our highly skilled staff provide life-saving care to patients in the community and take people to hospital or a place of care if needed.We also provide non-emergency patient transport services for those patients who require non-emergency transport to and from hospital and who are unable to travel unaided because of their medical condition or clinical need.
Alongside the other emergency services, we also work to ensure the safety of the public and treatment of patients in the event of a major incident.
We also deliver the NHS 111 service in the North West. NHS 111 replaced NHS Direct in 2013. This service was introduced to make it easier for people to access local NHS healthcare services in England. It provides non-emergency medical help fast, and is available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
Job description
Job responsibilities
Please ensure you have read the full Job Description and Person Specification before applying for this role.
The Trust reserves the right to close this vacancy early if a large number of applications are received.
Key dates;
Assessment Centre: 16.12.2025
Interviews: 19.12.2025
Person Specification
Skills
- Excellent communication skills - verbal, written, presentational and interpersonal
- Excellent skills in the area of JavaScript, C#, .NET Core, ASP.NET Core, RESTful APIs, SPA JavaScript frameworks, SQL Server
- Excellent skills in implementing software development design patterns MVC, IOC, Separation of concerns
- Excellent skills in HTML5, CSS and user interface creation
- Well presented, flexible, positive, resilient, methodical, team player
- Able to produce clinical business requirements and high level design deliverables
- Strong problem solving approach to live issue resolution
- Able to learn new technologies and IT systems quickly through both self study
- Ability to motivate, performance manage and develop teams and individuals
- Demonstrable compassionate and inclusive leadership
- Experience in the application of HR processes
- Demonstrable experience of line management responsibilities
Qualifications
- Educated to MSc level in relevant subject; or equivalent level of experience of working at a similar level in this area and currently working towards a Master's degree
- Evidence of relevant CPD activities
- Evidence of management experience
- Experience of professional and engaging report writing for and presentation to senior management audiences and the development of other documents such as research findings, options appraisals, risk analysis, and proposals
- Have demonstrable working experience in digital development practices such as: systems analysis, development, Agile / Devops, programming, testing, enterprise architecture and project management
- Substantial knowledge of the full SDLC
- Substantial knowledge of system integration interfaces and the principles between data exchange between systems
- Substantial digital literacy in network principles, client/server models and databases
- Substantial knowledge of automated testing processes and an understanding of how this fits within the overall delivery lifecycle
- Excellent knowledge of defect management and structured approaches to resolution of issues
- Knowledge of project management and methodologies, e.g. PRINCE 2
Experience
- Substantial experience in developing web software using .NET C# and ASP technology stack
- Experience working with Single Page Application (SPA) frameworks in JavaScript
- Substantial supervisory experience leading development teams
- Substantial experience of Agile development methodologies (eg. Scrum, Kanban etc)
- Substantial experience of code version control using Git
- Substantial experience of automated testing and developer testing practices
- Substantial experience involving close working relationships with business users
- Experience supporting business applications inside and outside working hours
- Experience of producing documentation and reports to senior management
- Extensive track record of continuous mentoring experience
Values & Behaviours
- Working together - demonstrate collaborative and inclusive working and challenge behaviour that is not inclusive or acceptable
- Being at our best - professional and adaptable and takes pride in work
- Making a difference - act with compassion, kindness and integrity towards everyone
Disclosure and Barring Service Check
This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.
Employer details
Employer name
North West Ambulance Service NHS Trust
Address
30 Innovation
Parkway, Estuary Point or Broughton
M14 7LU
Employer's website
https://www.nwas.nhs.uk/
- Company
- North West Ambulance Service NHS Trust
- Location
- Parkway, Estuary Point or Broughton, United Kingdom M14 7LU
- Employment Type
- Permanent
- Salary
- £55690.00 - £62682.00 a year
- Posted
- Company
- North West Ambulance Service NHS Trust
- Location
- Parkway, Estuary Point or Broughton, United Kingdom M14 7LU
- Employment Type
- Permanent
- Salary
- £55690.00 - £62682.00 a year
- Posted