Illustrative Reference profiles for a generic digital health care organisation, not official job descriptions. About this reference.

Lead frontend developer

Band 8b · Frontend developer · 604 job evaluation points

UK GDaD PCF level: Lead frontend developer

Most often performed at Civil Service grade G7 or G6.

A lead frontend developer is an expert practitioner who influences and mentors others.

At this role level, you will:

  • set direction and assure the quality of development across teams
  • lead multiple or highly complex services
  • contribute to the community, providing technical leadership, coaching and mentoring
  • promote knowledge sharing and adoption of good practice
  • be proficient in a wide range of technical systems and able to identify appropriate technology and approaches
Contains public sector information from the UK Government Digital and Data Profession Capability Framework (https://understand-digital-data-roles-skills.service.gov.uk/), licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. © Crown copyright.

Responsibilities

Skills

SkillExpected levelWhat this level means
AccessibilityUK GDaD PCFExpert (4)

You can:

  • show a strong understanding of accessibility and be an advocate for users with accessibility needs
  • build user interfaces that meet a predefined set of standards
  • champion accessibility to internal and external stakeholders
  • offer design solutions to mitigate the risk of failing accessibility testing
  • recommend the best tools and methods to use when accessibility testing
Communicating informationUK GDaD PCFExpert (4)

You can:

  • mediate between people and mend relationships, communicating with stakeholders at all levels
  • manage stakeholder expectations and host or moderate discussions about high risk and complexity, even within constrained timescales
  • speak on behalf of and represent the community to large audiences inside and outside of government
Community collaborationUK GDaD PCFPractitioner (3)

You can:

  • work collaboratively in a group, actively networking with others
  • adapt feedback to ensure it’s effective and lasting
  • use your initiative to identify problems or issues in the team dynamic and rectify them
  • identify issues through Agile ‘health checks’ with the team, and help to stimulate the right responses
Leadership and guidance (frontend developer)UK GDaD PCFExpert (4)

You can:

  • change organisational structures to fixable and sustainable designs
  • lead on the strategy for the whole organisation, marrying business needs with innovative analysis
  • make and justify decisions characterised by high levels of risk, impact and complexity
  • build consensus between organisations (private or public) or highly independent stakeholders
  • solve and unblock issues between teams or departments at the highest level
  • understand the psychology of a team and have strong mediation skills
  • coach the organisation on team dynamics and conflict resolution
Modern development standardsUK GDaD PCFExpert (4)

You can:

  • identify and apply modern development standards to support complex projects and programmes
  • lead others in applying modern development standards
Programming and build (frontend developer)UK GDaD PCFExpert (4)

You can:

  • advise on the right way to apply standards and methods to ensure compliance
  • provide technical advice to stakeholders and set team-based standards for programming tools and techniques
  • collaborate with others when required to review specifications
  • use specifications to build, test and document user interfaces of high complexity, using the appropriate standards and tools
PrototypingUK GDaD PCFPractitioner (3)

You can:

  • approach prototyping as a team activity, actively soliciting prototypes and testing with others
  • establish design patterns and iterate them
  • use a variety of prototyping methods and choose the most appropriate
Strategic thinkingUK GDaD PCFExpert (4)

You can:

  • lead the design and implementation of strategy, directing the evaluation of strategies and policies to ensure business requirements are being met
Systems design (frontend developer)UK GDaD PCFPractitioner (3)

You can:

  • translate agreed designs into working user interfaces following modern standards
  • manage and document technical complexity to make sure work is easily maintained and reusable
  • work with well-understood technology and can identify appropriate patterns to make effective use of technologies’ best features
Systems integration (frontend developer)UK GDaD PCFPractitioner (3)

You can:

  • define the static assets build
  • co-ordinate all aspects of the integration and take responsibility for the tests around the user interface
  • configure the part of the system that uses the network and test that it works as expected
User focus (frontend developer)UK GDaD PCFPractitioner (3)

You can:

  • collaborate with user researchers and interaction designers to represent user needs internally
  • explain the difference between user needs and the desires of the user
  • champion user research to focus on all users
  • effectively prioritise and define approaches to understand the user story, guiding others to do so
  • offer recommendations on the best tools and methods to use
Web performance optimisationUK GDaD PCFPractitioner (3)

You can:

  • identify and resolve web performance issues
  • collect data to monitor and resolve web performance issues
  • guide on the best web performance optimisation software and methods to use
Understanding health and care servicesThis referencePractitioner (3)

You can:

  • analyse how a service fits into care pathways across organisations
  • work with clinicians, care staff, and patients to shape digital services
  • explain the effect of digital decisions on care, safety, and staff workload
Clinical risk managementThis referencePractitioner (3)

You can:

  • lead hazard identification and risk assessment for a product or change
  • write and maintain hazard logs and clinical safety case reports
  • agree risk controls with product teams and check that they work
  • advise teams on applying clinical risk management standards
Information governance and data protectionThis referencePractitioner (3)

You can:

  • lead data protection impact assessments and information sharing agreements
  • advise teams on lawful basis, consent, confidentiality, and retention
  • investigate incidents and recommend improvements
Health data interoperabilityThis referenceWorking (2)

You can:

  • read and use FHIR resources, profiles, and APIs
  • build or test simple integrations under guidance
  • check messages against a specification
Equality, diversity, and inclusionThis referencePractitioner (3)

You can:

  • carry out equality impact assessments
  • build inclusive teams and practices
Medical device software regulationThis referenceWorking (2)

You can:

  • follow a software life cycle process that meets medical device standards
  • produce the records that such a process requires
People managementThis referencePractitioner (3)

You can:

  • line manage a team, setting objectives and running appraisals
  • support wellbeing and manage attendance, performance, and conduct
  • plan the team's development and succession

Typical qualifications and experience

Band 8b outline

Knowledge
Expert knowledge across several disciplines or a large service.
Autonomy
Shapes policy and strategy for a large area.
Scope
Several services or teams, or a principal-level discipline.
Leadership
Manages managers, or is the principal authority in a discipline.
Accountability
Several services, their staff, and their budgets.

Job evaluation (illustrative)

FactorLevelLevel summaryPoints
Communication and relationship skills5Gives highly complex or contentious information needing developed persuasion and negotiation, presents to large groups, or communicates where there are significant barriers to acceptance.45
Knowledge, training, and experience8Advanced knowledge (doctorate plus further training or equivalent), or specialist knowledge across more than one discipline built over a long period.240
Analytical and judgemental skills5Judgements on highly complex facts or situations needing analysis, interpretation, and comparison of options.60
Planning and organisational skills4Plans a broad range of complex activities or strategies, adjusting them as needed.42
Physical skills2Skills gained through practice, such as standard keyboard use or driving.15
Responsibility for patient and client care1Helps patients, clients, or relatives during incidental contact.4
Responsibility for policy and service development4Implements policy and develops policy or services for a service or several areas.32
Responsibility for financial and physical resources3Authorises payments, buys some assets or supplies, monitors or holds a delegated budget, or maintains assets.21
Responsibility for people3Manages a group of staff day to day, teaches core or specialist training, or gives core HR advice.21
Responsibility for information resources5Designs and develops major information systems, or runs information systems for several services as the main duty.34
Responsibility for research and development2Regularly does research, development, trials, or equipment and system testing as part of the job.12
Freedom to act5Works within general policies, and in most cases decides how to interpret them.45
Physical effort1Sitting, standing, and walking, with little physical effort.3
Mental effort4Frequent prolonged concentration, or occasional intense concentration.18
Emotional effort1Rare exposure, or occasional indirect exposure, to distressing circumstances.5
Working conditions2Occasional unpleasant conditions, frequent travel or outdoor work, or near-continuous screen use on most days.7
Total (Band 8b: 585 to 629)604

Self assessment

Rate what you do regularly now, add a short example as evidence, and plan an action for your most important gaps. Your answers are saved in this browser only.

Rated 0 of 19 skills: 0 meet the expected level, 0 below, 0 above.

Accessibility Expected: Expert
Communicating information Expected: Expert
Community collaboration Expected: Practitioner
Leadership and guidance (frontend developer) Expected: Expert
Modern development standards Expected: Expert
Programming and build (frontend developer) Expected: Expert
Prototyping Expected: Practitioner
Strategic thinking Expected: Expert
Systems design (frontend developer) Expected: Practitioner
Systems integration (frontend developer) Expected: Practitioner
User focus (frontend developer) Expected: Practitioner
Web performance optimisation Expected: Practitioner
Understanding health and care services Expected: Practitioner
Clinical risk management Expected: Practitioner
Information governance and data protection Expected: Practitioner
Health data interoperability Expected: Working
Equality, diversity, and inclusion Expected: Practitioner
Medical device software regulation Expected: Working
People management Expected: Practitioner
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