Government wants to make hunting for civil service jobs easier - Photo credit: Pixabay

An advert on Digital Marketplace is seeking a supplier to carry out user testing and development on an alpha version of the new platform.

The posting says that a discovery project by the Civil Service Human Resources team found that there was “unmet user needs” and wants to modernise and improve digital recruitment services.

“We'll do this by designing a user experience optimised for jobseekers and designing a technical architecture to integrate modern cloud based recruitment systems,” the posting says.

The contract is advertised at four months, and the government wants to find a technical architect, full-stack developer and front-end developer to work with an existing team in Bristol – remote working will not be accepted.

The team – made up of a service manager, deliver manager, head of user experience, user researchers, a business analyst and a UX designer – has already carried out a discovery phase.

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The discovery, which also lasted four months, established a set of problem statements and user needs. The team defines users as jobseekers, those hiring and recruiting new staff and departmental and central human resources teams.

The alpha phase aims to do four things, including to design a new jobseeker recruitment experience that meets user needs, test the solution with real users, and properly understand and scope the delivery of replacing Civil Service Jobs.

The alpha phase also aims to establish the viability of creating a technical architecture that consists of multiple cloud-based recruitment applications interacting at a data level that has a candidate interface that the government can host and manage.

The job advert says that the Civil Service Human Resources team has already met with a number of cloud-based recruitment service providers to assess what support they can give to the proposed high-level architecture.

The job advert does not specify if the platform will be part of Government as a Platform - the Government Digital Service push to build government platforms with common tools - but it does list experience of working with GaaP products, such as Notify and Verify, as a “nice to have” skill.

Essentials include expertise in cloud technologies, data management, agile delivery, use of Application Programming Interfaces and of creating user experiences that comply with GOV.UK guidelines.

Meanwhile, working to Government Digital Service standards and experience of building recruitment platforms are desirable.

The weighting of applications will be focused on technical competence (50%), followed by price (40%) and cultural fit (10%).

The deadline for applications is 7 November, and questions must be asked by 31 October. The latest start date for the project is 30 November.