Senior/ Staff Software Engineer, Software Engineering Practice

GovTech is the lead agency driving Singapore’s Smart Nation initiatives and public sector digital transformation. As the Centre of Excellence for Infocomm Technology and Smart Systems (ICT & SS), GovTech develops the Singapore Government’s capabilities in Data Science & Artificial Intelligence, Application Development, Smart City Technology, Digital Infrastructure, and Cybersecurity.  

At GovTech, we offer you a purposeful career to make lives better where we empower our people to master their craft through robust learning and development opportunities all year round. 

Play a part in Singapore’s vision to build a Smart Nation and embark on your meaningful journey to build tech for public good. Join us to advance our mission and shape your future with us today!  

Learn more about GovTech at tech.gov.sg. 

[What you will be working on]  

The Government Technology Office’s Software Engineering Practice improves how software is built, delivered and maintained across GovTech and the Whole-of-Government.

We work with engineering leaders and teams to identify common challenges, establish shared practices and build the capabilities needed to put them into use. Our work spans engineering effectiveness, developer experience, AI, engineering maturity, hiring and people development.

As a Software Engineer in the Practice, you will combine hands-on engineering with work on the standards, processes and capabilities that support our engineering community. You will work with pillar leads to understand where teams need help, translate that understanding into practical improvements, and support their adoption across teams and agencies.

Your work could include making the Engineering Maturity Framework actionable through tools like Backstage, bringing together data and developer research to guide improvements, or strengthening how we interview, assess and develop engineers. Software delivery will be a substantial part of the role, alongside shaping practices, engaging teams and helping them apply what we build.

• Turn shared engineering needs into practical capabilities. Work with pillar leads, engineering leaders and teams to understand recurring problems and develop solutions that can be used across the organisation.
• Develop and apply engineering practices. Contribute to frameworks, assessment approaches and guidance. Use your engineering experience to make them clear, practical and relevant to how teams work.
• Build tools that put practices into use. Design, build and operate products, integrations and automation that make shared practices easier to adopt. This could include Backstage features, maturity assessments, measurement tools or interview management workflows.
• Support engineering effectiveness. Work with measurement and platform colleagues to connect existing data, research and tooling. Help teams understand their constraints and identify useful improvements.
• Contribute to engineering people development. Support work on role expectations, hiring, interviewer endorsement and development pathways, in partnership with other teams.
• Help teams adopt and improve shared capabilities. Trial approaches with teams, explain how to use them, gather feedback and refine them. Assess success through their usefulness and adoption.
• Advance engineering practice with AI. Help evaluate how AI tools and agents change engineering workflows, skills and assessment. Apply the findings to the Practice’s tools, guidance and development approaches.
• Own the engineering quality of what you deliver. Take solutions through design, implementation, testing, rollout and ongoing operation, with appropriate attention to reliability, security and maintainability.
• Contribute across the engineering community. Share lessons, demonstrate approaches and work with partner teams to align efforts and build on existing capabilities.

Your focus may shift between pillars as priorities develop. You will have a defined area of responsibility while contributing to the Practice’s wider work.

[What we are looking for]  

We are looking for an experienced software engineer who wants to improve how engineering is practised across an organisation. You should enjoy both building software and working with people to improve the standards, tools and processes around it.

You should bring:

• Strong software engineering fundamentals and experience delivering and operating production systems.
• A record of improving engineering practices within your team or across teams, such as testing, delivery workflows, developer tooling, technical standards or onboarding.
• The ability to turn broad goals or recurring problems into practical changes, working through ambiguity and delivering incrementally.
• Hands-on capability across the stack, including building APIs, integrations and automation.
• Sound judgement about when a problem needs software, clearer guidance, a process change or a combination of these.
• The ability to explain technical ideas clearly, listen to different perspectives and help teams adopt a shared approach.
• An interest in engineering effectiveness, developer experience and the development of engineering capability.
• A willingness to learn across the Practice’s areas of work and collaborate with technical and non-technical partners.
• An interest in how AI is changing engineering work and the judgement to evaluate and apply it effectively.

Experience in any of the following would be valuable:

• Contributing to an engineering practice, technical community or organisation-wide improvement initiative.
• Developing engineering standards, maturity frameworks, assessment approaches or practical guidance.
• Working with Backstage, software catalogues or other internal developer platforms.
• Using engineering data or developer feedback to identify and evaluate improvements.
• Building tools that support engineering workflows, interviewing, learning or skills development.
• Supporting the adoption of shared tools and practices across multiple teams.
• Conducting engineering interviews, mentoring engineers or contributing to role frameworks and development programmes.
• Applying AI to engineering workflows and sharing evidence of what works.

You do not need prior experience across every pillar. We value practical engineering credibility, the ability to work through others and a sustained interest in improving how our engineering community works.

What we offer you:    

GovTech is an equal opportunity employer committed to fostering an inclusive workplace that values diverse voices and perspectives, as we believe that diversity is the foundation to innovation.  

Our employee benefits are based on a total rewards approach, offering a holistic and market-competitive suite of perks. These include leave benefits to meet your work-life needs and employee wellness programs.  

We champion flexible work arrangements (subject to your job role) and trust that you will manage your own time to deliver your best, wherever you are, and whatever works best for you.   

Learn more about life inside GovTech at go.gov.sg/GovTechCareers. 

Stay connected with us on social media at go.gov.sg/ConnectWithGovTech