XSLT Developer

Tender description

Summary of the work An experienced Java and XSLT developer to improve maintainability of XSLT work within DRI, de-customise and provide comprehensive, language agnostic documentation of logic. Maintainability achieved by: refactoring towards cleaner code, comprehensive tests, documentation and knowledge transfer. Specialist role Developer Expected Contract Length 5 months Latest start date Monday 31 October 2022 Maximum Day Rate Up to £750 per day. Standard 8 hour working day. Rate includes all expenses e.g. for occasional travel to Kew. Who Speclialist Work With The wider Digital Record Infrastructure (DRI) team is a Service Owner, Product manager, Delivery Manager, Lead and Senior Developers (available for discussion of technical options, code review, acceptance). The specialist will have access to users: Digital Archivists (users of the current system, available to contribute to testing and acceptance). Developers (internal and external) What Specialists Work On TNA use customized XSLT workflows for digital preservation and export to the external website. There are around 150 complex XSLTs including custom Java extensions. The transformations describe custom business logic for complex collections ingestion. Specialist will improve maintainability of the XSLTs with documentation of transforms and the logic’s implementation. The documentation will be used to help move away from custom workflows without XSLT. The desired end state is de-customisation and the xml processing logic to be rewritten using Java or Scala. Specialist will transfer knowledge of XSLT development to TNA staff and develop new transformations for the existing system. Skills & Experience • Strong professional track record of XSLT development. • Java development skills. • Writing automated tests • Experience of working with an iterative, Agile approach to service delivery and being able to apply the Agile philosophy to your day-to-day work • Ability to produce clear technical documentation and ensure appropriate and timely knowledge transfer • Evidence of the ability to plan, manage and take responsibility for your own work • Test driven development • Continuous development/integration pipelines • Examples of delivering transition, knowledge transfer and handover of code Nice to Haves Scala development skills. Work Location The National Archives, Kew, Richmond, Surrey TW9 4DU Specialist to work remotely. Occasional on-site meetings or presentations will be required. Working Arrangments The specialist will work remotely with occasional on-site meetings or presentations. The specialist will work Monday to Friday, 9am-5pm with regular active communication. Some flexibility may be possible with mutual agreement. The specialist will provide their own equipment. TNA will provide access to GitHub and Slack. Additional communication will be via Teams and email. We expect the specialist to work in Agile way to scope, plan, implement, test and deliver work incrementally. The specialist will arrange frequent ‘review’ sessions to demonstrate progress and seek feedback. They will produce clear technical documentation and ensure appropriate and timely knowledge transfer. Security Clearance Baseline security clearance will be required Additional T&Cs Although this has been advertised as a resource, we have checked the role requirements (to the best of our knowledge) using the assessment tool found at https://www.gov.uk/guidance/check-employment-status-for-tax and, in our opinion, for the role(s) as advertised the intermediaries legislation does not apply to this engagement (outside IR35). The National Archives will hold copies of and rights to all source code developed and accompanying intellectual property rights to the code to use, develop further or make changes as it sees fit. No. of Specialists to Evaluate 3 Cultural Fit Criteria • Excellent communication skills and an open and transparent approach • Demonstrate a collaborative and flexible working approach • Able to work with our Subject Matter Experts to ensure the service meets the needs of its users • A clear appreciation of the importance of technical documentation as a means of ensuring ongoing maintainability of systems • Approach to supporting teams to adopt new technologies • Transfer knowledge gained through the team and be willing to share experiences across the wider department. • Demonstrable commitment to a diverse working environment, with a team comprised of experts from a wide variety of backgrounds Assessment Method • Reference • Interview • Scenario or test Evaluation Weighting Technical competence 70% Cultural fit 10% Price 20% Questions from Suppliers 1. Is there an incumbent? No. 2. Is this opportunity inside or outside IR35? Although this has been advertised as a resource, we have checked the role requirements (to the best of our knowledge) using the assessment tool found at https://www.gov.uk/guidance/check-employment-status-for-tax and, in our opinion, for the role(s) as advertised the intermediaries legislation does not apply to this engagement (outside IR35) 3. Please note that the statement mentioned in “Off-payroll (IR35) determination” and “Additional terms and conditions” regarding IR35 are both contradictory. Can you please clarify? When completing the online form for the advertisement, we are obliged to select whether the contract is a service or a resource. If service, the system automatically declares the contract 'outside IR35', but if a resource they system automatically adds the 'inside IR35' wording. This is beyond our control.Our view, supported by the HMRC CEST tool, is that the contract is outside IR35 even though it is classified as a resource.For the avoidance of doubt, this contract is outside IR35 (IR35 does not apply).