Senior Web Developer - Hybrid (Education Tech, 7+ yrs)

Contract Duration: Initial term of 12 months, with the possibility of successive 12-month extensions, allowing for a total duration of up to 5 years.

Hybrid Model: Weekly 3 days Onsite + 2 days Remote (Hybrid)

Client Overview

The Client is an independent statutory body established to improve the delivery of education services to persons with special educational needs, with a particular emphasis on children. The Client delivers services through its national network of Special Educational Needs Organisers, who interact with parents, schools, and the HSE to coordinate resources and support.

Providing advice and information on special education to parents and schools

Allocating supports and coordinating local service delivery,

Conducting research into special education, and

Advising the Minister for Education on special education policy.

Role Overview

CLIENT requires the development, enhancement, and ongoing support of digital systems that facilitate:

Communication between parents, schools, and CLIENT staff,

Application processing and case-management activities

Planning and coordination of special classes and special school placements,

Delivery of information services to the public, and

Support for research and policy advisory functions.

The objective is to procure a Developer capable of delivering secure, accessible, scalable, and user-centred digital solutions tailored to CLIENT's statutory functions

Mandatory Requirements (Pass / Fail): Candidates MUST meet ALL of the following:

Experience

It is a mandatory requirement, that the Resource proposed has the equivalent of 7+ years of relevant experience (Senior Resource)

Availability

Must be available to start 01/06/2026

English Language Proficiency (MANDATORY):

CEFR C2 Proficiency/Mastery (or equivalent)

If there is no certificate, fluency will be assessed at presentation stage

The following non-exhaustive list of Key Deliverables are applicable to this role.

CLIENT requires the development, enhancement, and ongoing support of digital systems that facilitate:

Communication between parents, schools, and CLIENT staff,

Application processing and case-management activities

Planning and coordination of special classes and special school placements,

Delivery of information services to the public, and

Support for research and policy advisory functions.

The objective is to procure a Developer capable of delivering secure, accessible, scalable, and user-centred digital solutions tailored to CLIENT's statutory functions.

System Design and Development

The Developer must deliver end-to-end design and development of web applications including:

Responsive and accessible (WCAG-compliant) front-end interfaces supporting parents, schools, and CLIENT staff.

Secure back-end systems that incorporate CLIENT workflows such as resource allocation, school placement planning, and case management.

Integration with systems operated by the Department of Education and the HSE as required to support cross-sector coordination.

Development of digital tools for the dissemination of research and policy information.

Accessibility and Inclusion

The Developer must:

Serve diverse user groups including parents of children with complex needs,

Support ease of use for CLIENT staff coordinating services at local level.

Data Management and Security

The Developer must:

Implement GDPR-compliant data handling, noting the sensitive nature of CLIENT case data,

Provide secure authentication and user access control,

Ensure encrypted data transmission, secure storage, and audit capabilities,

Support continuity of service for high-volume application periods

Technical Documentation

The Developer must produce and maintain documentation including:

System architecture and data flow diagrams,

Configuration and deployment documentation,

End-user and administrator guides.

Testing and Quality Assurance

The Developer must carry out

Unit, integration, and end-to-end testing,

Accessibility testing,

Performance and load testing appropriate for national-scale usage

Deployment and Hosting

The solution must be compatible with cloud hosting within an approved public-sector environment (e.g., Microsoft Azure). A CI/CD pipeline must be provided to ensure controlled, auditable deployments

Support and Maintenance

The Developer must provide:

Ongoing technical support and issue resolution,

Security patching and performance optimisation,

Agreed SLAs for incident response

Optional development capacity for future enhancements.

The Developer will be required to deliver:

1. Fully functioning, accessible web applications meeting all CLIENT requirements.

2. Integrated tools

3. A secure and scalable back-end platform with appropriate API integrations.

4. All documentation required for maintenance, onboarding, and governance.

5. A full testing suite and test documentation.

6. Training sessions for CLIENT staff to enable knowledge transfer.

7. A maintenance and support plan for each application including SLAs and update cycles.

8. Technical documentation and knowledge transfer sessions

Compliance Requirements

The solution and Developer must comply with:

EPSEN Act 2004 governance principles applicable to CLIENT roles and functions,

Public Sector ICT and cybersecurity standards,

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.1 AA)

Performance Metrics

During the contract, Developer performance will be evaluated based on:

Accessibility compliance,

System reliability and uptime,

Ability to reduce manual processing for operational staff,

User satisfaction (parents, schools, CLIENT internal users),

Responsiveness to issues within agreed SLAs,

Delivery timelines vs. milestones

The following Experience/Competencies/Skillsets are applicable to this Role.

Modern front-end frameworks (React, Angular, Vue),

Server-side development (Node.js, .NET, or equivalent),

SQL and/or NoSQL data stores,

CI/CD, containerisation, and cloud deployment pipelines,

Government grade security and logging standards.

Expertise in designing systems that support data collection and reporting