About the job

Job summary

Are you a dedicated person who is passionate about making a difference?

Would you like to work for the Ministry of Defence? 

Defence Business Services (DBS) is one of the largest shared service organisations in Europe that provides a wide range of corporate services, to over 1.2 million end users, including serving and past military and families, as well as MoD civil servants and industry. DBS delivers large scale administration and smaller specialist services to enable the wider MOD to focus on its core aims, maintaining the UK’s Defence and Security. Services include Human Resources, Pay, Veterans, Finance and Procurement. 
 
•    Our Vision - To support UK defence customers with outstanding service every time.

•    Our Mission – Together we will proudly support Defence, continuously improving and delivering flexible, timely, sustainable and value for money services that underpin the whole force and enhance operational capability. 

DBS is committed to creating a great place to work for all our colleagues. We are building an inclusive culture and respectful environment that reflects the diversity of the society. 

We want to maximise the potential of everyone who chooses to work for us through opportunities to develop your skills and experience. We also offer a range of flexible working patterns and support to make a fulfilling career accessible to you and offer a Civil Service pension with an average employer contribution of 27%. Where your role permits, we support a blended working approach alternatively known as hybrid working.

Where business needs allow, some roles may be suitable for a combination of office and home-based working.  This is a non-contractual arrangement where all office-based employees will be expected to spend a minimum of 60% of their working time in office, subject to capacity and any required workplace adjustments.  Requirements to attend other locations for official business, or work in another MOD office, will also count towards this level of attendance. Applicants can request further information regarding how this may work in their team from the Vacancy Holder (see advert for contact details). Defence Business Services cannot respond to any questions about working arrangements.  

Come and join the DBS community today! 

Job description

•    Assist the UNIX Technical Team Leader (C1) to support UNIX infrastructure, SAN & backup support and guidance in accordance with agreed service level agreements (SLAs).  This post requires site attendance at Tomlinson House (Norcross) on a hybrid working basis working in a traditional office space and working remotely from home part of the time.
•    Provide hands-on day to day technical support for mainly CP&F and all Finance/Civ Pers associated systems. This role will assist the UNIX Technical Lead with responsibility for Dev/Test/Live Finance/Civ Pers systems at Abbey Wood and Corsham. Assisting on all ITMS UNIX Infrastructure within the bounds of the Service Level Agreements.
•    Provide UNIX knowledge and support when required.
•    Ensure service availability of all “live”, development & DR environments as dictated by SLA and ensure these environments are meeting the expectations of end users, record and log all infrastructure issues and ensure associated actions taken to resolve the issue are also documented on Remedy.
•    Possess sufficiently deep and wide specialist technical skills to assess and direct the technical direction of the infrastructure on which the systems are run. Deliver system change and enhancements approved by RFCI changes by agreed targets to include assessment of change requests and delivery of solution once approved.
•    Resolve complex technical issues arising.
•    Act as UNIX point of contact, helping projects with system design and specification when required.
•    Provide input into any new project that requires UNIX advice and help develop plans as necessary. Help design and implement new equipment as part of remediation project. E.g., server replacement project and systems remediation.
•    Support UNIX involvement regarding designs/builds for projects.
•    Support UNIX work with any SAAS interface work required for migration to the cloud, planned date 2026.

Person specification

Provide hands-on day to day technical support for mainly CP&F and all Finance/Civ Pers associated systems.  This role will assist the UNIX Technical Lead with responsibility for Dev/Test/Live Finance systems at Abbey Wood and Corsham. Assisting on all ITMS UNIX Infrastructure within the bounds of the Service Level Agreements.

·        Provide UNIX knowledge and support when required
·        Ensure service availability of all “live”, development & DR environments as dictated by SLA and ensure these environments are meeting the expectations of end users, record and log all infrastructure issues and ensure associated actions taken to resolve the issue are also documented on Remedy.
·        Possess sufficiently deep and wide specialist technical skills to assess and direct the technical direction of the infrastructure on which the systems are run. Deliver system change and enhancements approved by RFCI changes by agreed targets to include assessment of change requests and delivery of solution once approved.
·        Resolve complex technical issues arising.
·        Act as UNIX point of contact, helping projects with system design and specification when required.
·        Provide input into any new project that requires UNIX advice and help develop plans as necessary. Help design and implement new equipment as part of remediation project. E.g., server replacement project, systems remediation.
·        Support UNIX involvement regarding designs/builds for projects.
·        Support UNIX work with any SAAS interface work required for migration to the cloud, planned date 2026.
·        Support and undertake UNIX project work as required, work with the Design and Business Engagement function and work with the Technical Delivery function to ensure work is completed to agreed objectives and timescales
·        Provide 1st line UNIX support in Bristol Fir and Corsham  Data Centres. Working with UNIX Technical Lead (C1).
·        Provide 2nd line infrastructure support that has been escalated from the 1st line service desk in the instance that the business issue stems from an underlying infrastructure problem
·        Proactively define and analyse the root causes of specific UNIX infrastructure problems and implement the appropriate solutions to ensure rapid recovery, ensuring that the Service Management Team are kept up to date so they can support business expectation accurately.
·        Support the team leader to ensure that normal service is restored as quickly as possible in the event of an incident, to minimize any disruption to the business.
·        Where a forthcoming issue in the infrastructure environment can be pre-empted, take remedial actions prior to an incident occurring. (System housekeeping)
·        Support the upgrade planning of Infrastructure H/W & S/W, implementing recommended fixes for optimal running of systems and to ensure systems remain in support avoiding unnecessary out of support contracts. Incorporate these changes into maintenance planning schedule and deliver upgrades.
·        Following evaluations of infrastructure options and feasibility studies, suggest improvements for the ITMS infrastructure
·        Ensure documentation regarding server builds, network configuration, fixes, procedures, and diagrams are maintained and completed in accordance with project procedures
·        Work closely with Technical Support team members to ensure all ITMS employees are kept up to date with improvements and changes to infrastructure
·        Configure and provide Logical Partition Support to enable the use of Cloud Technologies
o    Support the virtual server environment.
o    Configure hardware to support the virtual environment across all UNIX Servers that support this technology.
o    Support the virtualisation of the resources within the physical servers.
§   Relocate the LPARS where appropriate to utilise the best resources available,
o    Build and provide virtual servers when requested through the change process to enable cloning of development systems.
§   Continually look to improve the method/speed in provisioning these servers based on the emerging technologies
·        Ensure the system are backed up to the existing tape library
o    Look to improve the back-up and recovery process by supporting the implementation of the ICOS solution.
·        Carry out key UNIX infrastructure tasks such as:
      Support and administer Logical Partitions & Virtualization technology.   
      Configure and Support networking in AIX.
      Support and configure VIO server and client partitions.
      Support and administer GPFS technology.     
      Support devices
      Support storage
      Support and administer backups & backup policy through Tivoli Storage     Manager/NetBackup
      Support system resources
      Perform user administration tasks (such as creating users/groups etc.)
      Have strong knowledge of system backup and recovery.
      Have strong AIX knowledge and maintenance skills.
      Configure and Support system security.
·        Measure and provide reports on current performance of services and components in the UNIX infrastructure and provide them to the originator as and when required.
·        Support and execute system health checks for ITMS UNIX
·        Act as a point of contact for all UNIX queries

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £35,290, Ministry of Defence contributes £9,528 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

Things you need to know

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours, Experience and Technical skills.

Please ensure that at the application and interview stages of the campaign you review the Success Profiles Framework to assist you in the demonstration of your skills and experience.

Your suitability for the role will be assessed using the Success Profile elements that have been chosen for this campaign. Each element will be scored accordingly, and the successful candidate will be appointed on merit.

Applications will be sifted on all Success Profile elements, but in the event of a high number of applications, an initial sift will be conducted on the following success profile elements:

Primary: Experience - Personal statement.

In this instance the remaining elements will be tested at interview.

At the application stage you will be assessed against the following:

• Experience - CV
• Experience - Personal statement - (1000 words) Please provide information of how you meet the criteria set out in the job description. You may wish to further include examples of how you have tackled similar tasks or demonstrated the skills outlines in the job advert.

At the interview stage you will be assessed against the following:

• Behaviour - Managing a Quality Service
• Behaviour - Delivering at Pace
• Behaviour - Communicating and Influencing
• Behaviour - Working Together
• Technical - DDAT Framework IT Infrastructure
• Technical - DDAT Framework Technical Understanding

In the rare case where individuals have exact matching scores, the order of merit will be determined based on the behaviour scores at interview in the following order:

• 1 - Experience - Personal statement
• 2 - Behaviour - Managing a Quality Service
• 3 - Behaviour - Delivering at Pace
• 4 - Behaviour - Communicating and Influencing
• 5 - Behaviour - Working Together
• 6 - Technical - DDAT Framework IT Infrastructure
• 7 - Technical - DDAT Framework Technical Understanding

If candidate scores are still exact, the merit order will then be determined on the sift score in the below order or priority:

• 1 - Experience - CV
• 2 - Experience - Personal statement
• 3 - Behaviour - Managing a Quality Service
• 4 - Behaviour - Delivering at Pace
• 5 - Behaviour - Communicating and Influencing
• 6 - Behaviour - Working Together
• 7 - Technical - DDAT Framework IT Infrastructure
• 8 - Technical - DDAT Framework Technical Understanding

We want to offer opportunities to all who are successful at interview for our roles, but this isn’t always possible, so we do hold candidates on an active reserve list for 12 months. 

Application sifting to take place late March

Interviews are currently taking place via the following method: MS Teams

Interviews will be conducted early April

A minimum of 2 full working days’ notice will be provided for interviews. We endeavour to stick to these dates, but these are subject to change around business needs.

To assist with your application please find attached below: 

1.     DBS Candidate Information Guide - Working for Defence Business Services - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

2.     DBS DIT - ddat-capability-framework.service.gov.uk  -

  3.      (26) UK Ministry of Defence: Life , LinkedIn 

Disability Confident Scheme 

The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equality of opportunity. There is a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.  

If you need to advise us that you need additional help or reasonable adjustments for the recruitment process, please contact: DBS-EnhancedRecruitmentTeam@mod.gov.uk  

MOD Recruitment Satisfaction Survey – we may contact you regarding your experience to help us improve our customer satisfaction. The survey is voluntary and anonymous. You may however be given the opportunity to provide additional information to help us improve our service which includes the collection of some personal data as defined by the United Kingdom General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR). The MOD Privacy Notice sets out how we will use your personal data and your rights.

As a result of the changes to the UK immigration rules which came into effect on 1 January 2021, the Ministry of Defence will only offer sponsorship for a skilled worker visa under the points-based system, where a role has been deemed to be business critical. 
The role currently being advertised has not been assessed as business critical and is therefore NOT open to applications from those who will require sponsorship under the points-based system. Should you apply for this role and be found to require sponsorship, your application will be rejected, and any provisional offer of employment withdrawn. 

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check. Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check (opens in a new window).

See our vetting charter (opens in a new window). People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window). The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria. The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.