About the job

Job summary

An Infrastructure Support Engineer supports and maintains infrastructure solutions and services as directed and according to departmental policy and Home Office strategy.

Shared Application Services (SAS) is a fast-growing business area within the Home Office. We are consolidating and growing our capabilities in application development and support. SAS uses the very latest technologies and will continue to evolve and adapt as new technologies come along.

You will be part of DDAT’s cutting-edge Shared Applications Service L2 Support (SAS L2) Team which conducts real-time monitoring of the core technology, infrastructure, applications, and services within the Home Office, providing a consolidated single operational view of the Home Office technical estate and facilitating 24/7/365 support and recovery.

You will be part of a SAS L2 team focused on providing an industry-leading approach to technical estate management, exploiting the latest technologies, techniques, and service management best practices to provide innovative solutions for real-time monitoring, automation, and industrialisation of services.

You will work closely with your team and others such as the Service Desk, Incident Managers, Project Managers, Service Transition, external suppliers, the Information Technology Operations Centre (ITOC) and Cyber-Security Operations Centre (CSOC), to ensure services are effectively monitored, incidents are addressed by hands on L2 intervention and services are restored within agreed service level agreements.

We encourage applications from people from the widest possible diversity of backgrounds, cultures, and experiences. We particularly welcome applications from women, people with disabilities and LGBT+ as they are currently under-represented in the Home Office at this grade level. Appointments will be made on merit on the basis of fair and open competition.

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 employees will be expected to spend a minimum of 60% of their working time in the office.  Applicants can request further information regarding how this may work in their team from the Vacancy Holder (see advert for contact details).

Job description

Your main day to day responsibilities will be:

• Building, configuring, transitioning, administering, and supporting infrastructure technologies and solutions such as: compute, storage, networking, physical infrastructure, software, cloud, commercial off the shelf (COTS) and open-source packages and solutions
• Resolving technical problems, ensuring that technical solutions continue to meet business requirements taking accountability for actions taken and decisions made.
• Identifying the correct procedures and appropriate channels for resolution and monitor resolution activities and progress updates to users.
• Investigating faults in systems, processes, and services, and advise on the implementation of appropriate solutions and preventative measures.
• Working collaboratively to ensure that a set of IT products, suppliers and vendors come together to deliver an IT service.
• Using logical designs created by technical architects and required standards, methods and tools (including prototyping tools where appropriate) to build infrastructure solutions.

You will also be expected to carry out the following day to day activities:

• Update and maintain technical documentation and knowledge articles for support purposes.
• Respond to incident reports, ensuring relevant prioritisation and detail to allow for effective investigation.
• Work with well-understood technology and identify appropriate patterns.
• Build and test simple interfaces between systems, or work on more complex integration as part of a wider team.

Person specification

Essential Skills

You’ll have a demonstrable passion for Infrastructure Engineering, with the following skills or some experience in:

• Core technical concepts related to your role and ability to build solutions.
• Maintaining focus on the whole life cycle of service delivery; from design, development, and delivery through to operation.
• Dissecting a problem into its component parts to identify and diagnose root causes, allowing problem resolution.
• Presenting verbal and written information clearly and accurately in language which meets the needs of the user and can adapt to stakeholders' reactions with flexibility.
• Building strong partnerships with diverse teams across multiple locations and technologies.

The skills listed above are reflective of the Home Office DDaT Profession Skills and Competency Model (based on the industry standard SFIA framework).

Please see below for the relevant skills required for your role:

Development and Implementation

o Systems design (DESN) - Level 3 

o Testing (TEST) - Level 4 

Delivery and Operation

o Systems installation and removal (HSIN) – Level 1 

o IT infrastructure (ITOP) – Level 1 

o Incident management (USUP) - Level 2 

People and Skills

o Organisational facilitation (OFCL) - Level 3

Desirable Skills

Ideally you will also have the following skills or some experience in:

• Performing a similar role within the Civil Service or at other organisations.
• Understanding and / or experience of adhering to service management processes and procedures.
• Using an enterprise monitoring toolset to monitor and administer to infrastructure, network, and applications.
• Using a Service Management toolset to log and update service incidents.
• Understanding of Lean, Agile and DevOps principles.
• AWS console, Zabbix, Prometheus, CloudWatch, Dynatrace, Kibana, Grafana, Confluence, Jira, Slack, Nagios, Gov Notify, VPN’s, ServiceNow

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £34,350, Home Office contributes £9,274 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.

As part of the application process you will be asked to complete a CV and Personal Statement (Max Limit: 750 words).

Further details around what this will entail are listed on the application form.

Please note your Personal Statement should be aligned to explain why you are a good fit for the advertised role aligned to the Essential skills criteria listed in the role description.

Your CV should include all relevant experience that relates to our essential criteria listed in the advert and role description. Do not just list languages / platforms - do provide context.

The sift will be based on the Personal Statement and the CV.

Remove information that identifies you (for example your name, age or place of education) so that you’ll be judged on merit alone and not your background, circumstances, race or gender.

(Do NOT include e-mail addresses or links to online profiles, resumés, or prior work, either personal or business. Active links or e-mail addresses may result in your application being rejected)

Please read the Essential skills for this position carefully. We will only consider those who meet the listed requirement.

(Do NOT include any links to online profiles, resumés, or prior work).

Candidates shortlisted will be invited to an interview which will be conducted using Behaviour and Technical based questions.  

Sift and Interview dates

Sift will take place from 12th February 2024. 

Interviews will take place from 4th March 2024 (subject to the panels operational priorities).

Please note, interviews will be held remotely, via MS Teams. Further details and instructions will be provided closer to the scheduled interview and these dates may be subject to change.

Further information

Please read the essential skills for this position carefully. We will only consider those who meet the listed requirement. 

If you have previously made an unsuccessful application for a role with the same essential skills and are not able to demonstrate how you have developed these skills since your last application please reconsider applying as your application is unlikely to be successful.

For meaningful checks to be carried out, individuals need to have lived in the UK for a sufficient period of time to enable appropriate checks to be carried out and produce a result which provides the required level of assurance. You should normally have been resident in the United Kingdom for the last 5 years for SC clearance and 10 years for DV. A lack of UK residency in itself is not necessarily a bar to a security clearance and applicants should contact the Vacancy Holder/Recruiting Manager listed in the advert for further advice.

- Higher Security Clearance. This post requires the successful candidate to hold security clearance at minimum SC level. Job offers to this post are made on the basis of merit. Security vetting will only take place after the receipt of a job offer.

A location-based reserve list may be held for a period up to 12 months from which further appointment may be made.

- Visa Sponsorship Statement. Please take note that the Home Office DDaT does not hold a UK Visa & Immigration (UKVI) Skilled Worker License and are unable to sponsor any individuals via Skilled Worker Sponsorship.

This post is eligible for a DDaT Recruitment Retention Allowance this allowance is subject to an initial review within six months of taking up the post and thereafter an annual review in line with the departmental priorities and could be reduced or withdrawn at any time.

Every day, Home Office civil servants do brilliant work to develop and deliver policies and services that affect the lives of people across the country and beyond. To do this effectively and fairly, the Home Office is committed to representing modern Britain in all its diversity, and creating a welcoming, inclusive workplace where all our people are able to bring their whole selves to work and perform at their best.

We are flexible, skilled, professional and diverse. We work to recruit and retain disabled staff and area Disability Confident Leader. We are proud to be one of the most ethnically diverse departments in the civil service. We are a Social Mobility Foundation top 75 employer.

New entrants are expected to join on the minimum of the pay band.

Applicants who are successful at interview will be, as part of pre-employment screening, subject to a check on the Internal Fraud Database (IFD). This check will provide information about employees who have been dismissed for fraud or dishonesty offences. This check also applies to employees who resign or otherwise leave before being dismissed for fraud or dishonesty had their employment continued. Any applicant's details held on the IFD will be refused employment.

For further information please see the attached notes for candidates which must be read before making an application.

Existing Civil Servants should note that some of the Home Office terms and conditions of employment have changed. It is the candidate’s responsibility to ensure they are aware of the Terms and Conditions they will adopt should they be successful in application and should refer to the notes for candidates for further details.

Transfer Terms: Voluntary.

If you are invited to an interview you will be required to bring a range of documentation for the purposes of establishing identity and to aid any pre-employment checks.

Please see the attached list of Home Office acceptable ID documents.

Any move to the Home Office from another employer will mean you can no longer access childcare vouchers. This includes moves between government departments. You may however be eligible for other government schemes, including Tax Free Childcare. Determine your eligibility at https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk

Reasonable Adjustments

If a person with disabilities is at a substantial disadvantage compared to a non-disabled person, we have a duty to make reasonable changes to our processes. 

If you need a change to be made so that you can make your application, you should:

• Contact Government Recruitment Service via HOrecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk as soon as possible before the closing date to discuss your needs
• Complete the “Assistance Required” section in the “Additional Requirements” page of your application form to tell us what changes or help you might need further on in the recruitment process. For instance, you may need wheelchair access at interview, or if you're deaf, a language service professional

If you are experiencing accessibility problems with any attachments on this advert, please contact the email address in the ‘Contact point for applicants’ section.

Feedback

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

Security

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.