About the job

Job summary

Do you have experience in the development, deployment and support of software applications and services that are focused on stability, availability and quality?

Would you love the opportunity to promote technical evolution within the organisation?

Are you someone who could find, test, agree and adopt emerging technologies while maintaining a pragmatic focus on delivering user needs efficiently?

If so, come join us as a Lead DevOps Engineer.

As a Lead DevOps Engineer you will have a proven experience in the development, deployment and support of software applications and services that are focused on stability, availability, and quality.

You will lead several multi-functional agile delivery teams, guiding and supporting the DevOps Engineers to build in quality, using industry best practices, to the products that make up our citizen services.

Please note- this role requires you to pass a security clearance check. For further information on this please see Selection process details.

Job description

• Responsible for the leadership of employees, from a variety of disciplines, providing expert advice or dealing with complex or high-level problems.
• Work and support large teams of DevOps Engineers and key technical decision makers to define the strategic vision for delivery.
• Promote technical evolution within the organisation, find, test, agree and adopt emerging technologies while maintaining a pragmatic focus on delivering user needs efficiently.
• Departmental representative acting as a liaison with external bodies, promoting the latest Engineering and DevOps practices, standards and processes then lead the Engineering community to deliver the strategic DevOps vision.
• Develop and support our Engineering capability by rewarding high performers, shaping career paths and recruiting talent to the organisation.
• Maintain relationships, reconciling priorities and agreeing common action, working with the Lead DevOps Engineering community to ensure security, stability and capacity are embedded in the development and deployment of our citizen services.
• Making complex decisions, involving a wide range of solutions, possibly affecting a number of work areas within the organisation.
• Work closely with seniors, sharing information, providing advice and support around technical choices, implementation approach, resourcing an identifying skills gaps and key dependencies within our technical teams.
• Highlight and document risks and produce effective plans to address them.
• Design and lead the strategies for building a reusable DevOps toolchain.
• Consult with senior stakeholders and provide a full analysis and recommendations, which usually influences the final decision.
• Advise on problems arising from specific work programmes or from implementation of proposed changes in Departmental policy and make balanced recommendations.
• Sharing of knowledge and good practice with the wider Engineering community.
• You should expect to be working with and have knowledge of specialisms such as Terraform, Kubernetes, Helm, AWS or Azure and Gitlab CI & Flux or equivalent.

When starting the role, it would be beneficial but not essential to have experience in continuous improvement, reducing toil and reducing the path to live and experience in automated testing is preferred.

Person specification

You need to align all parts to the following Essential Criteria:

• Significant experience of the full life cycle of cloud-based platforms and applications from designing, through deployment to supporting and patching (in particular AWS and Azure).
• Significant experience of Unix-like Operating Systems.
• Significant experience of version control systems as well as building and maintaining CI/CD pipelines e.g., git with GitLab CI or Jenkins.
• Significant experience of Infrastructure-as-code and configuration of code for one or more cloud providers.
• Experience of containerisation and container orchestration.
• Experience of multiple scripting and/or programming languages (e.g., Bash, Python).
• Experience of leading, supporting, guiding and providing oversight to Engineers across multi-disciplinary teams in an agile environment.

If you would like to learn more about the role, please contact caicy.sandford@dwp.gov.uk.

Benefits

• An employer pension contribution of up to 27% For further information please click here.
• Annual leave rising up to 30 days, (based on your working pattern).
• Family friendly flexible working arrangements, such as hybrid working, job sharing, term-time working, flexi-time and compressed hours.
• Learning and development tailored to your role this could include industry recognised qualifications, coaching and mentoring.
• An inclusive and diverse environment with opportunities to join staff networks including: Women’s Network, National Race Network, National Disability Network (THRIVE) and many more.

Salary Information

Pay for this role is from £69,869 to £89,995.

The maximum salary for the grade is £77,740, however a Digital Allowance of up to £12,255 per annum is available for exceptional candidates, based on our assessment of your skills and experience.

Our offer to successful candidates will be based on an assessment of your skills and experience as demonstrated at interview.

Existing Civil Servants who secure a new role on lateral transfer should maintain their current salary.

Existing Civil Servants who gain promotion may move to the bottom of the next grade pay scale or 10% increase in salary whichever would be the greater.

Location

Applicants should apply for suitable posts where they can travel to and from their home office location daily within a reasonable time.   

Please be aware that this role can only be worked in the UK and not overseas. Relocation costs will not be reimbursed 

Hybrid Working

This job role may be suitable for hybrid working, which is where an employee works part of the week in their DWP office and part of the week from home.  This is a voluntary, non-contractual arrangement and your office will be your contractual place of work. The number of days that anyone will be able to work at home will be determined primarily by business need but personal circumstances and other relevant circumstances will also be taken into account. If you are successful, any opportunities for hybrid working, including whether a hybrid working arrangement is suitable for you, will be discussed with you prior to you taking up your post.

Things you need to know

Selection process details

Stage 1: Application

As part of the application process you will be asked to complete:

1. A completed Personal Details application form.

2. A curriculum vitae including education, professional qualifications and full employment history, giving details of key achievements. 

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

When uploading your CV, do not include personal information or links to any webpages or profiles that identifies you. This means we can recruit based on your knowledge and skills, and not background, gender or ethnicity. Take out references to your name/title, age, sex, email address, postal address, telephone number or nationality/immigration status.

When giving details in your CV you should highlight your experience in line with Essential Criteria listed in the Person Specification.

When giving details of your redacted CV, you should therefore include details of the work and projects that you have been involved in, and your role therein.

Important information

• Please attach your redacted CV as a separate additional document in either PDF or word format.
• If your CV contains any personal details your application may be withdrawn.

Stage 2: Interview

If you’re successful at sift stage you will be invited to a video interview via Microsoft Teams. There, you will be assessed against the experiences listed in the essential criteria.

You will be asked to do a 10 minutes presentation on a specific topic. Further details will be provided to candidates invited to interview.

Interviews will take place from Late January onwards.

Sift and Interview dates to be confirmed.
https://careers.dwp.gov.uk/how-we-recruit/

Further Information

Find out more about Working for DWP

For Hints and Tips on completing your application visit Applying for jobs at DWP Digital.

A reserve list may be held for a period of 6 months from which further appointments can be made.

Reserve list candidates will be posted in merit order by location.

The Civil Service values honesty and integrity and expects all candidates to abide by these principles. Please ensure that all examples provided in your application are taken directly from your own experience and that you describe the examples in your own words. Applications will be screened and if evidence of plagiarism or copying examples/answers from other sources is found, your application will be withdrawn. Internal DWP candidates may also face disciplinary action.

Reasonable Adjustment

At DWP we value diversity and inclusion and actively encourage and welcome applications from everyone, including those that are underrepresented in our workforce.

We consider visible and non-visible disabilities, neurodiversity or learning differences, chronic medical conditions, or mental ill health. Examples include dyslexia, epilepsy, autism, chronic fatigue, or schizophrenia.

If you need a change to be made so that you can make your application, you should: Contact Government Recruitment Service via DigitalRecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk as soon as possible before the closing date to discuss your needs.

Complete the “Reasonable Adjustments” 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.

For further information on reasonable adjustments, terms and conditions and how we recruit visit the How We Recruit page

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.