About the job

Job summary

The Government Digital Service (GDS) is part of the Cabinet Office. We lead the digital transformation of the UK government so that it works better for everyone.

Following our Government Design Principles, we deliver platforms, standards and digital services to help departments transform how they work and meet the needs of their users.

Our work is user-focused, dynamic and forward-looking, making our organisation an exciting and innovative place to work.

Find out more at the GDS Blog and the Inside GOV.UK Blog.

Job description

The recently established GDS Engineering Enablement team exists to ensure that GDS has the engineering tools and patterns it needs to drive efficiency, ensure security and enhance developer experience. We report to the GDS Chief Technology Officer and work closely with the GDS Chief Information Security Officer.

As Lead Site Reliability Engineer on the Engineering Enablement team, you will:

• lead a team of engineers to develop, integrate, maintain and support engineering tools and services used by other engineering teams throughout GDS, being directly responsible for service quality
• design, write and deliver technical solutions, infrastructure as code, and automation as part of a multidisciplinary agile team
• identify and mitigate technical risks in relation to infrastructure, operational tooling, and third party services
• lead by example, mentor/line manage team members and establish credibility through quality technical execution
• establish effective and collaborative working relationships with other GDS teams and the wider GDS engineering communities
• be part of our 2nd line and/or out of hours rotas

Person specification

We’re interested in people who:

• have experience in managing an Amazon Web Services (AWS) estate at an enterprise level
• have experience leading and managing engineering teams
• have experience of infrastructure-as-code approach (ideally Terraform)
• can implement automation in languages such as Ruby, Python, Go or Javascript, following modern engineering practices
• have experience designing, building and operating modern CI/CD toolchains for both application and infrastructure deployment (we use Github Actions and AWS CodePipeline)
• have experience of modern approaches to observability including monitoring, logging, alerting and distributed tracing and have defined service level indicators, objective, and agreements
• understand common security vulnerabilities and their mitigations such as OWASP Top 10 and CWE Top 25
• are familiar with modern agile software development workflows and practices including pair programming, git workflows, and test driven development
• are familiar with unix/linux operating systems and containerised infrastructure

If you meet a few of those criteria but think that you might not meet every last one then don’t let that stop you from submitting an application

Benefits

There are many benefits of working at GDS, including:

• flexible hybrid working with flexi-time and the option to work part-time or condensed hours
• a Civil Service Pension with an average employer contribution of 27%
• 25 days of annual leave, increasing by a day each year up to a maximum of 30 days
• an extra day off for The King’s birthday
• an in-year bonus scheme to recognise high performance
• career progression and coaching, including a training budget for personal development
• paid volunteering leave
• a focus on wellbeing with access to an employee assistance programme
• job satisfaction from making government services easier to use and more inclusive for people across the UK
• advances on pay, including for travel season tickets
• death in service benefits
• cycle to work scheme and facilities
• access to children's holiday play schemes across different locations in central London
• access to an employee discounts scheme
• 10 learning days per year
• volunteering opportunities (5 special leave days per year)
• access to a suite of learning activities through Civil Service learning

GDS offers hybrid working for all employees. This means that everyone does some working from home and also spends some time in their local office. From February 2024, GDS staff have worked in their office for at least 40% of the time, and this is expected to continue towards 60% in the new financial year. You’ll agree to your hybrid working arrangement with your line manager in line with your preferences and business needs, and taking reasonable adjustments into account.

Any move to Government Digital Service 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

Things you need to know

Selection process details

The standard selection process for roles at GDS consists of:

• an application screening process - send a CV and Cover Letter (up to 750 words). Please make sure that your cover letter includes how you meet the skills and experience listed in the “who you are” section.
• a 20 minute phone screen (which may not be required depending on the volume of applications)
• a 30 minute technical interview (conducted over video conferencing)
• a 75 minute panel interview covering a mixture of technical and interpersonal skills (conducted over video conferencing)

In the Civil Service, we use our Success Profiles. For each role we advertise we consider what you will need to demonstrate to be successful. This gives us the best possible chance of finding the right person for the job, drives up performance and improves diversity and inclusivity. We will be looking at your experience, career history and achievements that are relevant to the specific job role. 

For this role we’ll consider the following Civil Service Behaviours that are most relevant to this role:

• working together
• changing and improving
• making effective decisions

We will also be assessing your experience and specialist technical skills against the following skills defined in the DDaT Lead DevOps Engineer role:

• availability and capacity management
• development process optimisation
• information security
• modern standards approach
• programming and build (software engineering)
• service support
• systems design
• systems integration

Candidates that do not pass the interview but have demonstrated an acceptable standard may be considered for similar roles at a lower grade.

A reserve list will be held for a period of 12 months, from which further appointments can be made.

Recruitment Timeline

Every effort will be made to keep to the timeline but where this is not possible dates are subject to change

Role closes - Monday, 17th June 2024

Sift will be commencing from Tuesday, 18th June 2024

Phone Interview - Week commencing Monday, 24th June 2024

Technical Interview - Week commencing Monday, 01st July 2024

Panel Interview - Week commencing Monday, 15th July 2024

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the Civil Service People Plan and the Civil Service D&I Strategy.

Other information: Occasionally, business pressures, priorities or critical delivery may mean that we move you into a different team or work area within GDS. This will always be within the same grade and discipline within which you were hired, but does mean that your focus or objectives may shift in order to deliver GDS business.

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.