GOVTALENT.UK

Lead Specialist Engineer – Desktop Operating System Patching

This opening expired 2 months ago.
Location(s):
Leeds, Liverpool
Salary:
£38,724 to £48,068
Job grade:
Senior Executive Officer
Business area:
Other
Contract type:
Permanent
Working pattern:
Full-time, Part-time

About the job

Job summary

We pride ourselves as being an employer of choice, where Everyone Matters promoting equality of opportunity to actively encourage applications from everyone, including groups currently underrepresented in our workforce.   

UKHSA ethos is to be an inclusive organisation for all our staff and stakeholders. To create, nurture and sustain an inclusive culture, where differences drive innovative solutions to meet the needs of our workforce and wider communities. We do this through celebrating and protecting differences by removing barriers and promoting equity and equality of opportunity for all.  

The Technology Directorate provides business-critical systems and services to UKHSA business users at all locations at which UKHSA staff work.

Technology has:

  • primary responsibility for technical infrastructure and the corporate services running upon it
  • staff at a number of locations throughout UKHSA.

Job description

Lead Specialist Engineers are responsible for supporting the delivery of technical excellence in their field of specialism and assisting Senior Specialist Engineers in ensuring that all systems are optimally configured to provide a high-quality service to UKHSA users.

The Lead Specialist Engineer will work with other Lead Specialist Engineers and Senior Specialist Engineers in the Modern Devices team. Between them they will lead on all aspects of the end user devices area. They will have technical specialties and provide technical expertise in the configuration and implementation of relevant technical areas below.

  • End User Operating System (currently Windows 10)
  • Operating System Deployment (currently SCCM and Intune) and lifecycle management
  • End User Device Hardware and Core Software
  • Mobile Device Management (Intune)
  • Windows Server Operating Systems and Azure Windows Virtual Desktop

The Lead Specialist Engineer in this role will:

  • specialise in maintaining the operating systems of end user devices, securing them against vulnerabilities and ensuring they are kept patched up to date
  • take responsibility for a subset of these technologies in conjunction with the other Lead and Senior Specialist Engineers. It is not expected that one individual will lead or specialise in all areas, rather that the team as a whole will cover these areas between them.

Person specification

Main duties and responsibilities 

  • Develop and maintain operating system updates, processes and automation so that the standard Windows 10 image is kept up to date and secured against vulnerabilities, in line with UKHSA’s software update policy.
  • Mitigating and remediating any issues which prevent patches and updates being deployed successfully to end user devices.
  • Develop and maintain the UKHSA standard Windows10 image(s), including customisations and updates as necessary to align with the UKHSA strategy and approved operating systems design.
  • Maintain, develop and improve the vulnerability management service.
  • Develop solutions and automated methods to reduce manual and repetitive patching tasks.
  • Contribute to the UKHSA strategy, operating systems design and patching policy.
  • Monitoring and managing reporting mechanisms for update compliance.
  • Work in a collaborative manner with other ICT colleagues to deliver tasks successfully.
  • Plan, configure, manage and maintain all hardware and/or software components of specialist area to deliver optimum system availability to users, and ensuring all supplier provided patches and upgrades to the operating system, database, tools and utilities are applied in a timely manner.
  •  Maintain the security and integrity of all systems related to specialist area including managing all user access rights and implementation of any necessary backup regimes and other disaster recovery procedures.
  • Providing technical and administrative support for specialist systems, including the production of system specification documentation and the production of relevant procedures and protocols.
  • Monitoring and managing system performance, capacity and growth, providing advice on necessary upgrades and replacement of hardware and software so as to maintain the reliability of the systems. Implement hardware changes and upgrades and database upgrades and migrations to maintain system performance and growth capacity.
  • Ensuring compliance with UKHSA ICT and other relevant policies.
  • To maintain awareness of technical developments, security threats, and research new technologies with a view to providing advice to the Senior Specialist Engineer on suitable deployment strategies for UKHSA. 
  • To conduct such work as directed by the Senior Engineer or Team Manager consistently with departmental standards and to agreed timescales
  •  Responsible for maintaining own specialist skills with appropriate professional training.
  • To provide the Senior Specialist Engineer or Team Manager with estimates of effort and timescales for tasks as required.
  •  Carry out support and service to all customers during the agreed working hours, including any out of hours working.
  •  To comply with departmental and UKHSA requirements for the reporting of all absences.
  • Provide a level of work that adheres to the high standards and best practices in line with the SLAs as agreed with UKHSA Users.
  • Training and development: To provide training to the team members to enable them to provide quality support with the various technologies used by UKHSA as required, the training would be dependent on the individual’s skills levels within the team.
  • To assist the line manager in carrying out 1-2-1’s during the year and PDR’s at the start of year, mid-year and end of year

Essential Criteria

  • This is a role that demands detailed knowledge and considerable experience of specialist technologies. Therefore, each candidate must be able to demonstrate qualification and expertise in one or more of UKHSA’s integral technologies used for operating system patching, such as Microsoft SCCM or Intune.
  • Substantial experience and knowledge of Microsoft Windows 10 and PC hardware devices in a managed enterprise-scale environment
  • Experience of creating and/or updating operating system deployments in a large enterprise using SCCM, Intune and Autopilot.
  • Experience of managing device security configurations and policies using SCCM, Group Policy and Intune
  • Experience of threat detection to identify vulnerabilities that can be addressed with application updates and patches, such as Microsoft ATP
  • Evidence of excellent customer service skills and a commitment to improving services and performance for end users.
  • Skills for communication on complex matters and difficult situations, requiring persuasion and influence.
  • Problem solving skills and ability to respond to sudden unexpected demands.
  • Good planning and risk management skills, with the ability to pre-empt potential issues and mitigate effectively to stop system disruptions occurring. 

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £38,724, UK Health Security Agency contributes £10,455 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 and will assess your Behaviours/Experience/Technical skills. 

Stage 1: Application & Sift 

You will be required to complete an application form. You will be assessed on the above listed (9) essential criteria, and this will be in the form of a: 

  • CV/ Application form (‘Employer/ Activity history’ section on the application) 
  • 1000 word Statement of Suitability.  

This should outline how your skills, experience, and knowledge, provide evidence of your suitability for the role, with reference to the essential criteria.  

The CV/Application form and Statement of Suitability will be marked together.

In the event of a large number of applications we will longlist. 

If you are successful at this stage, you will progress to interview & assessment  

Please do not exceed 1000 words. We will not consider any words over and above this number. 

Feedback will not be provided at this stage. 

Stage 2: Interview

You will be invited to a (single) remote interview.

This vacancy is being assessed using Success Profiles during the interview we will assess your Behaviours, Experience and Technical skills. 

The Behaviours tested during the interview stage will be 

  • Making Effective Decisions
  • Working Together
  • Managing a Quality Service

Interview dates will be confirmed at a later date. Please note, these dates are subject to change. 

Please note all the essential criteria listed in the job description will be assessed at interview stage. 

Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records. 

Eligibility Criteria 
 
Open to all external applicants (anyone) from outside the Civil Service (including by definition internal applicants). 

Security Clearance Level Requirement  

Successful candidates must pass a disclosure and barring security check.  Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is Basic Personnel Security Standard 

Disability Confident scheme  

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. 

Reserve List clause 

Candidates who pass the interview criteria but are not offered a post will be kept on a reserve list for 12 months and may be contacted if similar roles become available.   

If you are interviewed for the post and do not meet the required threshold for the specified grade, your application may be assessed against a similar, lower grade role and you may be offered the post should one be available.  

Starting salary  

New entrants to the Civil Service are expected to start on the minimum of the pay band.    

The internal roles rules apply to existing Civil Servants, i.e. level transfers move on current salary or the pay range minimum, transfers on promotion move to new pay range minimum or receive 10% increase.    

Either case is determined by whichever is the highest.   

For further details please refer to the Information Sheet- Starting Salaries & Benefits attachment  



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

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check. 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

Please note this Post is NOT regulated by the Civil Service Commission. 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.

Added: 2 months ago