About the job

Job summary

The Prime Minister’s Office enables the Prime Minister to deliver the Government’s overall priorities and to communicate the Government’s policies to Parliament, the public and international audiences. The diverse Downing Street teams at No10 draw on expertise from across the Civil Service and beyond to support the work of the office. They come together to deliver a world class excellent service while also making No10 a great place to work.

Job description

We are recruiting for a Network Operations Engineer within our small, busy, fast paced, highly motivated technical Service Delivery team working in the heart of UK Government.

As well as taking part in interesting and ever-changing work where no two days are the same, you’ll be working in an environment that is supportive and inclusive. The larger ICT team consists of men and women from various technical and business backgrounds who pull together to get the work completed.

In this team your opinion will be valued and listened to and you will have the chance to help contribute to the direction of future network architecture of the No10 IT and Telecoms services. There will be relevant training opportunities alongside technical and business support from expert colleagues.

This role reports to the Head of ICT Service Delivery, where you will lead and work with your team on the design, development and maintenance of the internal and external network infrastructure and services.

Using your technical knowledge, problem solving and analytical skills, you will investigate and resolve network hardware and software problems ensuring any issues are resolved at pace.

Key responsibilities:

• Management and maintenance of network infrastructure components and devices such as switches, routers, firewalls, and load balancers.
• Monitoring network performance, ensuring system capacity, availability, and reliability.
• Dealing with network incidents, performing failover operations, and managing the resolutions of faults, working with third parties where necessary.
• Working consistently to keep systems secure by implementing latest best practices and procedures including testing.
• Designing, procuring, implementing, and fully documenting current and new solutions working to improve resilience of the current environment.
• Supporting the Head of ICT Service Delivery to develop network strategy and deliver supporting projects to meet business requirements on time and within budget, from procurement to the delivery of the service.

Daily activities can include:

• Investigating and resolving faults in services, implementing preventative measures and providing advice on solutions
• Performing network maintenance and system tasks such as upgrades
• Maintaining network rooms, ensuring they are safe, secure and being used correctly. Working with the team, FM and Security to do this.
• Supporting, maintaining, and administering firewalls.
• Acting as the main contact point for network infrastructure requests for support.
• Take forward the procurement and management of services and equipment.
• Mentoring and leading less experienced members of the team to develop skills across the team.  
• Keeping up to date with new practices and innovation in technologies.
• Bringing in recommendations to improve system performance, security, and reliability.
• Participating in being on the full team on-call support rota.
• Plus, many more ad hoc technical, commercial and business activities required in support of the team’s work.

Important to note:

Like most businesses, we need to maintain our services 24/7, therefore there will be a requirement to work out of hours that is mostly planned but sometimes unplanned.

You will also be required to participate in an out of hours on-call rota. This rota includes weekday evenings and nights, weekends and public holidays.

There will be the occasional need to work at remote sites as part of this role. There may also be a requirement to travel nationally or internationally depending on business needs, this may include staying overnight for several days.

Because of this, you must have a:

• Valid UK passport
• UK driving license

Person specification

To be successful in gaining an interview for this role, you must demonstrate you have the following essential experience and skills:

• Proven technical experience in server and network administration in medium or large enterprise environments
• In depth knowledge and experience of working on LAN/WAN/VLAN, TCP/IP, UDP, networking infrastructure and firewalls.
• A thorough understanding of communication and routing protocols
• Network design and installation experience
• A good working knowledge of industry best practices related to IT infrastructure and security
• Hands-on experience of working with network devices (routers, switches, firewalls, load balancers)
• Firewall configuration and support including traffic flow, dynamic routing and log analysis
• Experience of network and hardware troubleshooting, root cause analysis and resolution
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to convey complex technology concepts to non-technical stakeholders
• Excellent problem-solving ability using good judgement to make risk-based decisions on high profile and complex issues at pace
• CCNP or JNCIS-SP/JNCIP-SP certifications or equivalent

The following experience and skills are desirable in this role:

• Recognised higher education in an IT related area
• Network Security qualifications
• Familiarity with legislation pertaining to Government/Public Sector IT
• First line support experience supporting Windows and Mac devices, iPhones, Microsoft Office 365 and printing services

Please include on your CV any qualifications you have that are relevant to this role.

Additional information:

A minimum 60% of your working time should be spent at your principal workplace. Although requirements to attend other locations for official business will also count towards this level of attendance.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £44,500, Cabinet Office contributes £12,015 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, Strengths, Experience and Technical skills.

Application process

At the application stage we ask for a CV and a personal statement of up to 750 words.

The personal statement should include:

• What interests you about the role
• How you meet the skills required for this role
• What you will bring to the role

How you meet the skills should be a summary of how you meet some of the essential skills to be successful in this role from previous roles and experience. It should not just refer to your CV.

Selection process

Applications will be sifted using the Experience element of the Success Profiles Framework. 

Candidates successful at sift will be invited to interview stage. To be successful in your interview you will need to demonstrate you have the experience through your Behaviours and Strengths questions.  You will also need to be able to answer technical questions based on the requirements listed on this job specification.

When interviewing about Behaviours we will be looking at examples of when you have demonstrated the behaviour from scenarios and work you have been involved in.

These will outline the:

• Situation
• Task
• Actions you took
• Result/outcome and benefits of your actions

The expected level of these behaviours is at SEO grade and are found in the Civil Service behaviours link below.

 Useful links for applying for a new job:

• Success Profiles – Civil Service Behaviours
• Interview advice, National Careers Service
• The STAR method, National Careers Service

Expected timeline (subject to change)

Expected sift date – August 
Expected interview date/s – Late August or early September 
Interview location - 10 Downing Street 

Reasonable adjustments

If a person with disabilities is put 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 cabinetofficerecruitment.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.

Further information

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

Please note that this role requires DV clearance, which would normally need 10 years’ UK residency in the past 10 years. This is not an absolute requirement, but supplementary checks may be needed where individuals have not lived in the UK for that period. This may mean your security clearance (and therefore your appointment) will take longer or, in some cases, not be possible.

Please note terms and conditions are attached. Please take time to read the document to determine how these may affect you.

Any move to Cabinet 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

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

If successful and transferring from another Government Department a criminal record check may be carried out.

In order to process applications without delay, we will be sending a Criminal Record Check to Disclosure and Barring Service on your behalf.

However, we recognise in exceptional circumstances some candidates will want to send their completed forms direct. If you will be doing this, please advise Government Recruitment Service of your intention by emailing Pre-EmploymentChecks.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk stating the job reference number in the subject heading.

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. 

A candidate is not eligible to apply for a role within the Civil Service if the application is made within a 5 year period following a dismissal for carrying out internal fraud against government.

This role is full time only. Applicants who wish to work an alternative pattern are welcome to apply however your preferred working pattern may not be available and you should discuss this with the vacancy holder before applying.

For further information on National Security Vetting please visit the following page https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/demystifying-vetting

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 developed vetting (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

Open to UK nationals only.

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.