About the job

Job summary

Diverse Perspectives and experiences are critical to our success, and we welcome applications from all people from all backgrounds with the experience and skills needed to perform this role. We look forward to receiving your application.

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.

At the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), we believe everyone has the right to come home safe and well from their job. We use world-leading science to prevent work-related death, injury and ill health. We don’t just inspect and investigate; we also provide advice and training to organisations. All this together means we help keep people safe, boost productivity, support the UK economy and contribute to a fairer society.

Keeping people safe and healthy matters and that’s what we do at the Health and Safety Executive.  Every day, everyone on the team contributes to protecting lives and we apply our expertise to help influence change in mindsets about health and safety throughout industry.  We undertake world-class science to build our knowledge about safe working practices, and then apply that understanding to the workplace, guiding every part of the economy to function safely.  And when accidents happen, we investigate and hold those at fault to account whilst ensuring that lessons are learnt across industries.  We are a modern, independent, data driven Regulator and we are proud to have made Great Britain one of the safest places to work in the world.

Technology, data, and digital services underpins everything that HSE does. We are a knowledge organisation, with a wealth of experience in keeping people safe. It is the responsibility of the Information and Technology Services (ITS) Division to ensure that everyone in the organisation can access our data and information, to share it and to use it to make effective decisions. We support over 3000 colleagues working in a hybrid style at home and in 26 offices across Great Britain. Our services keep inspectors functioning effectively and efficiently on industrial sites nationwide, from oil platforms in the North Sea to our deepest mines and quarries.

Job description

We strive to constantly improve the technologies and services supporting the organisation. Our end user computing devices are leading edge, and we are making significant progress in delivering new cloud-based services. Our service management and information management services are very highly regarded within the organisation and pride themselves on excellent customer service. Our commercial team has built strong relationships with suppliers and our project management team is embedded in our corporate change programme, transforming the older legacy systems that have underpinned the organisation for a long time.

About Development Operations (DevOps) Engineering Team 

HSE’s Development Operations (DevOps) Engineering teams, comprising both internal and outsourced capabilities, delivers support to major digital and technology services change programmes transforming HSE, and implement continuous integration (CI) and continuous deployment (CD) for services once live.  The team will design, establish and operate the processes, architectures, and services that will deliver all of HSE digital and technology services.  The team will ensure that new cloud-based technologies are secure by design and remain secure during operations, protecting HSE’s data and users from cyber-attack and unauthorised loss.

To deliver Development Operations (DevOps) Engineering for all HSE cloud-infrastructure services ensuring that all technologies (cloud-network, cloud-hosting (IaaS, PaaS and SaaS), cloud-storage and cloud-security) remain available, performant to Service Level Agreements (SLAs) and relevant to business requirements. Deliver the DevOps Engineering support to major digital and technology services change programmes transforming HSE, and support the implementation of continuous integration (CI) and continuous deployment (CD) for services once live. Operate and deliver the processes, architectures, and services that will deliver all of HSE digital and technology services. Ensure that new cloud-based technologies are secure by design and remain secure during operations, protecting HSE’s data and users from cyber-attack and unauthorised loss. This role will engage with users, supporting their needs and ensuring that a high-quality customer-focused service is delivered.

We have an opportunity to recruit a Senior DevOps Engineer to join the DevOps Team in the ITS Division. As a Senior DevOps Engineer, you will thrive and enjoy working openly, collaboratively and as part of a multidisciplinary team focused on one or many projects. You will be supporting existing cloud-based services, assisting in the design, and delivery of new cloud-based services as we expand HSE’s digital services in Azure, adhering to GDS principles and using Agile principles.

If you are successful, you will need to travel to other offices as project work requires and also occasionally to Redgrave Court for workshops and Team meetings.

You are required to work a 37 hour week based on a 5 day working week and 7.4 hours day. The working week is between 07:00 and 19:00 Monday to Friday. There is the possibility of Saturday working between 07:00 and 19:00. As far as possible your Line Manager will agree your working pattern(s) with you including any Saturday working. There may be times when you are required to work additional hours and/or a late shift to accommodate operational needs or unplanned events. Where it is necessary for operational reasons to vary your ‘normal’ working pattern(s) you will be notified by your manager in advance.

May be required to be on an on-call rota.

At HSE, we are proud to be able to offer our people the opportunity to work in a hybrid way which combines working from home and the office. This is a voluntary, non-contractual arrangement and your allocated office will be your contractual place of work. There will be a requirement to travel to the office for various activities e.g., collaborative working, supporting and training colleagues. If hybrid working is suitable for you and your role, the arrangements will be determined primarily by business need, but personal circumstances and other relevant circumstances will also be taken into account. Therefore, we would encourage candidates to consider if the commute from home to the office is a feasible distance to travel before making an application. Please note that if you are successful, hybrid working will be discussed prior to taking up the post.

Person specification

Key Responsibilities as a Senior DevOps Engineer:

• As a Senior DevOps Engineer you will help to develop the capability of HSEs newly formed multi-skilled DevOps Engineering team to manage the technologies of a cloud-based IT estate.
• You will help establish and then operate DevOps processes, establishing a regime and culture of continuous integration (CI) and continuous deployment (CD).
• You will work closely with the development and test communities as we strive to automate our processes and implement new tooling.
• You will support the design, implementation and management of solutions that are highly available, resilient, scalable and maintainable within our cloud environment.
• You will deliver the DevOps Engineering support to major digital and technology services change programmes transforming HSE. 

Essential Skills and Criteria:

• Experience of implementing and administering cloud-based solutions in Microsoft Azure, utilising IaaS or PaaS based services.
• Experience of building and optimising CI/CD pipelines using Azure DevOps.
• Experience using scripting languages (e.g. PowerShell, Bash).
• Experience of creating and maintaining Infrastructure as Code (e.g. Bicep, ARM templates) in a source control management system.
• Strong communication skills; with the ability to convey complex technical concepts clearly and concisely.
• Experience of managing the technologies of a cloud-based IT estate.

Desirable Skills and Criteria:

• Experience of setting up monitoring and alerting of live cloud services.
• Experience of configuration management tools (e.g. Ansible and Terraform).
• Broad knowledge of a range of cloud-based IT security technology solutions.
• Good understanding and working experience in Agile way of working (DevOps based model).
• Experience of Containerisation tools such as Docker and Kubernetes.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £40,778, Health and Safety Executive contributes £11,010 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 and Experience.

Application

Within your application you will be asked to complete an anonymised CV. Please ensure you complete your career history, skills relevant to the role and qualifications. 

You will also complete a 500-word Personal Statement detailing how your previous experience and skillset meets the expectations outlined within the job description & person specification.

Sift

We will sift applications based on your CV and 500 word Personal Statement, detailing how your previous experience and skillset meets the expectations outlined within the job description & person specification.

The sift will take place weeks commencing 5th February 2024

Application guidance

Please access the following link for guidance on how to apply and how to complete a personal statement https://www.civil-service-careers.gov.uk/how-to-apply/

Interview

At Interview, you will be assessed against the behaviours details within the job advert. We will also assess your experience from your CV/Personal Statement.

Interviews will take place via MS Teams, week commencing 19th February 2024

Please note that dependent on numbers of applications received these dates could be subject to change.

Further Information

A reserve list will be held for 12 months.

Due to the nature of security checks undertaken, applicants must have 3 years continuous residency in the UK up to the date of the application and, Home Office approval for indefinite leave to remain within the UK.

It is the candidate’s responsibility to ensure they are aware of the terms and conditions they will adopt should they be successful in their application. For a summary of HSE terms and conditions as part of Civil Service Reform, please see the attached document.

Any move to HSE 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 here 

If you have a disability and you need an application form in an alternative format or you would like to know more about our recruitment process, please contact: hr.resourcing-team@hse.gov.uk  

Please note, if you are a current civil servant and you are currently undergoing any of the following formal actions your application will not be progressed any further; Formal discipline action, any formal action regarding attendance, poor performance or any restriction of duties as a result of disciplinary action.

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.