About the job

Job summary

The Valuation Office Agency (VOA) are the public sector’s property valuation experts and advisers with a vision to be a world-leading provider of public sector valuations. Our work is vital to the collection of over £60 billion of revenue which goes back into communities, touching every citizen and every business across England and Wales.

We champion the values of professionalism, integrity, respect and innovation. We are committed to providing a collaborative and supportive working environment that encourages every colleague to contribute, grow and excel together. With opportunities to drive your own development and growth, we empower our colleagues to succeed by ensuring support at every step of their career journey.

Data is crucial to the VOA. It’s at the heart of what we do, the use of data is woven into the operation of the business through the analytical models used operationally. You will be joining at an exciting time with a fantastic opportunity to gain extensive experience in a broad range of activities. Our unit has a focus on learning & development. We have an open transparent culture based on collective responsibility and accountability. We support each other, we help each other, and we learn from each other.

“I am excited for Platform Capability to transform how we deliver value from data by providing an innovative data analytics platform for our data experts. If you are passionate about providing an excellent user experience while pushing for continuous improvement and innovation, I want to hear from you. As we are currently in the process of migrating to a new technology stack, this role will give you the opportunity to set the standard for platform engineering in the VOA, while gaining valuable experience and developing your skills for you own career development.”

Emmi Yla-Pynnonen, Platform Capability Lead

Job description

Senior Platform Engineer – Role Overview

This role sits within the Platform Capability team within Data Foundations which is a diverse multi-disciplinary unit at the heart of VOA transformation supporting the Business Systems Transformation programme (BST) and the delivery of our data strategy. We have bold plans to unlock the value of the data in the Valuation Office Agency, and you will be at the heart of this, contributing to the team’s vision to make the availability of quality data an assumption, not a concern.

The Platform Capability team is responsible for supporting the agency’s Data Analytics Platform as a live service alongside data engineering teams for the data analyst community and supporting the implementation of DevOps to the platform. As a senior platform engineer, you’ll be supporting the Platform Capability Lead in ensuring that the platform users have a consistent experience when reporting an incident or making a service request and leading in establishing new operating standards for the platform. In this role, you’ll also have line management responsibility for platform engineers in the team.

Senior Platform Engineer – Key responsibilities

The key responsibilities of this role include:

• Engage and maintain relationships with both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Manage the daily operations of the platform and the resolution of any incidents and problems raised.
• Supervise and support the fulfilment of service requests as a senior engineer.
• Identify opportunities for improvement and contribute to the implementation of proposed solutions.
• Lead on the build and maintenance of the platform’s CI/CD infrastructure as a senior engineer.
• Create and implement operational standards and processes for the platform.
• Coach and mentor team members to support their skills development.

Person specification

We are a team of individuals with a diverse range of backgrounds and career journeys, and welcome applications that help us be representative of the communities we serve. You may be someone with a background in service management, platform engineering or DevOps/DataOps with a genuine business focus. Or you might be someone with a strong data background with an aptitude for programming. We want to hear from people who:

• Love to problem solve, both short-term workarounds and long-term solutions.
• Have an insatiable curiosity and want to innovate and improve.
• Are collaborative and seek to work across team boundaries to achieve a common goal.
• Have enthusiasm for what they do and want to make positive change.
• Support their team and help them develop.
• Are tenacious and pragmatic enough to see things through.

Essential Requirements

• User Focus – You have experience of managing a service to minimize disruptions and downtime, with focus on a great user experience.
• Communicating between technical and non-technical – You can effectively communicate and facilitate conversations with stakeholders with varying levels of technical skills
• Ownership and Initiative – You take ownership of issues identified and proactively try to create resolutions to prevent issues from reoccurring.
• Problem Management – You’re able to identify problems and create solutions for them, maintaining a balance between delivering a long-term solution and providing an immediate fix.
• Technical Capability – You have experience or knowledge of programming practices, core cloud concepts and DevOps fundamentals.

Desirable Criteria

• Experience using data products in Azure, such as Databricks and/or Azure Data Factory.
• Experience or knowledge of DevOps or DataOps methodologies, including CI/CD and source control.
• Experience in using Python or another programming language to deliver a solution.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £40,185, Valuation Office Agency contributes £10,850 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, Experience and Technical skills.

If you can meet our person requirements above, we are keen to hear from you.

To apply for this post, you must complete an online application with the following:

• A CV setting out your Job History and Previous skills and experiences. 
• A Personal Statement (maximum 750 words), please outline your suitability for the role. Please pay particular attention to the ‘Essential Criteria’ and ‘Person Specification’ outlined in the advert when providing your answer.

Sift  - 7th August 2024

• We will assess you on your CV and Personal Statement . 

Interviews - W/C 19th August 2024

Please note these dates are provisional and may be subject to change. These will be confirmed should you be invited to interview.

Interviews are currently taking place using Microsoft Teams Video. We will provide more detail if you are shortlisted for interview. 

• We will assess you on the Behaviours listed in the job description and technical questions to assess your technical skills.

At the interview, the panel can then probe further and ask applicants to provide further specific examples that show how they best demonstrate their skills.

Application Hints and Tips

For more information on Success Profiles, tips on how to write a successful application and find out more about what’s involved in the application process please visit About the application process, Civil Service Careers (civil-service-careers.gov.uk)

Further Information

As part of the application process you will be asked to tell us which of the locations available you can work in. You will be able to specify up to 2 options. 

Due to the way the CS Jobs system is set up, when choosing your preferred locations, you will find that the Canary Wharf location will not appear on the list of options.

Should you wish to choose Canary Wharf as a location then please select Tower Hamlets.

Any move to VOA 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

The VOA is an office-based organisation that supports flexible working. By default, everyone in the VOA is a hybrid worker with options to work in the office, at home or out and about, depending on the work they’re doing that day and where it’s best done.

VOA employees only:  If you are currently in receipt of DTA as a result of a VOA office closure/restructure and it is agreed for you to take up this role in your current location, you may continue to receive DTA for the remainder of the period you can claim for.  Please check with the Vacancy Holder on preferred locations for this role before you apply.

Pre-employment Checks

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.

If you would require a Certificate of Sponsorship from the VOA to undertake this role, please contact resourcingteam@voa.gov.uk before submitting your application.

Reasonable Adjustment

We want to make sure no one is put at a disadvantage during our recruitment process because of a disability, condition, or impairment. To assist you with this, we will reduce or remove any barriers where possible and provide additional support where appropriate.

If you need a reasonable adjustment or a change to be made so that you can make your application:

• Please click here for more information: Reasonable Adjustments , Civil Service Careers (civil-service-careers.gov.uk)
• Contact voarecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk as soon as possible.

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.

Terms & Conditions

Voluntary terms apply.

Reserve Lists

If we have more successful candidates than available vacancies, we will hold a 3-month reserve list as standard. 

During that time, we may use the list to fill the same, or similar roles with closely matching essential criteria, without further testing of merit. Any appointments from the Reserve list will be made in strict merit order.

Applying

All applications for these vacancies must be made online. There are limited exceptions to this. Paper applications will only be considered if you have a disability that will prevent you from applying online. If this is the case, please email voarecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk

Once you have submitted your application it cannot be amended; only submit your application when you have completely finished and answered all the relevant questions.

Please note that late applications will not be accepted.

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

New entrants are expected to join on the minimum of the pay band.

Concerns/Complaints

The Valuation Office Agency’s recruitment processes are underpinned by the Civil Service Commissioner’s Recruitment Principles, which outlines that selection for appointment is made on merit based on fair and open competition.

If you feel your application has not been treated in accordance with the values in the Civil Service Code and/or if you feel the recruitment has been conducted in such a way that conflicts with the Civil Service Commissioner’s Recruitment Principles, you may make a complaint, by contacting the Central Recruitment Team at the following address: resourcingteam@voa.gov.uk

If you are not content with the outcome of your complaint you have the right to complain to the Civil Service Commissioners.

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

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.