Lead Infrastructure Engineer (up to£81,736), London

About the job

Job summary

The Department for Education is seeking to recruit IT Infrastructure Engineers to work across multiple endeavours, predominantly in the Microsoft Azure public cloud. We continually seek new&innovative opportunities in our cloud estate for efficiencies, economies of scale and new value to users across established cloud computing platforms to make them better for users, increase value for money and reduce complexity.

Infrastructure Engineers in the Department design, build, operate and support IT infrastructure resources that underpin internal user services and services to the public. If you are successful, you will work as part of a team providing a range of capabilities and may operate across one or more contexts including the following.

• Hosting environments and landing zone management. Security, management, governance and automation of DfE's centrally managed hosting environments and cloud landing zones. Includes design, build, operate and maintain core cloud computing IT infrastructure services, ensuring that they remain available, secure, performant, and that they continue to meet requirements.
• Managed infrastructure service. Build, operate&maintain cloud and on-premises infrastructure resources for business applications. Updates and patching, back-up&restore, security vulnerability management, capacity management, service optimisation, incident resolution, request fulfilment, service controls, and asset management.
• Service improvement. Develop new, and enhance existing IT infrastructure products, services or processes to simplify infrastructure, enhance security, improve reliability&performance, avoid costs, scale&expand, prevent legacy, meet new requirements, or address emergent problem statements.

These posts are inEnterprise Data.Data plays a key role in achieving the department's vision; Within Enterprise Data we are striving to make DfE a data-led organisation, where we can have responsive decisions that leads to better outcomes for all children, young people and adults. Our Infrastructure Engineers help deliver that by working in a multidisciplinary team to provision, support and maintain cloud solutions (through Infrastructure as Code) as directed and according to departmental policy.

Job description

As a Lead Infrastructure Engineer in the Department for Education you will work within a user centred, agile environment leading and directing Infrastructure Engineers. You will provide technical leadership and support to build, operate and maintain the Department's cloud infrastructure services which underpin all internal business services and services to the public, predominantly within Microsoft Azure environments and landing zones.

Under direction, you will provide technical leadership to deliver improvements to modernise how cloud resources are deployed and managed, remove legacy ways of working, and deliver initiatives to help mature the Department's cloud computing platform including implementing solution architectures to enable cloud users to work in a consistent manner. You will:

• Work with technical architects to translate architectural designs into operable solutions.
• Transform technical requirements into automated processes using modern standards approaches such as Infrastructure as Code (IaC).
• Act as an advocate of cloud computing including Software as a Service (SaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) so that the Department and its partners can embrace the government's Cloud First policy.
• Create and sustain modern deployment and management standards, practices, and techniques for our cloud resources.
• Lead, support, coach, and mentor less experienced Infrastructure Engineers in managing, supporting and maintaining the Department's infrastructure.
• Advocate user-centric, agile approaches which focus on rapid, effective delivery of high-quality digital services.

Person specification

Essential Criteria:

Applications will be assessed at the sift and interview stages against the following essential criteria.

• Experience of providing technical leadership to motivate, manage and guide a team towards shared goals to design, build, configure, operate and maintain infrastructure resources in Microsoft Azure environments. Technologies include Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), Software as a Service (SaaS), commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) software, tenants, management groups, subscriptions, identity&access, network topology and connectivity, certificate services, cryptographic key management, availability&performance monitoring, developer collaboration software, virtual desktop, virtual machines and update management.
• Experience leading and designing system integration builds to combine IT infrastructure components to create a consolidated solution; co-ordinating test and build activities across infrastructure services.
• Experience of driving forward the adoption of automation techniques to configure IT infrastructure services, automate processes and extract information.
• Experience of designing, implementing and assuring security controls, options and configuration settings to protect cloud computing services, and to mitigate against security threats and vulnerabilities.
• Experience of developing and contributing to cloud infrastructure design standards, methods and tools; and developing infrastructure designs to ensure the selection of appropriate technology, efficient use of resources and integration of multiple systems and technology.

Desirable Criteria:

The following criteria are desirable. Any evidence gathered against these criteria may be used in the event of a tie break at interview to help to make an informed decision.

• Microsoft Azure verified credentials, certification or qualifications.
• Experience of providing technical leadership for troubleshooting activities; and problem management - identifying incident trends and coordinating actions to investigate, identify and resolve root causes; and organising Infrastructure Engineers to take forward preventive measures.
• Experience of influencing service levels and service frameworks and how to operate within them to deliver, operate and maintain IT infrastructure services.
• Experience of developing requirements and specifications, defining test conditions and analysing and reporting test activities and results.
• Experience of collaborating with, and conveying technical concepts to, both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• An understanding of the benefits of service levels and service frameworks and how to operate within them to deliver, operate and maintain IT infrastructure services.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of£58,185, Department for Education contributes£16,856 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

Applicants currently holding a permanent post in the Civil Service should note that, if successful, their salary on appointment would be determined by the Department's transfer / promotion policies.

As a member of the DfE, you will be entitled to join the highly competitive Civil Service Pension Scheme, which many experts agree is one of the most generous in the UK.

You will have 25 days leave, increasing by 1 day every year to a maximum of 30 days after five years'service. In addition, all staff receive the King's Birthday privilege holiday and 8 days'bank and public holidays.

We offer flexible working arrangements, such as job sharing, term-time working, flexi-time and compressed hours.

Most DfE employees will be working a hybrid pattern, spending at least 60% of their time in an office or work setting. Changes to these working arrangements are available in exceptional circumstances but must be agreed with the line manager and in line with the requirements of the role.

Travel to your primary office location will not be paid for by DfE, but costs for travel to an office which is not your main location will be covered.

As an organisation, which exists to support education and lifelong learning, we offer our staff excellent professional development opportunities.

Things you need to know

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Selection process details

Application/sift

At application you will be asked to provide your CV and a statement of suitability. Both should be anonymised (all personal information removed, such as your name, date of birth, gender, contact information, nationality etc).

• Your CV should include details of previous roles held and responsibilities / previous skills and experience.
• Your statement of suitability (maximum 1,250 words) should demonstrate how you meet the essential criteria listed in the person specification section above.