Senior Infrastructure Engineer (Database Specialist)

Discover a career in your hands at HMRC. Whether you're seeking purpose, growth, or a workplace that gives you a true sense of belonging, hear from some of our employees as they share their story about what it’s really like to work at HMRC., As a Senior Infrastructure Engineer (Database Specialist), you will work in an Agile fast-paced environment helping to deliver and maintain database products and solutions. Already a skilled Practitioner and role model, you will ensure best practices are adhered to and guide teams on how to deliver and support quality database products.

In addition, you will be responsible for the design, implementation, configuration, maintenance of critical database platforms in the cloud and on-premise, to ensure the availability and consistent performance of our products and services within agreed service levels., * Proactively contribute to the Database Engineering Community of Practice by providing technical leadership and mentorship to less experienced team members.

• Manage databases through multiple product lifecycle environments, from development to mission-critical production systems on-premise and Cloud IaaS and PaaS environments.
• Configure and maintain database servers, including monitoring of system health and performance, to ensure optimum levels of performance, availability, security, and automation.
• Support architects and developers to ensure design, development and implementation support efforts meet integration and performance expectations.
• Independently analyse, tackle, and correct issues in real time, providing problem resolution end-to-end.
• Refine and automate regular processes, track issues, and document changes.
• Assist developers with complex query tuning, schema refinement and cloud migration approaches., We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:
• Making Effective Decisions
• Working Together
• Delivering at Pace
• Developing Self and Others
• Communicating and Influencing, * A 750-word Personal Statement. Your Personal Statement should detail how you meet the Responsibilities and Essential Criteria requested under Person Specification, providing evidence of your suitability and what experience you bring to the role.
• Please complete a separate statement (Max 250 words) for the Desirable Criteria where applicable. This is not essential for the role but may be considered by the vacancy-holder where candidates have the same scores at sift or interview., If you have an HMRC online account already, sign straight in using your ID and password. If not, you can prove your identity by answering some questions or providing your photo ID.

You’ll then be able to access the app quickly and easily by signing in using a 6-digit PIN, your fingerprint, or facial recognition.

You can find guidance for technical issues on GOV.UK: Technical support with HMRC online services

Reserve List

A reserve list may be held for up to 6 months from which further appointments may be made for the same or similar roles – if this applies to you, we’ll let you know via your Civil Service Jobs account.

Merit List

After interview, a single merit list will be created, and you will only be considered for posts in locations you have expressed a preference for. Appointments will be made in strict merit order in line with the set number of roles in each location. #meritlist

Criminal Record Check

Applications received from candidates with a criminal record are considered fairly in accordance with the DBS Code of Practice and the Recruitment of ex-offenders Policy.

Hybrid working at HMRC

HMRC is an office-based organisation, and colleagues are expected to spend 60% of their working time in the office. Our offices provide opportunity for interaction, collaboration which aids learning and development and a sense of community. Where the role allows it, and where the home environment is suitable, colleagues can work from home for up to 2 days a week, averaged over a calendar month (or a proportionate amount of time for colleagues who work less than full time).

Reasonable Adjustments

We want to make sure no one is put at a disadvantage during our recruitment process. To assist you with this, we will reduce or remove any barriers where possible and provide additional support where appropriate., HMRC has a presence in every region of the UK. For more information on where you might be working, review this information on our locations .

The Civil Service values honesty and integrity and expects all candidates to abide by these principles. The evidence you provide in your application must relate to your own experiences.

Any instances of plagiarism or other forms of cheating will be investigated and, if proven, the relevant application(s) will be withdrawn from the process.

Recording of interviews is prohibited unless explicit agreement is sought in line with the UK General Data Protection Regulations.

Questions relating to an individual application must be emailed as detailed later in this advert.

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.

New entrants will join on the minimum of the pay band.

Please note that, if you are applying for roles on a part-time basis, the salary agreed will be pro-rata, reflective of the working hours agreed within your contract.

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

For more Information for people applying for, or thinking of applying for, roles at HM Revenue and Customs, please see link: Working for HMRC: information for applicants - GOV.UK. 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 .

See our vetting charter . People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks., * 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)
• 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, Appointment to the Civil Service is governed by the Civil Service Commission’s Recruitment Principles. You have the right to complain if you feel there has been a breach of the Recruitment Principles. In the first instance, you should raise the matter directly via ubsrecruitmentcomplaints@hmrc.gov.uk . Please note that we do not accept complaints or appeals regarding scoring of outcomes of campaigns unless candidates can provide clear evidence that the campaign did not follow the Recruitment Principles. If you are not satisfied with the response, you may bring your complaint to the Commission. For further information on bringing a complaint to the Civil Service Commission please visit their website.

Do you have experience in Terraform?, The ideal candidate will have a proven track record as a Database Infrastructure Engineer or Database Administrator, and you will have experience of:

• Providing effective database management and support gained in very large, highly available, enterprise-class environments.
• Technical experience should include, but not limited to, database provisioning, security, backups and restores and on-premises to cloud migrations, with an emphasis on Oracle technology., * Expertise in Oracle Database (19c and above), including Grid Infrastructure, Recovery Manager, Data Guard
• Expertise in database management, performance tuning and SQL optimisation.
• Expertise in provisioning databases on Linux platforms.
• Practitioner level knowledge of Cloud infrastructure technologies such as AWS and Microsoft Azure, IaaS- and PaaS-based database solutions .
• Practitioner level skills in Linux OS and scripting.
• Working knowledge of DevOps practices, continuous delivery tooling (for example, Terraform, Ansible, Git) and database automation using the aforementioned tools.
• Must hold, or be eligible to obtain Security Clearance (SC)., * Practitioner level knowledge of one of the following database technologies: SQL Server or PostgreSQL.
• Working knowledge of Agile deliveries, collaborative tooling and techniques, including Jira and Kanban.
• Working knowledge of ITIL 4 processes.
• Understanding of government or public sector technology requirements., Customer facing roles in HMRC require the ability to converse at ease with members of the public and provide advice in accurate spoken English and/or Welsh where required. Where this is an essential requirement, this will be tested as part of the selection process.

Alongside your salary of £45,544, HM Revenue and Customs contributes £13,194 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

HMRC operates both Flexible and Hybrid Working policies, allowing you to balance your work and personal commitments. We welcome applications from those who need to work a more flexible arrangement and will agree to requests where possible, considering our operational and customer service needs.

We offer a generous leave allowance, starting at 25 days and increasing by a day for every year of qualifying service up to a maximum of 30 days.

• Pension - We make contributions to our colleagues’ Alpha pension equal to at least 28.97% of their salary.
• Family friendly policies.
• Personal support.
• Coaching and development.

HMRC is transforming the UK’s tax system through cutting-edge digital innovation and the Chief Digital and Information Officer (CDIO) Group is at the heart of that mission. We are building high-quality digital services that will enhance the customer experience, enable real-time interactions, and make tax simpler and more intuitive for everyone. By equipping our colleagues with modern tools and technologies, we are also reshaping how we work — allowing HMRC to focus its resources where they can deliver the greatest impact.