Senior Infrastructure Operations Engineer (DevOps/Platform)

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 Operations Engineer (Platform Operations Engineer) within HMRC’s Enterprise Cloud Services (ECS), you will ensure the reliability, security, and efficiency of platforms hosting HMRC’s mission-critical services. You will undertake day-to-day operations and drive continual improvement across our cloud platforms, maintaining a high level of availability through proactive monitoring and rapid incident response.

Security and compliance will be central to your role, applying access controls, patching, and vulnerability management to meet industry standards. You will apply change and configuration processes to minimise risk and maintain accurate system data, while using metrics, logging, and automation to optimise performance, reduce manual effort, and control costs.

Working closely with service desks and platform engineering teams, you will resolve incidents, support users, and maintain CI/CD pipelines and Infrastructure as Code. By enabling observability and feedback loops, you will help ensure our platforms continue to run reliably. You will also document procedures, standardise practices, and embrace good operational practises to strengthen resilience and consistency across the organisation., Platform Operations & Reliability

• Own the operational health of our Cloud platforms.
• Monitor, troubleshoot, and resolve incidents across our Cloud platforms.
• Drive root-cause analysis and implement permanent fixes.

Automation & Infrastructure as Code

• Develop and maintain Infrastructure as Code (IaC) using Terraform.
• Remove manual intervention through an automation-first mindset.

CI/CD with GitLab

• Design, implement, and maintain CI/CD pipelines in GitLab to automate deployments and configuration changes.
• Iterate on automated testing, security scanning, and compliance checks within pipelines.

Collaborate across our teams on reusable GitLab CI templates and standardising build/release processes.

• Optimise pipeline performance and troubleshoot issues.

Security & Compliance

• Apply cloud security according to industry good practice.
• Support audits and maintain alignment with compliance frameworks.
• Manage patching and vulnerabilities through automation.

Performance & Cost Optimisation

• Analyse value/cost/performance to optimise spend and capacity.
• Provide guidance to development teams on efficient resource usage.

Collaboration & Leadership

• Mentor engineers and share best practices across Platform teams.
• Partner with platform development teams to ensure smooth releases.

Mentoring & Technical Leadership

• The ideal candidate will demonstrate a proactive approach to mentoring and supporting junior team members, fostering a culture of continuous learning and growth. They will actively contribute to the technical leadership of the team by sharing knowledge, offering constructive feedback, and guiding others through complex problem-solving. Their ability to lead by example, communicate clearly, and encourage collaboration will be key to building a resilient and high-performing engineering culture.

Critical Thinking & Technical Mindset

• We’re looking for someone who brings a strong critical thinking mindset to their technical work - someone who doesn’t just follow patterns, but questions assumptions, evaluates options, and makes informed decisions. The successful candidate will approach challenges with curiosity and analytical rigour, balancing innovation with pragmatism. They will be comfortable navigating ambiguity, identifying root causes, and proposing solutions that are both technically sound and aligned with strategic goals., 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 12 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.

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.

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.

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?, Do you thrive on keeping critical platforms running smoothly?

Are you passionate about cloud platform operations, security, and automation?

Do you have experience in addressing risks, incidents and service quality across technical teams?

Do you want to play a key role in delivering reliable, secure, and efficient platforms that provide services for millions of citizens?

We are looking for a resourceful individual who can ensure our cloud platforms are robust, secure, and optimal. From monitoring performance and managing change to enabling automation and driving standardisation, you’ll help keep HMRC’s mission-critical cloud platforms running at their best., * Experience operating in AWS, or Azure

• Proven incident & problem management, and root-cause analysis capability
• Proficiency with Linux systems administration
• Capability in Infrastructure as Code (Terraform preferred)
• Knowledge of GitLab CI/CD, including pipeline design, runners, and secrets management
• Scripting skills (e.g. Python, Go, or Bash)

Desirable Criteria

• Experience with Monitoring & Observability tooling
• Exposure to configuration management tools
• Awareness of FinOps and cloud cost management
• Cloud related certifications
• Familiarity with the principles behind ITIL service operations, 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.

Within HMRC’s Chief Digital & Information Group (CDIO), specifically in the Enterprise Cloud Services (ECS) team we are redefining our offerings and growing the team of outstanding people to improve the Cloud Centre of Excellence. We are already a diverse team of 90+ technologists, creating a dynamic and inclusive working environment whose skills cover architecture, platform development, service design, platform operations and governance.