Lead DevOps

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This vacancy sits within HMRC’s Chief Digital & Information Office (CDIO) who set the technology direction for HMRC and deliver the high-level design for all IT solutions. CDIO is responsible for building and running HMRC IT services along with providing IT change and operational support.

You would join Enterprise Service Platforms team (ESP) within CDIO, a new delivery group created to build on and exploit the ServiceNow platform capability and setting the vision and strategy for service management, ensuring processes are owned and maturing. Now is an exciting time to join as we optimise user experience and build capability across our organisation. We deliver reliable, secure, and supportable solutions to around 76,000 of our colleagues across HMRC and play a critical part in ensuring that HMRC is both efficient and effective.

ESP are accountable for the support, management and development of platforms, tools and infrastructure including ServiceNow, SNOW and ServiceNow integrations to AWS/Azure. Our focus is on ensuring consistent, excellent Customer Experience.

We are working closely with the other platform groups and their partners to bring those IT Systems and Services together.

We work with hardworking, upbeat people who grow with the challenge of delivering transformation on a huge scale, and who have hands-on experience of driving through both technical and business changes., As a Grade 7 Lead DevOps Engineer within the ESP Platform Support team, you will provide strategic technical and people leadership for a multidisciplinary tooling engineering team.

You will be accountable for the design, development and operation of strategic enterprise tooling, including integrations with ServiceNow, and for the infrastructure (including cloud platforms) that underpin critical business services.

This role combines deep technical credibility with senior leadership, ensuring platform stability, security and scalability while driving modern engineering practices, automation and continuous improvement across the estate.

You will operate as a technical authority, a people leader, and a key advisor to senior stakeholders across CDIO and wider business areas., * Set the technical strategy and roadmap for enterprise tooling engineering within ESP Platform Support.

• Act as the technical authority for DevOps, platform tooling, integrations and supporting infrastructure.
• Drive adoption of modern DevOps practices, automation, CI/CD, reliability engineering and infrastructure-as-code.
• Ensure tooling and platforms align with enterprise architecture, security and operational standards.

ServiceNow & Enterprise Integrations

• Lead the design and delivery of integrations with ServiceNow, ensuring reliable data flows across enterprise systems.
• Oversee integration architecture, APIs, middleware and supporting services.
• Ensure integrations are supportable, secure, resilient and well-documented.

Infrastructure & Cloud Oversight

• Provide senior oversight of the infrastructure and cloud environments supported by the team.
• Ensure environments meet requirements for resilience, availability, performance, security and cost control.
• Work closely with infrastructure, security and architecture teams to manage risk and technical debt.

Team & People Leadership

• Lead, develop and inspire a strategic tooling engineering team, setting clear direction and expectations.
• Build capability through coaching, mentoring and performance management.
• Create a high-performing, inclusive culture focused on continuous improvement and learning.
• Own workforce planning, skills development and succession for the team.

Operational Accountability

• Provide senior technical input into incident management, problem management and major service restoration.
• Ensure services are operationally robust, with effective monitoring, alerting and support models.
• Balance run and change to maintain platform stability while enabling continuous delivery.

Stakeholder Engagement

• Engage confidently with senior stakeholders, translating complex technical topics into clear, actionable advice.

• Influence decisions across product, delivery, security and architecture communities.

• Represent ESP Platform Support in cross-department technical and governance forums., We'll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:

• System Integrations

• Modern Development Standards, * Separate 250-word statements for each of the Technical Skills: System Integrations and Modern Development Standards, based on the elements in the framework. Development operations (DevOps) engineer - Government Digital and Data Profession Capability Framework

• A 750-word Personal Statement. Your Personal Statement should be used to describe how your skills and experience would be suitable for the advertised role, making reference to the Essential Criteria, Person Specification outlined in the advert and provide examples of where you have Coached and mentored more junior engineers in a project towards a successful outcome., Exceptionally, candidates who are not successful at this grade may be considered for appointment to similar roles at a lower grade where the eligibility criteria are met. If this applies, we will contact you directly., 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.

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.

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

Do you have experience in ServiceNow?, * Significant experience leading DevOps, platform or tooling engineering in complex enterprise environments, including responsibility for live services and supporting infrastructure.

• DevOps and Automation
• Strong knowledge and practical experience of DevOps ways of working, including CI/CD, automation, infrastructure-as-code and reliability-focused engineering practices.

Enterprise Integrations

• Proven experience delivering and operating integrations between enterprise platforms, including ServiceNow or equivalent systems, ensuring secure and resilient data flows.

Infrastructure and Cloud

• Senior-level understanding of infrastructure and/or cloud platforms, including availability, resilience, security and cost optimisation considerations.

Leadership and Capability Building

• Demonstrable experience leading, coaching and developing engineers, building high-performing teams and growing capability at both individual and team level.

Change and Transformation

• Experience leading teams through technical change, modernisation or platform transformation while maintaining service stability.

Operational Accountability

• Experience operating with accountability for business-critical live services, including incident, problem and change management.

Agile and Collaborative Working

• Experience working within agile, multi-disciplinary environments, collaborating effectively with delivery, product and operational teams.

Communication and Influence

• Ability to communicate complex technical concepts clearly and influence effectively across technical, non-technical and senior stakeholder groups., 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 £58,541, HM Revenue and Customs contributes £16,959 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.

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.