Lead Azure DevOps Engineer

Please note this role requires you to pass Security Check clearance. For further information, please see ‘Selection process details’.

Are you excited about the opportunity to protect critical citizen facing services from cyber threats at scale?

Are you passionate about cloud technologies, automation, and building secure, resilient platforms?

Can you provide technical leadership while driving engineering excellence across DevOps and Azure services?

If so, we’re looking for an experiencedLead Azure DevOps Engineerto help shape and deliver the future of cloud engineering.

In this role, you’ll lead the design and evolution of enterprise DevOps capabilities across our Azure platform, driving automation, improving delivery speed, and embedding secure by design principles across critical services. You’ll provide technical leadership, set engineering standards, and support teams in adopting best practices across CI/CD, Infrastructure as Code, cloud governance, and observability.

Working with modern Azure technologies, you’ll architect secure, scalable, and highly available solutions, champion DevSecOps and Zero Trust principles, and help drive the adoption of cloud native approaches that improve reliability, resilience, and value for money.

This is a fantastic opportunity to influence strategy, mentor engineers, and lead the delivery of secure digital services that millions of people rely on every day., * Lead the strategy, architecture, and continuous evolution of enterprise Azure cloud and DevOps capabilities.

• Define and embed best practice across CI/CD, Infrastructure as Code, cloud governance, and engineering standards.
• Provide technical leadership and assurance, acting as a subject matter expert and influencing key architectural decisions.
• Architect, deploy, and support secure, scalable, and highly available Azure solutions using modern cloud native technologies.
• Drive automation and delivery excellence through Azure DevOps, Terraform, and Azure native tooling, enabling reliable and repeatable deployments.
• Champion DevSecOps, observability, resilience, and cost optimisation through proactive monitoring, security controls, and disaster recovery practices.
• Mentor engineers and collaborate across multidisciplinary teams to build capability, drive continuous improvement, and deliver secure, high quality services., Civil Servants applying on promotion will usually be appointed to the salary minimum or within 10% of existing salary.

Any move to DWP 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 the Childcare Choices Website.

For further information on reasonable adjustments, terms and conditions and how we recruit visit the How we recruit page.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a basic (or equivalent) criminal record check.

Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check (opens in a new window) .

See our vetting charter (opens in a new window) .

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.

Diversity and Inclusion The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the Civil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window) .

Apply and further information

This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans (opens in a new window) initiative.

The Civil Service welcomes applications from people who have recently left prison or have an unspent conviction. Read more about prison leaver recruitment (opens in new window) .

• CI/CD and Infrastructure as Code - Advanced, demonstrable capability in pipeline engineering and Infrastructure as Code, with hands-on experience designing, implementing and optimising CI/CD pipelines (for example Azure DevOps, GitHub Actions or GitLab CI) and defining reusable, governed infrastructure using Terraform and Azure-native tooling (ARM or Bicep), setting the engineering standards that others follow.
• Containerisation and orchestration - Extensive experience building and operating scalable, resilient container platforms using Docker and Kubernetes, preferably Azure Kubernetes Service, from design through to production support.
• Security and DevSecOps - Strong, practical application of secure-by-design and Zero Trust principles, including managed identities, secrets management (for example Key Vault), RBAC and vulnerability management, embedding security throughout the delivery lifecycle.
• Automation and reliability engineering - Proficient in Python with solid scripting in PowerShell and Bash to drive automation and operational efficiency, combined with strong observability practice (for example Azure Monitor, Sentinel, Application Insights and Log Analytics) using SLIs, SLOs and distributed tracing to sustain and improve system reliability.
• Autonomy and technical leadership - Proven ability to work independently and self-manage priorities with minimal direction, taking end-to-end ownership of complex services. Sets technical direction and standards, drives the adoption of modern engineering practices, and influences and guides engineers and stakeholders to deliver measurable outcomes such as fewer incidents, faster and safer releases, and improved resilience.

1. Technical statement (up to 250 words). The following statement is aligned to the required technical skill of Technical Breadth. This statement should be used to provide example(s) of how you meet the criterion below: * Azure platform expertise and architecture - Deep hands-on expertise across the Microsoft Azure ecosystem, including core compute, networking, storage, identity and security services. Proven track record of independently designing, delivering and owning secure, scalable and highly available cloud environments at enterprise scale, with clear regard for availability, cost optimisation and compliance.

Ensure that all examples provided in your statements are taken directly from your own experience and that you describe the examples in your own words. If you choose to use gen-AI to support your statements, you must follow the guidelines outlined in the Artificial intelligence and recruitment guide., You will be asked to do a 5 minutes presentation on a specific topic. Further details will be provided to candidates invited to interview., You must meet the security requirements before you can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check.

You must have resided continuously in the UK for at least 3 of the last 5 years, 2 of which must have been the immediately preceding years from the point of applying for this job.

Alongside your salary of 75,026, Department for Work and Pensions contributes 21,735 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides (opens in a new window).

We also have a broad benefits package built around your work-life balance which includes:

• Working patterns to support work/life balance such as job sharing, term-time working, flexi-time and compressed hours.
• Generous annual leave at least 25 days on entry, increasing up to 30 days over time (prorata for part time employees), plus 9 days public and privilege leave.
• Support for financial wellbeing, including interest-free season ticket loans for travel, a cycle to work scheme and an employee discount scheme.
• Health and wellbeing support including our Employee Assistance Programme for specialist advice and counselling and the opportunity to join HASSRA a first-class programme of competitions, activities and benefits for its members (subscription payable monthly).
• Family friendly policies including enhanced maternity and shared parental leave pay after 1 years continuous service.
• Funded learning and development to support progress in your role and career. This includes industry recognised qualifications and accreditations, coaching, mentoring and talent development programmes.
• An inclusive and diverse environment with opportunities to join professional and interpersonal networks including Womens Network, National Race Network, National Disability Network (THRIVE) and many more.

Hybrid Working

This role may be suitable for hybrid working, which is where an employee works part of the week in their DWP office and part of the week from home. This is a voluntary, non-contractual arrangement and your office will be your contractual place of work.

If a hybrid working arrangement is suitable for the role and for you, you will normally be required to spend a minimum of 60% of your contracted working hours from your DWP office.

If you have a disability, caring responsibilities, or other circumstances that may affect your ability to meet the minimum office attendance requirement, please discuss this with us using the contact details in this advert.

Salary Information

Pay for this role is from 75,026 to 92,522.

The maximum salary for the grade is 80,267, however a Digital Allowance of up to 12,255 per annum is available for exceptional candidates. Digital Allowance is non-salary, and non-pensionable, and is classed as a temporary allowance. It is reviewed annually where it could beretained, amended, or removed.

Our offer to successful candidates will be based on an assessment of your skills and experience asdemonstratedat interview.

Existing Civil Servants who secure a new role on lateral transfer willmaintaintheir current substantive salary.

Civil Servants who gain promotion will move to the bottom of the grade pay scale or receive a 10% increase applied to their current substantive salary, whichever is greater.

Any temporary allowances that you are currently in receipt of will not form part of the calculation todetermineyour pay. Any allowances that are in payment will cease when you move into your new role.

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., If you are placed on a reserve list but we cannot immediately offer you a post, please note:

• If you are later offered the role you applied for, in a location you have expressed a preference for, and you decline the offer or are unable to take up the post within a reasonable timeframe you will be withdrawn from the campaign and removed from the reserve list, other than in exceptional circumstances (e.g. a contractual Part Time Working Pattern cannot be accommodated in the initial role offered or in cases of serious ill health).
• If DWP makes an offer of an alternative role or location to that which you originally applied for, and you decline that offer, you will be able to remain on the reserve list.

Disability Confident Scheme

If high application volumes are received, the benchmark for candidates to proceed to the next stage may be raised. In line with our commitment to the Disability Confident Scheme (DCS), we aim to advance all candidates applying under the DCS who meet the minimum standard. However, we may only progress those candidates who best meet the required standards.

Reasonable Adjustments

We consider visible and non-visible disabilities, neurodiversity or learning differences, chronic medical conditions, or mental ill health. Examples include dyslexia, epilepsy, autism, chronic fatigue, or schizophrenia.

If you need a change to be made so that you can make your application, you should contact the Government Recruitment Service via DWPRecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk as soon as possible before the closing date to discuss your needs.