G3 Senior Infrastructure Operations Engineer

Digital, Data & Technology (DDaT), supports NCA operational commands with how we exploit data and to ensure the NCA uses the best technology platforms with the right tools and applications to further enable the NCA to protecting the public from serious and organised crime. We are responsible for defining and delivering our data and technology strategy, policy and architecture, and building and sustaining resilient services which are critical to our mission success. The pace of change within the digital and tech world means we need to be agile and innovative in how we respond to threats while exploiting the opportunities this presents.

Information about the Business Area

Enterprise Services provides and manages the enterprise IT capabilities that support the NCA and its partners in delivering operational outcomes across the Serious and Organised Crime (SOC) system. Operating 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, all year round, the team ensures services are reliable, resilient, and available when they are needed most.

Working in partnership with suppliers, Enterprise Services maintains a strong focus on delivering cost-effective, high-quality services that meet current organisational needs while supporting ongoing transformation. The team leads the introduction of new services into live operation, ensuring they are implemented smoothly and deliver tangible value across the estate.

Enterprise Services plays a critical role in managing and driving the supply chain, enabling the NCA to remain agile and responsive, while building and sustaining a future-ready technology environment.

Role Summary

The Specialist Operational Services (SOS) team works within the wider DDaT Enterprise Services function and runs and maintains the NCAs most sensitive operationally focused front-line IT services. The team is comprised of IT professionals, law enforcement and staff with a technology focused mind-set, willing to go that extra mile to achieve real world benefits for the UK, together we ensure that specialist services are fit for purpose, agile, delivered 24/7 and have a direct impact on the NCAs mission of protecting the public from serious and organised crime (SOC).

Through developing and provisioning of cutting-edge technology services, the SOS function will enhance intelligence collection, surveillance and digital forensics capabilities to support the Agency’s fight against serious and organised crime.

The SOS function brings together Digital Forensics and Targeted Interception services which include international deployments. Additional teams and specialist services are also being identified to move into this Engineering function, so the Agency is able to respond proactively to the changing nature of the SOC threats.

The Digital Forensics (DF) engineering function is responsible for deployment, configuration and support of hi-end digital forensics too including infrastructure, networking and software used within the Investigations department and overseas partners.

The Targeted Interception Engineering function is responsible for deployment, configuration and support of hi-end technical capabilities including infrastructure, networking and software used within Integrated Communications Intelligence (ICI) department, wider policing partners including National police Chiefs Council (NPCC) and Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) and overseas partners. Targeted Interception International Engineering leads on specifying, designing, developing, delivering and supporting new technical capabilities and for the requirements capture to make use of raw intelligence material for ICI and partners., The purpose of the Senior Infrastructure Operations Engineer role is to ensure critical Intelligence Collection and Digital Forensics capabilities are delivered and maintained effectively to ensure they meet the NCAs evolving operational demands. Working in a small team of highly enthusiastic IT professional staff, transferring skills within the team will ensure we are better placed to look after specialist NCA capabilities and networks to provide full critical support, upgrades, development and maintenance.

The role is responsible for: Delivering 1st, 2nd and mainly 3rd line support of technical systems to a professional standard, adapting to and meeting user requirements; Installing new hardware, installation and configuration of a mixture of Operating Systems including MS Server 2016-24, various flavours of LINIX on physical and virtual hardware (mainly Hyper-V or VMWare) and the use of containerized technologies; Maintaining and upgrading systems in line with business technical requirements. An understanding of network protocols would be beneficial.

Security is extremely important for all of the services SOS maintain, therefore systems must be maintained to ensure these systems are accreditable. This includes updating system high and low level designs and associated documentation.

Due to the nature of this role, travel between sites is regularly required. As such, a Full, clean, UK Driving License is essential.

This role aligns to Senior Infrastructure Operations Engineer within the Government Digital and Data career framework., BAU Support - Help deliver 3rd line support of the supported SOS systems to a professional standard, meeting user requirements, reacting to system problems to ensure continued availability of SOS systems within defined service levels. Support 1st and 2nd line functions if required to ensure operational teams can function as efficiently as possible. Specification of hardware - Matching business requirements to hardware specifications that meet and often exceed those requirements. Installation of hardware - Installation of physical servers and storage systems to meet business requirements. Racking and cabling of hardware to an industry best practice level, including asset management registering of support, licensing. Identification of obsolescence - Notification of obsolescence issues early in the hardware lifecycle to ensure funding and approvals are in place as early as possible, avoiding unnecessary system outages due to obsolescence. Creation and maintenance of system documentation - Create technical designs and ensure High- and Low-Level Designs (HLD/LLD) are maintained to an accurate level. Continual Improvement - Researching advances in technology to better meet business requirements with innovative solutions to meet business or technical problems. Client Image Build - Creation of client images including deployment and testing, using Windows Deployment Server or similar technologies. Patching and upgrades - Using standard IT tooling to deploy and test software patches. Configuration - Implementation of Group Policies for servers and clients to ensure the secure running and use of the systems. DHCP and DNS - Be able to deploy DHCP and DNS services, fault find these services in the event of a system problem being identified. Certificates - Be able to generate system certificates at renewal or based on certificate requests. Server Maintenance - Provide full support, upgrades, develop and maintain the servers within the current network. Supporting the wider SOS team - Providing support to the wider team, assisting where needed and mentoring to share knowledge and upskill less experienced staff, provide briefing sessions and training material to aid in that process. Assist in project work - Be the lead for new projects in developing new technologies to best meet the requirements., If successful but no role is immediately available, you may be placed on a reserve list for 12 months. Reserve lists can be used to fill similar role types across the Agency where the assessment criteria is considered a match by the recruitment team and the business area.

In the event of a tie at the assessment stage, available roles will be offered in merit order using the following order:

Lead criteria (behaviours/technical/experience) If still tied, desirable criteria will be assessed (if advertised) If still tied, application sift scores will be used

Feedback is provided only to those who attend an assessment.

You will be subject to vetting and pre-employment checks before appointment.

Once the vacancy closes, the advert will no longer be accessible. Please save a copy for your records.

We encourage all candidates to visit the NCA Careers Page for more information.

Eligibility, Pre-Employment Check and Vetting

Please see the NCA T&Cs and Privacy Policy (pdf) for details on how your data is handled.

If you are an internal candidate who has passed interview but is undergoing an internal investigation or have a written warning in place preventing a post move you may not be able to be posted until this investigation is concluded or restriction lifted.

Nationality Requirements

This role is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals or dual nationals, where one component is British

Further information on nationality requirements

You will be required to participate in digital right to work and address checks as part of the recruitment process.

Security and Vetting

People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard checks.

Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is SC Enhanced. All security clearances will be managed by the NCA.

For more information on security vetting please visit: UK Security Vetting guidance for applicants and Demystifying Vetting and see our vetting charter at: The Vetting Charter.

Vetting requirements - SC Enhanced

Prior to commencing the role, you will need to successfully complete SC Enhanced clearance and then achieve DV Enhanced clearance within the first 12 months in post.

The requirement for SC clearance is to have been present in the UK for at least 3 of the last 5 years.

The requirement for DV Enhanced clearance is to have been present in the UK for at least 7 of the last 10 years.

Failure to meet the residency requirements will result in your security clearance application being rejected.

If the increased clearance cannot be obtained you will be moved to a role appropriate to your clearance level achieved on entry.

For further information on National Security Vetting checks please visit the following page Demystifying Vetting

Individuals will be required to undertake and pass a substance misuse test as part of pre-employment checks.

Occupational Health

Successful candidates will be expected to undertake an occupational health assessment. Depending on the role an in-person medical may be required in either London or Warrington. Unfortunately, travel costs will not be reimbursed., If you meet the criteria for a lower grade, you may be offered that role if not appointable at the advertised grade.

Conversely, if found appointable at a higher grade but no posts are available, you may be offered a lower-grade role.

All offers are made based on merit.

Hybrid Working

The NCA supports hybrid working. The extent of remote working will depend on the role and can be discussed at the offer stage.

Reasonable Adjustments

We’re proud to be a Disability Confident Leader and an inclusive, equal opportunities employer.

We’re committed to creating a workplace where everyone can be their authentic self. If you’re neurodiverse, have a disability, or live with a long-term health condition, we encourage you to let us know about any reasonable adjustments you may need during the recruitment process.

If you experience accessibility issues with the advert or require reasonable adjustments, please contact our Recruitment Team at Central.Recruitment@nca.gov.uk before the advert closing date.

Please ensure you complete the ‘Equal opportunities’ and ‘Reasonable Adjustments’ sections in the application form to inform us on what support you may need in the recruitment process.

Visit NCA Benefits and Support for more details.

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 and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy

In order to monitor the effectiveness of the National Crime Agency’s Diversity & Inclusion strategy, we require certain personal details about you on submission of your application for statistical and monitoring purposes only. Please note that this will be treated in confidence and will not impact your application.

This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans initiative.

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit on merit through fair and open competition, in line with the Civil Service Commission’s Recruitment Principles.

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.

If you believe your application has not been treated fairly, email: Central.Recruitment@nca.gov.uk (quoting the vacancy reference). If unresolved, you may escalate your complaint to the Civil Service Commission.

Working for the NCA

The National Crime Agency is a 24/7 organisation, and working patterns must support business requirements. Some roles may require you to respond at short notice or outside of core hours.

If preferable, alternative contract types may be available. Please review the green bar of this advert to view all available contract types for this role. Where Loan or Secondment options are available, these would be for existing Civil Servants (Loan) and applicants from accredited Non-Departmental Public Bodies (NDPBs) or any other employer (Secondment). Prior agreement to be released on a loan basis must be obtained before commencing the application process. In the case of Civil Servants, the terms of the loan will be agreed between the home and host department and the Civil Servant. This includes grade on return.

If you have any specific queries about the role that are not covered by the advert, please contact

We are currently looking to recruit Senior Infrastructure Operations Engineers at one of our locations in Warrington, London, Birmingham, Leicester, or Bristol (team dependent - see below) with the ability to travel between sites (A full, clean, British driving license is essential) within the Specialist Operational Services function., Interception or Digital Forensics principles - Have an understanding of Interception of Telecommunications or Digital Forensics would be useful, even at a basic level. Networking - Have a basic understanding of networking to be able to fault find servers and / or network issues. Storage Management and Configuration - Provision of storage for use within IT systems. Active Directory Management - Upgrade of Domain Functional Levels and AD architecture in line with industry best practice. MS Exchange - Be able to support and maintain new and existing installations. Knowledge and the working of various firewalls including Fortigate, CISCO, Palo Alto and Dell firewalls - Have an in-depth understanding of the Firewall models, configuration, patching, support, fault finding and upgrading. Virtualization technologies Hyper-V and VMWare (vSphere, vSAN, Horizon/Omnissa) - Understanding of virtual technologies Targeted Interception principles - To gain an understanding of Targeted Interception (also known as Lawful Intercept) to a working level. Cyber Security - Ability to provide resolutions to identified cyber security issues, keeping NCA IT systems as secure as possible., Understanding of Servers, storage systems and configuration - In-depth knowledge of IT hardware; installation and configuration of operating systems including virtualized environments. Problem Solving - Using logic and imagination to make sense of a situation and find an intelligent solution. Communication - Conveys information clearly and effectively through written and verbal communication. Team Work - Works effectively with others to focus on and achieve joint outcomes, rather than individual goals. Adaptability - Be able to learn quickly in a fast-moving agile environment and adapt to new technologies. Fault finding - Troubleshooting and provide resolution for system incidents. Recording and sharing the knowledge where appropriate, Applicants should possess strong levels of expertise in working at 3rd line level, for the following essential entry requirements:

An in-depth knowledge of Servers including the configuration & installation Experience of maintaining infrastructure hardware Experience in the configuration of Active Directory, Group Policies and certificate management Experience in maintaining and fault finding within an infrastructure which includes multiple physical and virtual servers Experience in the Management, configuration and support of Storage systems

Qualifications, Membership and Licences A full, clean, UK Driving License is required

Any applications from candidates not meeting this eligibility criteria will not progress.

Desirable Criteria

Desirable criteria are only used for assessment in the event of a tie break.

ITIL Foundation or higher (at least V3) Degree in Computer Science or Information systems design Microsoft Certified Professional VMWare Certified Professional (VCP)CCNA: Understanding of network principles Understanding of Digital Forensic or Targeted Interception principles. Understanding of Interception of Telecommunications principles: Understanding of data formats, delivery mechanisms and terminology Linux Administration: Understanding of LINUX operating system administration SQL DB knowledge: Understanding of SQL databases Containerization: Knowledge of Docker and Kubernetes, This vacancy is using the Success Profiles framework and will assess using the following criteria: Behaviours, Experience, Technical Skills

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 for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

How we will assess you

Your application will be assessed against the following: Technical - this will be assessed by 250 word examples on: An in-depth knowledge of Servers including the configuration & installation

Experience in maintaining and fault finding within an infrastructure which includes multiple physical and virtual servers

Experience - This will be assessed: CV

Please include your full career history, training, qualifications, key responsibilities, and achievements. Explain any employment gaps in the last two years. Ensure all accreditation dates are accurate.

Details of what is expected within your CV are as follows: Your CV must clearly demonstrate evidence of the following essential requirements:

• An in-depth knowledge of Servers including the configuration & installation
• Experience of maintaining infrastructure hardware
• Experience in the configuration of Active Directory, Group Policies and certificate management
• Experience in maintaining and fault finding within an infrastructure which includes multiple physical and virtual servers
• Experience in the management, configuration and support of storage systems, Communicating and Influencing

Technical

An in-depth knowledge of Servers including the configuration & installation

Experience in maintaining and fault finding within an infrastructure which includes multiple physical and virtual servers

Experience in the management, configuration and support of Storage systems

Demonstrates effective problem-solving skills to analyse complex technical issues, identify root causes and implement appropriate solutions

Allowances are reviewed annually and may be increased, decreased or removed.

All salary offers will be made in line with Remuneration Policy.

Roles based in London will receive an additional London Weighting (Per Annum) of £4,379

This position attracts a Recruitment and Retention Allowance (RRA) of £3,000 (Per Annum) available as an addition to the advertised salary., All NCA employees are members of the UK Civil Service and eligible for the Civil Service pension scheme, alongside your salary the NCA contributes £16,711. Further information on the benefits of the scheme is available on the Civil Service Pension Website.

New entrants to the NCA receive 26 days annual leave, rising to 31 on completion of 5 years continuous service, plus 8 bank holidays.

If qualifying criteria is met new joiners from UK Police Forces or the UK Intelligence Community (UKIC) will have service with those employers taken into account for continuous service purposes for annual leave entitlement only, this will be up to a maximum of 31 days leave (including 1 privilege day).

Other benefits include: Flexible working, including flexi-time, compressed hours and job sharing (in line with business requirements) Family friendly policies, notably above the statutory minimum Learning and Development opportunities Interest free loans and advances, including season tickets, childcare and rental deposits Housing schemes - Key Worker status Discounts and Savings with a wide variety of services including Cycle to Work, Smart Tech schemes, dental insurance, gym discounts and savings on everyday spending, available through the Reward Gateway | Edenred and Blue Light Card schemes. Staff support groups/networks Sports and social activities, including membership to the Civil Service Sports Council (CSSC)