About the job
Job summary
Senior DevOps Engineer
Are you passionate about collaborative working and problem solving? Do you enjoy using your technical skills to help teams work more effectively, and get software into the hands of users with speed and stability? Are you looking for a new role in an organisation that treats you as an individual and supports you on your professional and career development journey? Then this is the role for you!
We have an exciting opportunity for a DevOps Engineer, within the Platform Engineering group, during the IPO digital transformation journey. Working within an established team, this role provides an opportunity to turn innovative ideas into customer value using a range of technologies and delivery platforms.
Key Tech: Azure DevOps YAML Pipelines, Azure, Terraform, scripting, deploying to Azure Machine Learning
Working Style
This role will be carried out in-line with IP O Hybrid working arrangements where staff are currently expected to spend at least 20% of their time working onsite from one of our offices. This role is based in our Newport Office .
The requirement for attendance at an office location can vary by role so we would encourage candidates to discuss working arrangements with the recruiting manager to agree a reasonable balance between working from home and the office.
Job description
Main duties consist of but are not limited to:

• Support all aspects of the software development lifecycle, applying DevOps principles and to lead on developing, implementing, enhancing and managing DevOps practices following agreed processes and best practices.
• Applying industry best practices and patterns across infrastructure and application components e.g. availability, security, performance and scalability.
• Leading on the design, release and implementation of automated, repeatable, efficient delivery pipelines and holds responsibility for the management, delivery and improvements of the deployments onto Production.
• Lead delivery, integration, administration and configuration of DevOps tools, seeking continual improvement and ensuring effective transition onto operational support (where applicable). This includes tools for source control, build, CI & CD support, code reviews, security scans, test automation, monitoring and agile management etc.
• Implementing and configuring DevOps specific monitoring, alerting, auditing and notification strategies and be an advocate for security and performance standards in the organisation
• Contributing to technical decisions and directions in a collaborative team environment, including solution architecture, estimations, product planning, user stories (requirement) creation.
• Attending Team and Agile Scrum ceremonies.
• Sharing knowledge and expertise and providing mentorship and training to other members of the team, enabling them to work in an automated, repeatable fashion.
• Promoting and encouraging the use of test automation and infrastructure-as-code within delivery teams.

Person specification
Essential

• Strong understanding of DevOps principles and experience of working in a DevOps or iterative development culture.
• Excellent knowledge and proven experience implementing continuous integration (CI) and continuous deployment (CD) tools, including pipeline design and administration.
• Experience with automated testing and embedding this in CI/CD pipelines.
• Demonstrable experience in service support including troubleshooting and incident resolution.
• Experience in identification and tracking of risks and issues.
• Experience of knowledge sharing and mentoring junior members of the team.

Technical Essential

• Substantial development or scripting experience in one or more of the following:
• Python
• Bash
• PowerShell
• Substantial experience in administration and configuration of Azure DevOps Pipelines (preferred) or other CI/CD orchestration tools.
• Substantial experience supporting the build and deployment of, or coding in one or more of the following or equivalent:
• Python
• Net Core / C#
• NextJs / Node frontend
• Experience with Infrastructure as Code such as Terraform
• Experience in containerisation technologies and platforms such as Docker or Azure container services such as Azure App Services, Azure Functions, Azure Logic Apps or Azure Container Registry or equivalent.
• Experience in managing and supporting distributed source code repositories (Git).
• Experience of consuming cloud platform resources (Microsoft Azure preferred).

How to Apply
Click the ‘Apply now’ button and complete the application form by providing the following:
Your CV

• Upload an anonymised copy of your current CV. Please remove all identifying markers such as name, title, education institution etc.

If you require job-specific information, please contact Dominic Read
E-mail:
Telephone:
Behaviours
We’ll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Changing and Improving
• Making Effective Decisions
• Delivering at Pace

Technical skills
We’ll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:

• At interview you will be assessed on technical criteria

Benefits
Alongside your salary of £47,766, Intellectual Property Office contributes £13,837 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

• Unlimited Pluralsight video learning access
• Access to Microsoft’s ESI training suite
• Hybrid working with no core hours
• Substantial support for career progression
• 25 days annual leave moving to 30 days in annual increments
• You will also get 8 days public leave and 1 day privilege leave

For more information about what’s on offer at the Intellectual Property Office please review our IPO benefit pack attached to the bottom of this advert.
Please note that benefits may be subject to change.
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.
Selection process details
This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window) , and will assess your Behaviours, Experience and Technical skills.
Additional details on security and vetting
Successful candidates must pass a disclosure and barring security check and if successful you must also hold, or be willing to obtain, a higher Security Clearance .
For meaningful checks to be carried out individuals will need to have lived in the UK for a sufficient period of time, depending on the level of clearance, to enable appropriate checks to be carried out and produce a result which provides the required level of assurance. For this role the successful individual will need to have consistently lived in the UK for a minimum 5 years in order to meet the relevant security clearance.
Further information on the vetting process can be found at National security vetting: clearance levels - GOV.UK
If you have questions regarding this or are unsure if you meet the eligibility criteria, please contact
Stage 1 - Sift
An initial sift of applications will be carried out to create a shortlist. This will be based on the evidence provided for the following Success Profile elements:
Experience
Your CV will be used to assess your suitability for the role
Stage 2 - Interviews
If invited to interview Behaviours, Experience and Technical based questioning will be used.

• Please note candidates that proceed to the interview stage will be required complete a Technical Exercise. Further details will be provided in the invite to interview information.

This recruitment campaign will keep a reserve list for 12 months. If you meet the requirements for this role but aren’t offered after passing the interview, you’ll be placed on the reserve list. If a suitable position opens up during this time, we will reach out to individuals in merit order
The successful candidate would be expected to remain in the role for a minimum of 12 months before applying for another role.
Applicants to note: CVs sent direct to the IPO will not be accepted.
There may be important information contained within the job role profile candidates may also wish to refer to. We recommend candidates download and save a copy of the role profile for reference.
This post is being advertised to Internal , across Government and external candidates at the same time.
Incomplete and/or late submissions will not be accepted or considered. Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.
We do not routinely reimburse travel expenses for candidates, however if participating in the selection process would cause you undue financial hardship or if it restricts your ability to participate, please contact the recruitment team for more information.
In line with Government guidance, successfully appointed candidates will need to provide documents for our Right to Work checks. Information on this will be sent within the invite to interview text.
If you require a reasonable adjustment at any stage of the recruitment process, then please let the recruitment team know via;
Please be aware that only one application per candidate is permitted for each recruitment campaign. Multiple applications, including those made using different accounts, may result in your application being withdrawn or rejected at any stage of the process.
For more information on the IPO’s terms and conditions, please review the attached IPO Modernised Terms and Conditions document attached at the bottom of this advert.
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 (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) .