Senior Site Reliability Engineer
Government Digital Service
Apply before 11:55 pm on Sunday 6th October 2024
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About the job
Job summary
The Government Digital Service (GDS) is part of the Cabinet Office. We work at the very centre of government to make user-focused digital transformation happen. We build and maintain common platforms, products and tools to use and create great public services that are accessible, inclusive and easy to use. We also work with departments to identify patterns, share learning and create change to make government more efficient.
Our teams are organised around delivering on our priorities:
- make it easier for people to find what they are looking for on GOV.UK
- build common service platforms to make it simpler and cheaper quality digital services
- promote agile, user-centred design practices both in the UK and worldwide
GOV.UK One Login Programme represents a once in a generation and career opportunity to simplify and widen access to all digital government services. Sitting at the heart of the government, we are building one simple, safe and secure way for users to log in and prove who they are that will work across all government services.
Effective identity assurance is central to digital transformation and GOV.UK One Login enables people to prove who they are online, with the necessary level of confidence to access and use particular services. Our technology runs on AWS, using serverless compute and storage products. Backend services are written in TypeScript/Node.js and JVM technologies. Web applications also use TypeScript.
GOV.UK One Login programme is full of talented and passionate people who are focussed on delivering high quality products for services. We’re half way through our build phase and features are being shipped weekly as we work to mature our product so we can expand the range of services and departments benefitting from our work.
GOV.UK One Login is being designed and built for the many. It will unite services across government, revolutionising the way government departments interact digitally with users. One Login will deliver an accessible and essential function that will change lives and help millions.
Come and join a well motivated and multi-disciplined delivery team working to deliver on our commitments and roadmap. We are an ambitious, fast paced and visionary team, have a background in software delivery and are used to working in a scaled agile environment then this could be the place for you!
Find out more at the GDS Blog.
Job description
As a Senior Site Reliability Engineer at GDS you will:
- be part of one of our multidisciplinary service teams working with and supporting front-end and back-end developers, delivery and product managers, tech writers and architects
- build and maintain resilient, highly available and secure systems to meet the needs of our users
- take responsibility for solving complex and interesting problems
- create infrastructure as code to ensure our infrastructure and deployment pipelines are reusable, repeatable and reliable
- ensure our systems are appropriately monitored and instrumented to enable our teams to identify and respond to operational issues quickly and effectively
- build CI/CD pipelines to enable our developers to get their code into production as quickly and safely as possible
- act as a digital ambassador, sharing experiences through public speaking and blog posts
- participate in our in-hours 2nd line and out-of-hours support rotas to gain empathy for users and awareness of operational concerns
- share knowledge of tools and practices with your wider team and peers to drive consistency and maintain our high engineering standards
- directly line-manage 2-4 technologists, supporting their career progression, development and wellbeing, and providing regular coaching and performance feedback
Person specification
We’re interested in people who:
- are experienced with Linux operating system internals and are comfortable working with Linux virtual machines or containers
- have experience of working with technologies that underpin digital services such as databases, web servers, DNS, CDNs, reverse proxies, message queues and load balancers
- have experience of cloud infrastructure providers such as AWS
- are familiar with container orchestration technologies such as Kubernetes, ECS or Cloud Foundry; or serverless application design such as AWS Lambda
- have an understanding of SRE principles such as capacity planning, SLOs and SLIs and how to design and support resilient, large scale, high performance services in a production environment
- can deploy monitoring tools to ensure systems are appropriately monitored and instrumented to enable teams to identify and respond to operational issues quickly and effectively
- are familiar with at least one programming language (we use Node.js, Java, Python, Ruby and Go)
- are very proficient using Git for version control
- understand the benefits of continuous integration and continuous deployment and have experience with CI/CD tools such as Concourse, Jenkins, GitHub Actions and CodePipeline
- have a strong preference for automation and experience of using Infrastructure as Code tools such as Terraform or CloudFormation
- are able to use automated testing and test-driven development (TDD) to validate solutions and maintain code quality
- have a good understanding of security principles and how to keep large operational services secure
- have experience of leading a technical team or project
- have some experience of line management, helping colleagues with their career development or coaching others
Benefits
The benefits of working at GDS
There are many benefits of working at GDS, including:
- flexible hybrid working with flexi-time and the option to work part-time or condensed hours
- a Civil Service Pension with an average employer contribution of 27%
- 25 days of annual leave, increasing by a day each year up to a maximum of 30 days
- an extra day off for The King’s birthday
- an in-year bonus scheme to recognise high performance
- career progression and coaching, including a training budget for personal development
- paid volunteering leave
- a focus on wellbeing with access to an employee assistance programme
- job satisfaction from making government services easier to use and more inclusive for people across the UK
- advances on pay, including for travel season tickets
- death in service benefits
- cycle to work scheme and facilities
- access to children's holiday play schemes across different locations in central London
- access to an employee discounts scheme
- 10 learning days per year
- volunteering opportunities (5 special leave days per year)
- access to a suite of learning activities through Civil Service learning
GDS offers hybrid working for all employees. This means that everyone does some working from home and also spends some time in their local office. You’ll agree to your hybrid working arrangement with your line manager in line with your preferences and business needs.
Any move to Government Digital Service 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 https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk
Things you need to know
Selection process details
The standard selection process for roles at GDS consists of:
- a simple application screening process - We only ask for a CV and cover letter of up to 750 words. Important tip - please ensure that your cover letter includes how you meet the skills and experience listed in the “person specification” section above
- a phone screening (20 minutes)
- a technical test followed by a civil service behavioural interview (90 minutes)
Whilst we value the use of AI technology to enhance our daily work, we also value the personal touch and urge applicants to write cover letters without the use of AI to emphasise their own unique experiences.
Depending on how many applications we get, there might also be an extra stage before the video interview, for example a phone interview or a technical exercise.
In the event we receive a high volume of applications, we will conduct the initial sift against the lead criteria which is: can deploy monitoring tools to ensure systems are appropriately monitored and instrumented to enable teams to identify and respond to operational issues quickly and effectively.
Please note that this role requires SC clearance, which would normally need 5 years’ UK residency in the past 5 years. This is not an absolute requirement, but supplementary checks may be needed where individuals have not lived in the UK for that period. This may mean your security clearance (and therefore your appointment) will take longer or, in some cases, not be possible.
In the Civil Service, we use Success Profiles to evaluate your skills and ability. This gives us the best possible chance of finding the right person for the job, increases performance and improves diversity and inclusivity. We’ll be assessing your technical abilities, skills, experience and behaviours that are relevant to this role.
For this role we’ll be assessing you against the following Civil Service Behaviours:
- working together
- changing and improving
- making effective decisions
- leadership
- developing self and others
We will also be assessing your experience and specialist technical skills against the following skills defined in the GDAD Senior DevOps role:
- availability and capacity management
- development process optimisation
- information security
- modern standards approach
- programming and build (software engineering)
- service support
- systems design
- systems integration
Candidates that do not pass the interview but have demonstrated an acceptable standard may be considered for similar roles at a lower grade.
A reserve list will be held for a period of 12 months, from which further appointments can be made.
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 D&I Strategy.
Other information: Occasionally, business pressures, priorities or critical delivery may mean that we move you into a different team or work area within GDS. This will always be within the same grade and discipline within which you were hired, but does mean that your focus or objectives may shift in order to deliver GDS business.
You may be aware that there are plans for the Government Digital Service (GDS) & the Central Digital & Data Office (CDDO) to move into the Department of Science, Innovation & Technology (DSIT). This move is to bring together the digital transformation of public services into one core department. The move itself will offer huge opportunities whilst allowing DSIT to lead the way and drive forward the new Government's digital agenda.
As the announcement is relatively new, we are awaiting more detailed information. Therefore, we encourage you to apply for this role, and will keep you informed with updated information throughout the application process.
Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.
Security
Nationality requirements
Working for the Civil Service
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).
Diversity and Inclusion
Apply and further information
Contact point for applicants
Job contact :
- Name : gds-recruitment@digital.cabinet-office.gov.uk
- Email : gds-recruitment@digital.cabinet-office.gov.uk
Recruitment team
- Email : gds-recruitment@digital.cabinet-office.gov.uk
Further information
If you are not satisfied with the response you receive you can contact the Civil Service Commission by email: info@csc.gov.uk Or in writing: Civil Service Commission, Room G/8 1 Horse Guards Road, London, SW1A 2HQ.
