Senior Infrastructure Engineer - Unix

Please note this role requires you to pass Security Check clearance. For further information, please see 'Selection process details'.
This is a fantastic opportunity to join DWP Hybrid Cloud Services (HCS) as a Senior Infrastructure Engineer at a time of significant transformation, as we look to drive the adoption of Public Cloud services in line with Government Digital Service (GDS) and DWP’s own strategic hosting architectural principles.
The HCS team design, build and run all DWP hosting infrastructure including Public Cloud and On-Premises hosting, and help product and service owners to transition to the Cloud.
The vision for HCS is to support the wider DWP vision of ‘Digital by Default’ by:
+ Providing an end-to-end ‘multi-cloud’ hosted service for DWP’s Product Development Units.
+ Providing a securely connected hosting service, removing DWP’s reliance on traditional hosting solutions and contracts.
+ Standardising, simplifying and automating with underpinning processes, training and tools to accelerate delivery.
This role in the HCS Unix Server Operations team is ideally suited to an Engineer with significant experience in the build, management, and administration of IBM AIX based systems. IBM iSeries experience desirable.
The team provides 24x7 support for critical services, including participating in a scheduled on-call rota for out-of-hours standby and working outside regular hours., As a Senior Infrastructure Engineer you will build, administer, support and maintain solutions as directed and according to departmental policy. You’ll manage operational support of IT solutions and services including the workload, performance and development of a team. You will also support third party provision of IT Operations services and provide expertise to programmes and projects, as well as the development of architectural solutions for technology. You’ll also provide input into overall management - workforce, budget, technology roadmaps, projects and tasks.
The department is committed to moving services into cloud hosted solutions and the successful candidate will be expected to develop skills in new technologies that align with business objectives.
The team support 24x7 critical services with a requirement to provide out-of-hours standby on call support as part of a scheduled rotation. The successful candidate will also be required to work out of hours where required to support scheduled change activities.
+ Designs, builds, configures, administers, and supports infrastructure technologies and solutions such as: compute, storage, networking, physical infrastructure, and software relating to AIX server environments.
+ Has a deep understanding of the technical concepts required for the role and understands how these fit into the wider technical landscape, specifically in relation to AIX servers and associated technologies.
+ Develop, implement, maintain, and review systems and services to ensure delivery of professional excellence. Successfully deliver high quality outcomes, identify risks, and resolve issues efficiently, developing suggestions for improvements.
+ Ensures that the right actions are taken to investigate, resolve and anticipate problems. Able to dissect a problem to its component parts to identify and diagnose root causes. Able to troubleshoot and identify problems across different technology capabilities.
+ Communicate with others in a clear, honest, and enthusiastic way. Can explain complex issues in a way that is easy to understand, choosing appropriate styles to maximise understanding and impact., When giving details in your employment history and Personal Statement you should highlight your experience in line with essential criteria listed in the Person Specification.
The sift panel will use the information in your employment history and Personal Statement to assess your experience, skills and knowledge against the essential criteria above.
You will be provided with one combined overall assessment score for both your CV and Personal Statement.
Important Information
+ You will be asked to complete your employment history any information that you would customarily share on a CV should therefore be entered onto the application form.
+ Personal details that could be used to identify you including your name, contact details and address must be removed for your application to be considered.
If your employment history/Personal Statement contains any personal details your application will be withdrawn.
Stage 2: Interview
If you’re successful at sift stage you will be invited to a video interview via Microsoft Teams. There, you will be assessed against the experiences listed in the essential criteria.
Interviews will take place from late-November 2024.
Sift and interview dates to be confirmed.
Further Information
Find out more about Working for DWP
For Hints and Tips on completing your application visit Applying for jobs at DWP Digital.
A reserve list may be held for a period of 6 months from which further appointments can be made.
Reserve list candidates will be posted in merit order by location.
The Civil Service values honesty and integrity and expects all candidates to abide by these principles. Please ensure that all examples provided in your application are taken directly from your own experience and that you describe the examples in your own words. Applications will be screened and if evidence of plagiarism or copying examples/answers from other sources is found, your application will be withdrawn. Internal DWP candidates may also face disciplinary action.
Security Clearance Requirement
You must meet the security requirements before you can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check.
For meaningful checks to be carried out, you will need to have lived in the UK for a sufficient period of time, to enable appropriate checks to be carried out and produce a result which provides the required level of assurance. Whilst a lack of UK residency in itself is not necessarily a bar to a security clearance, and expectation of UK residency may range from 3 to 5 years. Failure to meet the residency requirements needed for the role may result in the withdrawal of provisional jobs offers.
For further information on National Security Vetting please visit the following page https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/demystifying-vetting
Reasonable Adjustment
At DWP we value diversity and inclusion and actively encourage and welcome applications from everyone, including those that are underrepresented in our workforce.
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 Government Recruitment Service via DigitalRecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk as soon as possible before the closing date to discuss your needs.
Complete the “Reasonable Adjustments” section in the “Additional requirements” page of your application form to tell us what changes or help you might need further on in the recruitment process. For instance, you may need wheelchair access at interview, or if you’re deaf, a Language Service Professional.
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 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).
Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

When giving details in your employment history and Personal Statement you should highlight your experience in line with essential criteria below:
+ How you have designed, built, configured, administered, and/or supported AIX based solutions.
+ Deep understanding of the technical concepts required for the role and understanding how these fit into the wider technical landscape, specifically in relation to AIX server and associated technologies e.g. Hardware Management Console (HMC), Virtual IO Server (VIOS), Network Installation Manager (NIM), IBM Storage Scale (Formally known as GPFS), Power HA (Formally known as HACMP), Live Partition Mobility (LPM).
+ Significant experience in Server Operating Systems - AIX (5.3 > 7.3) and associated technologies.
+ Significant experience in Server Infrastructure – IBM Power Series Server platforms.
+ Significant experience in configuration management & Automation tooling, e.g. Ansible, shell scripting, Terraform.
+ Significant experience in server technical functions – OS upgrades & patching, vulnerability management, disaster recovery, security hardening, performance monitoring & tuning, service improvement.

Alongside your salary of £52,412, Department for Work and Pensions contributes £15,183 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.
Alongside your salary, the Department for Work and Pensions contributes 28.97% towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.
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 23 days on entry, increasing up to 30 days over time (pro–rata 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 year’s 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 Women’s Network, National Race Network, National Disability Network (THRIVE) and many more.
This job 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. The number of days that anyone will be able to work at home will be determined primarily by business need but personal circumstances and other relevant circumstances will also be taken into account. If you are successful, any opportunities for hybrid working, including whether a hybrid working arrangement is suitable for you, will be discussed with you prior to you taking up your post.
Salary Information
Pay for this role is from £52,412 to £63,517.
The maximum salary for the grade is £63,517, however a Digital Allowance of up to £9,636 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 be retained, amended, or removed.
Our offer to successful candidates will be based on an assessment of your skills and experience as demonstrated at interview.
Existing Civil Servants who secure a new role on lateral transfer should maintain their current salary.
Existing Civil Servants who gain promotion may move to the bottom of the grade pay scale or 10% increase in salary whichever would be the greater.
Please note that the pay award decision is still pending and has not yet to be finalised. We will provide an update as soon as a decision has been made.