Cloud Engineer

Job summary

The National Situation Centre is looking for a Cloud Engineer to join our team who can bring a passion for technology to a fast paced, cutting edge crisis response department. In this role you will assist in the design, deployment and maintenance of cloud-based infrastructure and services, ensuring the security and reliability of the platform at all times. This role works with a diverse array of cloud technologies and would suit someone who was early in their career or provide a challenge to someone looking to develop their infrastructure as code skills and contribute to the development of a modern, secure, cloud platform.

Job description

Key Responsibilities

• Collaborate with team members to design, develop and maintain our digital products and services.
• Undertake production system support, taking ownership of issues from monitoring support inboxes through to successful resolution.
• Embed 'Secure by Design' principles into cloud infrastructure, maintaining security guardrails, patch management, and least-privilege access control.
• Apply relevant cloud engineering standards to ensure product quality and undertake code reviews.
• Be an active part of the wider external development community, identifying good practices we can adopt and sharing our experiences.

Person specification

About you

Essential Criteria:

As a Cloud Engineer, you should have the following technical skills:

• Practical experience of infrastructure as code using Terraform.
• An understanding of cloud computing fundamentals, such as networking, security, backups, logging, monitoring and alerting.
• An understanding of cloud computing services and tooling, including VPC’s, nat gateways, Lambda, S3 & EC2 and how they can be configured to work as part of a larger application.
• Demonstrate experience in languages or technologies including:
• A hands on understanding of one of the main cloud providers (including CLI’s and SDK’s)
• Cloud scripting languages.
• A DevSecOps mindset.
• Experience with designing and implementing CI/CD pipelines

Candidate Profile

• Demonstrable interest in technology, in the form of personal projects or hackathons is preferred.
• Highly motivated and able to work independently or as part of a multi-disciplinary team.
• Fast learner with the ability to integrate information and make judgements.
• Strong analytical and problem solving skills.
• Good communication skills.
• Good organisational skills coupled with the ability to work to a high degree of accuracy.

Additional information:

Cabinet Office policy is that a minimum 60% of your working time should be spent at your principal workplace. For some roles, due to their nature and the business need, this may be up to 100%. Requirements to attend other locations for official business will also count towards this level of attendance.

Behaviours

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Working Together
• Communicating and Influencing
• Delivering at Pace
• Managing a Quality Service

Technical skills

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

• Critical Thinking
• Problem Solving
• Verbal Reasoning
• AWS
• DevOps

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £42,409, Cabinet Office contributes

£12,285 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).

• Learning and development tailored to your role.
• An environment with flexible working options.
• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity.
• A Civil Service Pension which provides an attractive pension, benefits for dependants and employer contributions of 28.97%.
• A minimum of 25 days of paid annual leave, increasing by one day per year up to a maximum of 30.

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.

Application process

As part of the application process there will be a three stage assessment. Candidates must be successful at each stage of the process to progress to the next.

Stage 1: Initial Sift

As part of the application process you will be asked to complete a CV and personal statement. Further details around what this will entail are listed on the application form.

Please provide a personal statement of no more t han 500 wo rds. The statement should be based on the Candidate Profile found in the job description and we want candidates to convey their passion for technology.

Stage 2: Online Assessment

This stage comprises an online cognitive ability assessment and a technical test, covering:

• Critical Thinking
• Problem Solving
• Verbal Reasoning
• AWS
• DevOps

Stage 3: In person interview.

During the interview we will assess you against these behaviours:

• Working Together
• Communicating and Influencing
• Delivering at Pace
• Managing a Quality Service

We will also assess your technical skills. This will be a conversation that focuses on the results of the phase 2 questions and your approach to technology in general.

• Expected timeline (subject to change)
• Expected sift date – WC 05/10
• Expected interview date/s – WC 12/10
• Interview location - 70 Whitehall, London
• Reasonable Adjustment

If a person with disabilities is put at a substantial disadvantage compared to a non-disabled person, we have a duty to make reasonable changes to our processes.

If you need a change to be made so that you can make your application, you should:

Contact Government Recruitment Service via CabinetOfficerecruitment.grs @cabinetoffice.gov.uk as soon as possible before the closing date to discuss your needs.

Complete the ‘Assistance required’ 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.

If you are experiencing accessibility problems with any attachments on this advert, please contact the email address in the 'contact point for applicants' section.

Further Information

A reserve list may be held for a period of 12 months from which further appointments can be made.

Any move to Cabinet Office 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; for further information visit the Childcare Choices website .

If successful and transferring from another Government Department a criminal record check may be carried out.

In order to process applications without delay, we will be sending a Criminal Rec ord Check to Disclosure and Barring Service on your behalf.

However, we recognise in exceptional circumstances some candidates will want to send their completed forms direct. If you will be doing this, please advise Government Recruitment Service of your intention by emailing Pre-EmploymentChecks.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk stating the job reference number in the subject heading.

If you are experiencing accessibility problems with any attachments on this advert, please contact the email address in the 'contact point for applicants' section.

Please note that this role requires SC clearance, which would normally need 5 UK residency in the past 5. 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.

For further information on National Security Vetting please visit the Demystifying Vetting website .

Applicants who are successful at interview will be, as part of pre-employment screening, subject to a check on the Internal Fraud Database (IFD). This check will provide information about employees who have been dismissed for fraud or dishonesty offences. This check also applies to employees who resign or otherwise leave before being dismissed for fraud or dishonesty had their employment continued. Any applicant’s details held on the IFD will be refused employment.

A candidate is not eligible to apply for a role within the Civil Service if the application is made within a 5 year period following a dismissal for carrying out internal fraud against government.

Please note terms and conditions are attached. Please take time to read the document to determine how these may affect you.

New entrants are expected to join on the minimum of the pay band.

Feedback

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.

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