DevOps Engineer at Government Legal Department in Bristol, Croydon, Leeds, London, Manchester

Job summary

From healthcare to artificial intelligence, energy to national security, we provide legal advice to government departments on nation-changing subjects.

At Government Legal Department we have a vital, single-minded purpose: to help the Government govern well within the rule of law. This is complemented by our exciting vision to be an outstanding legal organisation, committed to the highest standards of service and professionalism and a brilliant place to work where we can all thrive and fulfil our potential.

Our work touches almost every aspect of public life. We are the largest provider of legal services across government, working on high profile matters.

Our respected professionals are involved in everything from regulation and litigation to advice on drafting legislation. They provide expertise to the full range of government departments. We are at the heart of delivering the government’s priorities and our success depends on our people.

GLD is a non-ministerial government department headed by the Treasury Solicitor, our Permanent Secretary, and employs nearly 4000 people, including nearly 3000 legal professionals. We have offices nationwide, in Bristol, Leeds, inner and outer London and Manchester. Our lawyers can also be located within other departments and overseas.

GLD also depends on a range of cross-functional professionals to provide our corporate services. There are nearly 1000 colleagues playing an essential part in helping GLD to achieve its purpose and truly deliver much more than law.

This is an exciting time to join GLD, with cutting edge legal work on global issues and a transformation agenda which is ensuring the Department exemplifies the Modern Civil Service .

To find out more about what we do you can view our introductory film . On our website you can hear from team members, find out how to apply and learn about the benefits of working for GLD. You can also read more about the future vision for GLD in our GLD Strategy 2024 – 2027 .

Job description

The Digital, Data and Cyber Division is transforming the way GLD works through modern and secure digital services.

We are building an ever expanding and modern digital workplace that empowers our people, strengthens collaboration and enables the organisation to operate efficiently, securely and sustainably.

Through agile delivery and user-centred approaches, we design and deliver products and services in partnership with the people who use them, ensuring solutions meet real needs and deliver lasting value.

As part of the wider Government Digital and Data profession , we play a key role in transforming how government operates, enabling better outcomes for colleagues, stakeholders and the public we serve.

The Role

As a DevOps Engineer within GLD’s Digital, Data and Cyber Directorate, you’ll be at the heart of building and improving the technology that powers our digital services.

Working alongside developers, architects, cyber security specialists and delivery teams, you’ll design, automate and support secure, scalable and reliable cloud services. You’ll help streamline deployments, strengthen our cloud infrastructure and build resilience into everything we deliver.

From CI/CD pipelines and infrastructure as code to monitoring, incident management and security, you’ll have the opportunity to solve complex technical challenges, champion DevOps best practice and drive continuous improvement across our technology estate.

What you’ll do

Build and automate our cloud services – design, develop and maintain CI/CD pipelines and Infrastructure as Code using tools such as Azure DevOps, GitHub Actions, Bicep, ARM templates and Terraform.

Manage secure Azure infrastructure – provision, configure and support scalable cloud infrastructure and platform services, using automation to improve efficiency, consistency and reliability.

Improve service performance and resilience – implement monitoring, logging and observability, investigate incidents and root causes, and contribute to disaster recovery and business continuity.

Embed security from the start – apply secure-by-design principles, support vulnerability remediation and patching, and maintain effective access controls, identity and secrets management.

Make software delivery better – work with developers and delivery teams to improve deployment and release processes, source control, branching, code reviews and engineering automation.

How you’ll do it

Collaborate across disciplines – work closely with developers, architects, cyber security specialists, business analysts, product owners and delivery colleagues to build high-quality, user-centred services.

Work in an Agile way – actively contribute to sprint planning, stand-ups, retrospectives, service reviews and continuous improvement.

Champion engineering excellence – contribute to engineering standards, technical governance and DevOps best practice, ensuring solutions align with Government Digital and Data standards, security requirements and organisational policies.

Create clear, sustainable ways of working – develop and maintain technical documentation, operational procedures, runbooks and support guides so services can be managed effectively.

Grow DevOps capability – share your knowledge, support and mentor colleagues where appropriate, and keep up to date with emerging technologies and industry best practice.

Person specification

Behaviours

As part of the selection process, we’ll assess you against the Success Profile behaviours listed below. You’ll need to demonstrate each behaviour at the application stage, interview stage, or both. You can find guid a nce on Success Profiles to help you understand what we’ll be looking for.

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

• Changing and improving ​

Key Skills and Experience ​

Essential – Candidates must demonstrate the following key skills at interview and application:

• Cloud delivery: Delivered or supported cloud solutions, in Microsoft Azure or similar.
• CI/CD: Built or supported CI/CD pipelines using Azure DevOps, GitHub Actions or similar.
• Automation: Used PowerShell, Python, YAML, Bash or similar to automate technical tasks.
• Source control: Used Git for branching, pull requests and code reviews.
• Problem solving: Resolved technical incidents and implemented service improvements.
• Collaboration: Delivered outcomes within Agile teams, working with technical and non-technical stakeholders.

Desirable – Candidates must demonstrate the following key skills at interview and application:

• Used Docker, Kubernetes or similar container technologies.

If candidates are closely matched after assessment against the essential criteria, we may use the desirable criteria to help make a final decision at sift and interview.

Technical Professional Skills

We’ll be assessing your experience and specialist technical skills against the following skills defined in the Government Digital and Data Profession Capability Framework for the 3. DevOps Engineer role.

Essential – Candidates must demonstrate the following key skills at interview and application:

• Development Process Optimisation
• Information Security
• Programming and Build (Software Engineering)
• Prototyping
• Service Support
• Systems Integration
• User Focus

Security Clearance Level

All GLD employees must successfully obtain Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS) clearance before starting employment. In addition to BPSS all colleagues based in our London offices must hold Counter Terrorism Check (CTC) clearance. If London based, you can start your position pending this clearance level, however your continued appointment will be conditional upon obtaining and maintaining CTC clearance.

This role requires Security Check (SC) clearance. You can start employment once BPSS clearance has been completed and while your SC clearance application is being processed; however, obtaining and maintaining SC clearance is a condition of employment. If you are unable to obtain or maintain SC clearance, you may not be able to remain in the role you have been appointed to and this may lead to the termination of your contract or offer of employment.

Current SC clearance requirements typically include a 5-year verifiable UK residency history , with no more than 6 months spent outside the UK in the preceding 12 months . You will be asked to confirm whether you believe you meet these requirements as part of your application. This information will not be used as part of the assessment process. ​

As security vetting requirements are determined by the relevant vetting authority and may change over time, applicants are encouraged to review the latest UK Security Vetting guidance before applying via United Kingdom Security Vetting: Applicant Guidance .

If during pre-employment checks it is found that you are unable to gain the required level of security clearance for the role, your provisional offer of employment will be withdrawn.

You can read the guidance before applying via United Kingdom Security Vetting: Applicant Guidance .

Sponsorship and Visa Information

Visa sponsorship will not be given to candidates except where they are existing civil servants employed by GLD who meet the Home Office/UKVI requirements for sponsorship. If you are an existing civil servant employed by GLD who requires sponsorship, you should confirm your eligibility for sponsorship for this role before applying. Individuals should seek Home Office guidance on how a new position within the organisation may affect their sponsorship eligibility.

Candidates with Limited Leave to Remain may apply but must have at least 12 months remaining on an existing visa which permits them to work for GLD when employment begins. Candidates must ensure that their current visa covers the full period of employment or that they are eligible under a non-sponsored immigration route that allows them to remain employed by GLD for the duration of the role.

Applicants are expected to hold an existing visa with at least 12 months remaining when they start work with GLD. The share code provided for pre-employment checks must relate to the visa that permits the applicant to work for at least 12 months in the role applied for. Outstanding visa applications cannot be taken into account during the recruitment process.

It is your responsibility to ensure that you have the right to work in the UK and hold an appropriate visa or use an alternative immigration route covering the full period of your employment. GLD will not be able to sponsor this role when your current visa arrangements expire, and you will not be able to continue your employment with GLD through sponsorship. Please allow three months for the onboarding process from the point of offer.

Candidates with Indefinite Leave to Remain may apply.

You will be asked to confirm your immigration status and visa type as part of the application process. If you do not meet these requirements, your application will be fail the eligibility pre-sift for this vacancy and your application for this role will rejected .

Behaviours

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

• Changing and Improving

Technical skills

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

• Technical professional skills

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £43,500, Government Legal Department contributes

£12,601 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 with an employer contribution of 28.97%

Benefits of working for the Civil Service

Whatever your role, we’re