Senior Cloud Engineer

Job Description
Are you a dynamic, highly motivated senior cloud engineer with the ability to work under pressure in a fast moving cloud platform? Do you have a well-honed aptitude to problem solving, service optimisation? Do your strengths include leadership, collective-ownership, collaboration, motivation toward achieving and maintaining high quality standards? 

Social Security Scotland, are looking to recruit a number of Senior Cloud Engineers to help develop our Amazon Web Services platform.

The Senior Cloud Engineer role will be within the Engineering and Cloud service branch focussed on the maintenance and delivery of our AWS hosting platform. There will be regular interaction with colleagues in the CDO Architecture team, Cyber Security Team, Applications Development teams and a number of suppliers involved in the provision of the Division’s software and infrastructure.

A Lead infrastructure operations engineer (Senior Cloud Engineer) will lead one or more specialist teams to support, manage and maintain the core infrastructure that underpins production services. You will use your experience and technical skills to mentor Cloud Engineers and Associate Cloud Engineers in order to build a greater capability.

At this role level, you will:

• Manage operational support of IT solutions and services.
• Manage workload, performance and development of a team of IT operations specialists by building capability to deliver services as required.
• Manage third party provision of IT operations services.
• Manage the development of architectural solutions for IT operations solutions, throughout the service life cycle.

You will be (or expected to become) a Subject Matter Expert within a team, being the key point of contact for one or more of the technologies/functions below. In this role you will use your experience to be responsible for the quality of the service, and developing a roadmap of continuous improvement activities that align with business objectives;

• DevOps Tooling (using CI/CD tools such as Jenkins, Terraform and Git)
• Cloud Platform (building and maintaining a cloud platform using a hosting provider such as AWS)
• Logging, Monitoring and Alerting (building and maintaining a monitoring/SIEM tool such as Elasticsearch)
• Software/Infrastructure Delivery (automating/optimise processes and to deploy components and systems accurately and efficiently to meet delivery demand)

This role may also require some out of hours working due to production releases or scheduled maintenance, but any instances will be communicated and agreed with advance notice.

Responsibilities

• Manage service components to ensure they meet business needs and performance targets.
• Deal with high impact, complex change requests.
• Write and interpret code (python and ansible preferred).
• Identify process optimisation opportunities with guidance, and contribute to the implementation of proposed solutions.
• Lead the investigation and resolution of incidents.
• Take accountability for issues that occur and be proactive in searching for potential problems.
• Initiate and monitor actions to investigate patterns and trends to resolve problems.
• Effectively consult specialists where required.
• Determine the appropriate remedy and assist with its implementation.
• Determine preventative measures.
• Draft and maintain procedures and documentation.
• Identify process improvements and contribute to the definition of best practice.

Success Profiles
We use an assessment framework called ‘Success Profiles’ which lists the elements we test and provides detailed descriptions of each. Find out more about how we assess the Success Profile elements.

Essential Experience
• Able to provide business and technical leadership to a team of experienced technologists, evidencing a deep understanding of Cloud and DevOps platforms such as AWS, Jenkins, Terraform and Elasticsearch to provide strategic direction in one or more of these areas.
• Evidence of delivering continual service improvement; willing to challenge established practices, using evidence to deliver a better service to the business as a whole. This will include a vision for streamlining processes and reducing costs to ensure focus on delivering support for new business critical technologies.

Technical/Professional Skills
This role is aligned to Senior Infrastructure Operations Engineer within the IT Operations job family. Please review the following to understand the skill expectations - Infrastructure operations engineer - Government Digital and Data Profession Capability Framework

We will assess you against the following technical skills during the selection process: 

• Availability and capacity management - (Level: Working)
• Change management - (Level: Practitioner)
• Coding and scripting - (Level: Working)
• Continual service improvement - (Level: Working)
• Incident management - (Level: Practitioner)
• Ownership and initiative - (Level: Practitioner)
• Service focus - (Level: Working)
• Technical understanding - (Level: Working)

Behaviours
• Leadership (Level 4)
• Changing and Improving (Level 4)

You can find out more about Success Profiles Behaviours, here: Success Profiles - Civil Service Behaviours (publishing.service.gov.uk)  
 
How to apply
Apply online, providing a CV and Supporting Statement (of no more than 750 words) which provides evidence of how you meet the skills, experience and behaviours listed in the Success Profile above. 

Should a large number of applications be received, an initial sift may be conducted using the CV and personal statement on Essential Experience. 

Candidates who pass the initial sift will have their applications fully assessed.

We will test your behaviours, technical skills and experiences as part of the sift process, and if successful, you will be invited to an assessment and interview where we will test these again. Full details of the selection process will be made available to shortlisted candidates once the sift has been completed.

Candidates selected for interview will be requested to provide a 10-minute presentation on the technical skills required, details of which, will be shared in advance of the interview.
 
Expected Timeline (subject to change) 
Sift - w/c 13th January 2025
Interview – w/c 27th January 2025
Location – In Person in either Dundee or Glasgow

Reserve List
In the event that there are more successful candidates than posts available, a reserve list will be kept for up to 12 months.

About Us
Social Security Scotland is an Executive Agency of the Scottish Government. Our benefits help people from all walks of life in Scotland. We offer rewarding careers and employ people across Scotland in a wide range of professions and roles. We are committed to recruiting a diverse workforce that is representative of the clients we serve. Find out more about us here.

We offer a supportive and inclusive working environment along with a wide range of employee benefits. Find out more about what we offer.

As part of the UK Civil Service, we uphold the Civil Service Nationality Rules.

DDaT Pay Supplement
This post attracts a £5000 Digital, Data and Technology (DDaT) pay supplement after a 3 months DDaT competency qualifying period. The payment will be backdated to your start date in the role. Pay supplements are temporary payments designed to address recruitment and retention issues caused by market pressures and are subject to regular review. This post is part of the Scottish Government DDaT profession. As a member of the profession you will join the professional development system, currently BCS Role Mode plus.

Working Pattern
Our standard hours are 35 hours per week and we offer a range of flexible working options, depending on the needs of the role. We embrace a hybrid working style where all colleagues will spend time in our Glasgow or Dundee office. There is an expectation of a minimum 2 days per week in your assigned location.  If you have specific questions about the role you are applying for, please contact us.

Equality Statement
Social Security Scotland are committed to equality and inclusion, and we aim to recruit a diverse workforce that reflects the population of our nation. 

Social Security Scotland are a Disability Confident Employer. We will consider and implement any reasonable adjustments you may require throughout the recruitment process and during the course of your employment, should you be successful in securing a post. If you feel you may require assistance with any part of our recruitment process, please contact us at recruitment@socialsecurity.gov.scot

Find out more about our commitment to diversity and how we offer and support recruitment adjustments for anyone who needs them.

Further information 
Find out more about our organisation, what we offer staff members and how to apply on our Careers Website. 

Read our Candidate Guide for further information on our recruitment and application processes. 

The successful candidate will be expected to remain in post for a minimum of 3 years unless successful in gaining promotion to a higher Band or Grade.   
 
Social Security Scotland’s recruitment processes are underpinned by the recruitment principles of the Civil Service Commissioner, which outline that selection for appointment be made on merit on the basis of fair and open competition - Recruitment - Civil Service Commission (independent.gov.uk)   

If you feel at any time your application has not been treated in accordance with the values in the Civil Service Code and/or if you feel the recruitment has been conducted in such a way that conflicts with the Civil Service Commissioner’s Recruitment Principles, you can make a complaint, by contacting Social Security Scotland at recruitment@socialsecurity.gov.scot in the first instance. If you are not satisfied with the response you receive you can contact the Civil Service Commissioner. 

If you experience any difficulties accessing our website or completing the online application form, please contact the Resourcing Team via recruitment@socialsecurity.gov.scot     

Apply before - Monday 13th January 2025 at 23:55