DevOps Engineer - £33,706-£38,334 p.a. + benefits

Job summary

We are currently looking for a DevOps Engineer to join our Technology and Service Operations Function within the Digital and Technology group.

This is a full-time opportunity, on a permanent basis. The role will be based in 7/8 Wellington Place, Leeds, LS1 4AP.

Government departments and agencies are working towards implementing a minimum 60% attendance in office sites.

We are currently implementing a flexible, hybrid way of working, with a minimum of 8 days per month working on site to enable the collaboration and contact with partners and stakeholders needed to deliver MHRA business. Attendance on site is driven by business needs so depending on the nature of the role, this can flex up to 12 days a month, with the remainder of time worked either remotely or in the office. Some roles will need to be on site more regularly. Please discuss this with the recruiting manager before accepting an appointment.

Job description

Who are we?

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency enhance and improve the health of millions of people every day through the effective regulation of medicines and medical devices, underpinned by science and research.

The Digital and Technology Group (DTG) lies at the heart of the Agency and is responsible for delivering an optimised IT infrastructure and maximising the secure use of data to enable our scientists, inspectors, and the rest of the organisation to deliver world class services which can improve outcomes for patients and the general public. The Group was essential in the race to approve COVID-19 vaccines in 2020 and in supporting the UK to set up its own medicines and devices approvals systems following our exit from the EU. The work we do matters!

Its centre of excellence is also responsible for delivering a broad portfolio of change initiatives, both to transform the Agency’s legacy technologies and to deliver innovative new solutions, designed around our customers’ needs. DTG works in a holistic way to combine digital and technology change, data and information management, project delivery, business process, product management and cultural change to maximise out impact and ensure sustainability.

We plan to be at the heart of one of the most digitally advanced medical regulators in the world and we need people who can help us deliver that ambition. DTG is a great place to build your career, and we are committed to enabling our people to do the best work of their lives.

The Technology & Service Operations (TSO) function is responsible for managing the existing IT infrastructure including both software and hardware, databases, and other technology platforms; leading the support and maintenance of applications; development and testing of new applications and platforms; and cyber and information security for the Agency.

The Engineering team, made up of software developers, DevOps engineers, Quality Assurance testers, and data professionals (including engineers, scientists, and visualization experts), is tasked with the creation of applications and services, ensuring quality for both new and existing agency offerings, and developing data visualizations through their expertise in data engineering and science.

What’s the role?

The post holder will contribute to the design, implementation, and maintenance of cloud infrastructure, as well as the build and deployment of application workloads.

The role will focus on leveraging Azure, GitHub Actions, and Terraform (alongside other tools in the MHRA DevOps platform) to create and optimise CI/CD pipelines for both application and infrastructure deployment, while ensuring security and quality.

The successful candidate will collaborate with cross-functional teams, including MHRA Engineering and third-party suppliers, to deliver software systems at speed and enhance performance by optimising Azure service setups.

Key responsibilities:

• Contribute to the ongoing development/maintenance of the DevOps platform and its services
• Create and maintain CI/CD pipelines using GitHub Actions to streamline development workflows, testing, and deployment processes
• Develop and maintain infrastructure-as-code (IaC) using Terraform to manage cloud resources effectively and efficiently, while considering how Secure-by-Design principles are followed
• Monitor system performance and troubleshoot issues to ensure reliability and minimise downtime

Who are we looking for?

Our successful candidate will:

• Experience: You will have experience in creating and working with CI/CD pipelines for building, testing and deploying application workloads in the cloud.
• Experience: You will have experience in automating and optimising processes
• Behaviour: Working together
• Behaviour: Developing Self and Others
• Technical: You will have experience in the technical areas of CI/CD, Cloud Technologies, Networking knowledge, System architecture, Observability and at least one scripting/programming language

Person specification

Method of assessment: A=Application, T=Test, I=Interview, P=Presentation

Behaviour Criteria:

• Delivering at Pace (I)
• Developing Self and Others (A)
• Working Together (A)
• Changing and Improving (I)

Experience Criteria:

• Experience creating and working with CI/CD pipelines for building, testing and deploying application workloads in the cloud (I)
• Involvement in the architecture of software systems using cloud native technologies (I)
• Experience automating and optimising processes (A)
• Experience monitoring (and/or involvement in the setup of monitoring) the availability and performance of cloud workloads (A)

Technical Criteria:

• CI/CD (Hands-on experience designing, building and operating CI/CD pipelines) (A, I)
• Cloud technologies (hands-on experience operating systems on a major public cloud provider) (A, I)
• Networking knowledge (A, I)
• System architecture (A, I)
• Observability (Monitoring/Logging) Monitoring tools such as Azure Monitor, Application Insights, Grafana (A, I)
• At least one scripting or programming language, e.g. (Bash, PowerShell, JavaScript, Python, etc.) (A, I)
• Desirable: Infrastructure as Code (A, I)
• Desirable: Familiarity with testing tools/frameworks such as Playwright, Cypress, Selenium, JMeter, Jest (A, I)
• Desirable: Containerised applications (A, I)

Behaviours

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

• Developing Self and Others
• Working Together
• Delivering at Pace
• Changing and Improving

We only ask for evidence of these behaviours on your application form:

• Developing Self and Others
• Working Together

Technical skills

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

• CI/CD (Hands-on experience designing, building and operating CI/CD pipelines)
• Cloud technologies (hands-on experience operating systems on a major public cloud provider)
• Networking knowledge
• System architecture
• Observability (Monitoring/Logging) Mo