Location
Hybrid working based at any of UKHSA's Core HQs or Scientific Campuses including Birmingham, Leeds, Liverpool, London, Porton, Chilton, and Colindale. Hybrid model requires a minimum of 60% of contractual hours (approximately 3 days per week pro rata) spent at a UKHSA location.

Hours
Full Time, flexible working patterns available including part-time, job-share, and condensed hours.

Salary
Grade 7: £56,185 - £66,581 (National), £58,340 - £68,574 (Outer London), £60,494 - £70,566 (Inner London) plus a Market Pay Supplement of up to £10,000 per annum depending on capability level. Pay increases through relevant annual pay awards.

About the Role
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) leads the prevention, preparation, and response to infectious diseases and environmental hazards to protect public health. The Development and Operations team drives UKHSA’s digital transformation to become a data-driven, customer-focused digital organisation by delivering services aligned with Government Digital Service (GDS) standards.

As a Lead DevOps Engineer, you will manage a small team and act as a technical product owner, shaping medium- to long-term strategies for DevOps toolchains, CI/CD pipelines, and platforms. You will provide expert technical leadership, coaching, and mentoring, promoting modern development standards and systems integration.

Your role includes designing secure, scalable cloud services primarily on AWS and Azure, implementing infrastructure automation using tools such as Ansible and Terraform, and ensuring continuous improvement through process optimisation. You will champion user-centred design, represent user needs, and promote research-informed decision making.

This position requires collaboration with developers, data scientists, and public health officials to deliver reliable software solutions supporting critical public health services. You will also provide expert-level service support, diagnose complex faults, and ensure adherence to security standards throughout the development lifecycle.

UKHSA is committed to equality, diversity, and inclusion, fostering an environment where differences drive innovative solutions to meet workforce and community needs.

Experience
- Expert-level knowledge of modern development standards, systems integration, and service support.
- Proven experience leading others in applying development standards across complex programmes.
- Skilled in diagnosing and resolving complex service faults and advising on support methodologies.
- Practitioner-level information security expertise, systems design, and programming.
- Experience designing secure solutions with appropriate controls to mitigate security threats.
- Experience with cloud automation technologies such as Ansible and Terraform.
- Experience implementing CI/CD platforms like GitLab CI and GitHub Actions using repeatable deployment patterns.
- Experience acting as a technical product owner, contributing to medium- to long-term technical strategy.
- Excellent communication skills across technical and non-technical audiences.
- Experience designing highly available cloud services, particularly on AWS and Azure.

About you
- Recognised technical leader with the ability to coach and mentor colleagues.
- Strong advocate for user-centred design and user research.
- Ability to manage service components to meet business objectives and KPIs.
- Passionate about DevOps, cloud automation, and version control.

Qualifications
- Degree in computer science or equivalent.

Desirable
- Experience with containerisation technologies such as Docker and Kubernetes-based platforms like Red Hat OpenShift.
- Understanding of RESTful Web Services.
- Familiarity with GDS Service Standard and Technology Code of Practice.
- Experience working in government, public health, or regulated environments.