Senior DevOps Engineer - MoJ - G7

The Role

We’re recruiting for a Senior DevOps Engineer here at Justice Digital, to be part of our warm and collaborative Cloud Platform team. 

The MoJ’s Cloud Platform is transforming the department’s ability to deliver digital services, by providing hosting services with ops tools and best practices embedded. The value the team delivers is multiplied across hundreds of services that make the justice system better for users. We use modern best practices like DevOps, agile and GitOps, use cloud native architectures, work in the open and prefer modern open source tools. You can find our repo here. 

This role aligns against the Senior DevOps engineer role from the Government Digital and Data Framework. 

• About Us: At Justice Digital, we're dedicated to leveraging technology to drive impactful change across the justice system. As a Senior DevOps Engineer, you'll play a pivotal role in enhancing access to justice and improving outcomes for users through innovative digital solutions.
• Responsibilities: You’ll be working on our acclaimed open-source public services, with user needs at the heart of everything, helping us transform Government for the future. Working as part of a multi-disciplinary team, you’ll be helping define how we do what we do, and making sure that our systems are built to be changed rapidly.
• Collaboration: You’ll collaborate closely with software developers, product managers, designers, delivery managers, technical architects and content specialists who share our vision of leveraging technology to transform government services.
• Discover More: To get a glimpse into life at Justice Digital, explore our blog and read about our Digital and Technology Strategy 2025.

Our Tech Stack

• Technologies: We use a diverse range of technologies, and we’re seeking individuals who specialise in one or more and are eager to learn new languages and frameworks. Our tech stack includes:
  • Cloud infrastructure: AWS
  • Infrastructure as code: Terraform
  • Containerisation: Docker, Kubernetes
  • CI/CD deployments: Github Actions
  • Application code: Go, Python, Ruby, Javascript
• Learning and Support: Once part of our team, we'll support you in mastering our tech stack, regardless of your current experience. Explore our GitHub for insights into our technologies and the services we develop and maintain.
• Our Community: Join over 150 experienced software and devops engineers who form our vibrant engineering community across the MoJ. You’ll have opportunities to mentor junior colleagues and participate in informal support networks with peers. We encourage active engagement in shaping our engineering culture and community.
• Career Development: We take pride in our supportive and effective line management. Your skills are highly valued, and we’re committed to helping you expand them within the civil service. You'll have opportunities to move between teams or departments, explore new technologies, and take on increased responsibilities aligned with your career goals.
• Explore Further: Dive deeper into our work and culture by visiting our Developer Blog and Justice Digital Blog.

Key Responsibilities

As a senior DevOps engineer, you will:

Technical

• Help build and run user-centred, open-source, secure web systems to serve a variety of citizen and government needs
• Be responsible for automating the deployment of systems that follow standard patterns, or components of systems that are more complex
• Manage infrastructure for multiple environments through code
• Build tools to automate infrastructure management tasks

People

• Share knowledge of tools and techniques with the wider team and community, both developers and non-developers, and maintain DevOps culture.
• Help build and maintain a diverse, inclusive culture across the development community, growing awareness, inclusivity, and balance
• Help with hiring, taking part in recruitment of other web operations engineers and technical staff
• Participate in the professional development of themselves and guide others
• Participate in 2nd line support during office hours, and sometimes out of hours (for which you’ll be paid an allowance and further hourly payment when on-call) 

If this feels like an exciting opportunity, something you are enthusiastic about, and want to join our team please read on and apply!

Benefits

• 37 hours per week and flexible working options including working from home, working part-time, job sharing, or working compressed hours.
• A £1k per person learning budget is in place to support all our people, with access to best in class conferences and seminars, accreditation with professional bodies, fully funded vocational programmes and e-learning platforms.
• Staff have 10% time to dedicate to develop & grow.
• Generous civil service pension based on defined benefit scheme, with employer contributions of 28.97% from April 1st 2024 (Contribution Rates).
• 25 days leave (plus bank holidays) and 1 privilege day usually taken around the Kings’ birthday. 5 additional days of leave once you have reached 5 years of service.
• Compassionate maternity, adoption, and shared parental leave policies, with up to 26 weeks leave at full pay, 13 weeks with partial pay, and 13 weeks further leave. And maternity support/paternity leave at full pay for 2 weeks, too!
• Wellbeing support including access to the Calm app.
• Bike loans up to £2500 and secure bike parking (subject to availability and location).
• Season ticket loans, childcare vouchers and eye-care vouchers.
• 5 days volunteering paid leave.
• Free membership to BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT.
• Some offices may have a subsidised onsite Gym.

Person Specification

You will have: 

• A systematic approach to solving problems
• Experience managing infrastructure as code using tools such as Terraform
• Experience of version control technologies such as Git
• Experience with cloud providers such as AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud Platform
• Experience with a programming language such as Go, Python, Ruby or Javascript
• Experience working and leading tasks in a mixed skillset team
• Experience of working with container orchestration
• Experience of continuous delivery methods and deployment processes
• Engaging people: Building capability for all 

Willingness to be assessed against the requirements for BPSS clearance. 

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 and the Civil Service D&I Strategy.

Person specification

Please refer to attached Job Description

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £54,358, Ministry of Justice contributes £15,747 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

• Access to learning and development
• A working environment that supports a range of flexible working options to enhance your work life balance
• A working culture which encourages inclusion and diversity
• A Civil Service pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%
• Annual Leave
• Public Holidays
• Season Ticket Advance

For more information about the recruitment process, benefits and allowances and answers to general queries, please click the below link which will direct you to our Candidate Information Page.

Link: https://justicejobs.tal.net/vx/candidate/cms/About%20the%20MOJ

Things you need to know

Selection process details

Candidates must submit a CV and Statement of Suitability (up to 750 words) which details how you meet the requirements set out in the Person Specification above. 

Failure to provide both documents will result in a rejection of your application. 

In Justice Digital, we recruit using a combination of the Government Digital and Data Profession Capability and Success Profiles Frameworks. We will assess your Experience, Technical Skills and the following Behaviours during the assessment process: 

• Communicating and influencing
• Making effective decisions
• Developing self and others 

A diverse panel will review your application against the Person Specification above. 

Successful candidates who meet the required standard will then be invited to a 90-minute panel interview held via video conference. A small technical exercise will be discussed and developed during the interview. 

Should you be unsuccessful in the role that you have applied for but demonstrate the capability for a role at a lower level, we reserve the right to discuss this opportunity with you and offer you the position without needing a further application. 

A reserve list may be held for up to 12 months, from which further appointments may be made.

Terms & Conditions

Please review our Terms & Conditions which set out how we recruit and provide further information related to the role and salary arrangements. 

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact recruitment@digital.justice.gov.uk

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.

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.

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).