Senior Azure DevOps Engineer

Job summary

Here at the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government (MHCLG), we work on things that make a real difference to people’s lives. Whether it's through the homes we live in, the work of our local councils, or the communities we’re all part of, our work is at the top of the political agenda. We have ambitious and far-reaching outcomes to achieve this year and, if you’re thinking of joining us, there’s never been a more exciting time.

We design and deliver digital platforms and services that support communities, local government, and essential national priorities. You will join the Technology team within the Digital Directorate, where we design, build, secure and operate modern cloud platforms for the department. This role sits at the core of our Technology function, which is responsible for cyber security, IT projects, digital tools, networking, and our wider IT infrastructure. We are seeking a Senior Azure Platform / DevOps Engineer (G7) to support, maintain and enhance our Microsoft Azure platform.

You will work across our Azure landing zone, shared services, network security components (including firewalls), and core platform services to ensure the environment remains secure, reliable and well-governed. Working closely with Architects, Cloud Operations, Security and development teams, you will help strengthen and mature the department’s cloud platform by improving automation, maintaining guardrails, ensuring platform resilience, and enabling safe and consistent use of Azure across the organisation.

This role is ideal for an engineer who enjoys platform building, complex troubleshooting, operational excellence, and continuously improving shared cloud services that support multiple teams.

Find out more about our Digital teams and what they are working on through our MHCLG Digital blog. Please note that MHCLG do not offer visa sponsorship and applicants will need a valid visa for the duration of your employment.

Job description

As an Azure DevOps Engineer You'll:

• Design, build and evolve Azure landing zones and platform services, including RBAC, Azure Policy, network architecture, Private Endpoints, App Gateway/WAF and Azure Front Door.
• Engineer and support core Azure services—App Service, Functions, storage and compute—across production and non‑production environments.
• Develop and maintain Terraform infrastructure‑as‑code, creating secure, reusable modules that ensure consistency.
• Build and operate CI/CD pipelines using Azure DevOps to enable secure, automated deployments.
• Enhance reliability and observability via Azure Monitor, Log Analytics, dashboards, alerts and SLO‑aligned practices.
• Implement DevSecOps tools and zero‑trust approaches, including Checkov, tfsec, Defender for Cloud, secrets management and related guardrails.
• Lead platform‑level incident response and problem management to drive stability and prevent recurrence.
• Partner with product teams to guide secure, reliable deployment of modern, cloud‑native applications on Azure. Produce documentation, runbooks and engineering standards while contributing to communities of practice.
• Provide line management and coaching, fostering professional growth and an inclusive engineering culture.

Person specification

As an Azure DevOps Engineer:

• Strong hands‑on experience engineering and operating Azure at scale across identity, networking, compute, storage and security.
• Expertise in Terraform including building and maintaining reusable infrastructure modules.
• Experience designing and maintaining CI/CD pipelines using Azure DevOps.
• Strong scripting capabilities using PowerShell, and Azure CLI.
• Experience with Azure App Service, Functions, networking components, Private Endpoints, Front Door and Application Gateway/WAF.
• Practical experience with cloud security and DevSecOps tooling (e.g., Checkov, tfsec, Defender for Cloud).
• Experience designing for reliability, observability, monitoring, business continuity and incident/problem management.
• Strong collaboration and communication skills, with experience in Line management, mentoring or developing engineers.
• Understanding of certificate lifecycle management
• AZ‑104 certification, or demonstrable equivalent experience comprising 4+ years of professional, hands‑on Azure platform and DevOps engineering.

Desirable Criteria

• Experience with containerisation and orchestration technologies (Docker, AKS).
• Knowledge of serverless, microservices and cloud‑native architectures (Azure Functions, Event Grid, Event Hub).
• Experience with Azure App Service Environment, API Management and modern identity patterns (Managed Identity, OAuth2, OIDC).
• Additional Azure certifications such as AZ‑400 or AZ‑700.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £56,167, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government contributes £16,271 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

• At MHCLG we offer many benefits that range from tailored career pathways and flexible working to MyLifestyle Childcare Voucher and Cycle to Work Schemes. For more information, please click here.

Things you need to know

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Selection process details

Application and Selection
The application process will be split into 2 stages, testing the following Success Profiles:

Behaviours , Experience , Technical

Please ensure your CV does not contain any personally identifiable information.

Note: We do not consider direct CV applications. All applications must be submitted via the provided application link.

Stage 1: Sift (CV )

Experience: The sift panel will use the information in your CV to assess your experience, skills and knowledge against the job description and person specification so please submit your CV demonstrating alignment to that criteria.

Stage 2: Interview

• Behaviours: Delivering at Pace, Making Effective Decisions, Managing A Quality Service
• Experience: Experience questions will be based around the essential skills and criteria as listed in the job description.
• Technical: Technical questions will be based around the essential skills and criteria as listed in the job description.

Sift and Interview Dates

Sifting is envisaged to take place from Wednesday 25th March with interview dates to follow. Interviews are currently being held remotely via videocall.

Group 1 Digital and Data roles

MHCLG has implemented the Digital and Data capability framework for Group 1 roles. Applicants that are successful and have been offered a position will be required to complete a capability assessment after the interview.

MHCLG will honour completed capability assessments for this role from other Government Departments for existing civil servants on level transfer only.Please provide a copy of your capability assessment to the Hiring Manager when applying. If you have any queries on pay, please contact the Hiring Manager.

Each experience or technical skill is assessed between 1-3, representing working towards, at or above the job level requirements. You are awarded a proficiency level accordingly, and you will be given opportunity to annually re assess your capability and potentially increase your overall remuneration, through payment of allowances, depending on level of assessed capability.

Candidates moving from another government department have the option to retain their current basic pay if this is within our pay band for the relevant grade.

Grade 7 Group 1 Digital and Data Salary

• The basic pay for this role will be between £61,745 – £72,112 (London), £56,167 – £66,581 (National). Candidates will usually be recruited to the midpoint of the relevant pay scale.

• A digital allowance may also be payable depending on the level of assessed capability, in order to meet the MHCLG overall targeted remuneration rate for the specific grade, location and capability rating.

• For applicants in receipt of existing allowances, we will assess each case individually, but we would seek not to exceed the MHCLG overall targeted remuneration rate for the specific grade, location and capability rating for existing civil servants, the usual policy on level transfer and promotion will apply, subject to the statements above.

How We Recruit

Find out everything you need to know before applying here..

• Applying

• Sifting

• Interview

• Interview Results & Feedback

• Reserve List

• Near Miss

• Civil Service Grades

• We are a DCS, RIS & GPTWV employer

• Reasonable Adjustments

How to Apply

What you need to know before applying.

Here’s a link to the MHCLG Digital blog

You must review the following information from the MHCLG Career's Site before submitting your application. This step is essential to ensure your eligibility for the role and that your application is completed correctly.

• Security Clearance Requirements

• Civil Service Nationality Requirements

• Right to Work

• Artificial Intelligence

• Civil Service Code and Recruitment Principles

• CV Declaration

• Sponsorships

• Salary and Grade

• Existing Civil Servants

• Conflict of Interest

• Location and Flexible Working

• Fixed Term Contracts

• Internal Fraud Database - Internal Fraud Register

• Appeals and Complaints

• Conflict of Interest

Security Clearance Requirements

National Office: SC

London Office: SC

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

Security

Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check (opens in a new window).

See our vetting charter (opens in a new window).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.The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.

Diversity and Inclusion

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see theCivil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).

Apply and further information

Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Contact point for applicants

Job contact :

• Name : Digital Data Jobs
• Email : digitaldatajobs@communities.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : digitaldatajobs@communities.gov.uk