Senior Cloud Engineer - Fixed Term Appointment (3715)

Job summary

Are you an experienced Cloud Engineer with the ability to adapt and thrive in a continually evolving cloud platform environment? Do you have a strong aptitude for problem-solving and service optimisation? Are your strengths rooted in leadership, shared ownership, collaboration, and a commitment to achieving and maintaining high-quality standards?

Social Security Scotland, are looking to recruit a Senior Cloud Engineer to help develop and maintain our critical infrastructure and services which are hosted on Amazon Web Services (AWS).

This opportunity is a Fixed Term Appointment for 47 months. The position may be made permanent during this period however this would depend on business requirements and cannot be guaranteed.

The Digital, Delivery & Change division is responsible for delivering the infrastructure, capability and digital solutions that will support Social Security Scotland.

The Senior Cloud Engineer role will sit within the Engineering and Cloud service branch - focused on delivering a roadmap of requirements and continual improvements of the AWS estate. There will be regular interaction with colleagues in the Architecture team, Cyber Security Team, Applications Development teams and a number of suppliers involved in the provision of the Division’s software and infrastructure.

The ideal candidate will have a strong track record in leading a multi-disciplinary team that have responsibility for delivery and support of enterprise level services. You will be proactive in responding and anticipating sudden changes to business priorities, and addressing wider strategic priorities.

Job description

Responsibilities

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 provision of expertise to programmes and projects.
• Manage the development of architectural solutions for IT operations solutions, throughout the service life cycle.

Additional Duties

• Manage service components to ensure they meet business needs and performance targets.
• Deal with high impact, complex change requests.
• Ensure that release policies, procedures and processes are applied.
• Interact with and read code.
• Carry out baseline repair activities.
• 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.
• Set standards for the definition, security and integrity of objects, and ensure conformity to these standards.
• Identify process improvements and contribute to the definition of best practice.
• Prioritise and define approaches to understand the user story, guiding others in doing so.
• Offer recommendations on the best tools and methods to use.

Person specification

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 the framework here.

For this post, the following Success Profile elements will be assessed:

Essential Experience

1. Able to provide business and technical leadership to a team of experienced technologists, often working in a pressured environment with a demanding work load, to deliver solutions for customers.
2. 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.

Behaviours

• Making Effective Decisions (Level 4)
• Leadership (Level 4)

You can find out more about Success Profiles Behaviours here: Success Profiles - Civil Service Behaviours (publishing.service.gov.uk)

Technical / Professional Skills:
This role is aligned to Lead Infrastructure Operations Engineer within the Digital, Data and Technology Profession.

These skills will be tested during the Technical Assessment if you are successful at sift stage. They will be not be assessed at application stage. Please review the following to understand the skill expectations: Infrastructure operations engineer - Government Digital and Data Profession Capability Framework

Benefits

Annual Leave - You will receive 25 days annual leave on joining us. This will increase to 30 days after four full years of service. You will also have 11.5 public and privilege days of leave every year. We also offer Flexi-time. Any extra hours you've worked can be taken as leave when suitable.

A Civil Service Pension - This job comes with a Civil Service pension. New joiners to the Civil Service will join a career average pension scheme as standard. Read more here - www.civilservicepensionscheme.org.uk.

Healthy work life balance - We can offer the possibility of full-time, part-time, term-time, and job shares. We also encourage flexible working.

Discounts - You can enjoy a vast range of retail, travel and lifestyle discounts through our benefit scheme.

Personal support for you - Our Employee Assistance Programme gives you confidential, independent information and guidance 24/7.

Volunteering special leave - Up to six days paid special leave a year for volunteering. We support our staff to help causes important to them.

Great locations - Our bright and modern offices in the heart of Dundee and Glasgow have been designed with staff in mind. Both locations are ideal for public transport.

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

Expected Timeline (subject to change)
Sift – w/c 27th April 2026
Interview – w/c 18th May 2026
Location – In Person in either Dundee or Glasgow

To apply please submit an application form by clicking on the ‘Apply at Advertisers Site’ button.

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 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

This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans (opens in a new window) initiative.The Civil Service welcomes applications from people who have recently left prison or have an unspent conviction. Read more about prison leaver recruitment (opens in new window).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 : Resourcing Team
• Email : recruitment@socialsecurity.gov.scot
• Telephone : 08001577194

Recruitment team

• Email : Recruitment@socialsecurity.gov.scot

Further information

https://www.socialsecurity.gov.scot/working-with-us/help-with-your-application