Senior Development Engineer (DevOps)

Job summary

Here at the Ministry of Housing, Communities and 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 a 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 have circa 3,500 staff who are based in 20 offices across the UK.

The Digital Planning Programme is transforming England’s planning system through modern, user-centred digital services and better use of data. The Planning Data Team is delivering the foundational data infrastructure and services that support this transformation.

As a Senior Development Engineer (DevOps), you will lead the design and implementation of the deployment, monitoring, and infrastructure systems that underpin the planning data services. You will ensure our development and production environments are reliable, secure, scalable, and support continuous delivery. This is a senior engineering role that combines hands-on infrastructure development with technical leadership and mentoring.

You can explore our platform here Planning Data, and as we work in the open, you can find out what we do here at Digital Land.

Job description

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.

As a Senior Development Engineer You'll;

• Design, implement, and manage cloud infrastructure (primarily AWS) to support development, staging, and production environments
• Build and maintain CI/CD pipelines, utilising Github Actions, AWS CodePipeline and AWS CodeDeploy, automating the testing, integration, and deployment of software and data services
• Lead the design and operation of secure, observable systems aligned with best practices in DevOps, SRE, and platform engineering
• Collaborate with software developers, data engineers, analysts, and product managers to deliver and support robust digital services
• Develop and manage infrastructure-as-code using Terraform
• Implement monitoring, logging, and alerting solutions to ensure high availability and performance of planning data services
• Ensure infrastructure meets compliance and security requirements, including Government Digital Service standards and National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) guidance
• Provide technical leadership within the team, mentor junior engineers, and promote DevOps best practices across the wider Digital Planning Programme.

Person specification

As a Senior Development Engineer you'll have:

• Familiarity with secure software development and deployment practices
• Experience working in agile teams and DevOps cultures, supporting iterative delivery
• Proven experience in designing, building, and managing cloud-based infrastructure (e.g. AWS: EC2, Lambda, ECS, RDS, S3, Distributed version control with Git)
• Strong experience with CI/CD tooling (e.g., GitHub Actions, Jenkins, or GitLab CI)
• Proficient in infrastructure-as-code (e.g., Terraform, CloudFormation)
• Understanding of containerisation and orchestration (e.g., Docker, ECS, EKS, Kubernetes)
• Experience monitoring production systems using tools such as CloudWatch, Prometheus, ELK/Elastic Stack
• Experience with serverless technologies (e.g., AWS Lambda, Step Functions, ECS Fargate, EMR serverless AWS Glue)
• Experience with open-source contributions, public APIs, or open data services
• Knowledge of government standards, including the GDS Service Standard and Technology Code of Practice
• Understanding of zero-downtime deployment techniques and blue/green or canary deployment strategies

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £61,374, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government contributes £17,780 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 & Technical

Most of our campaigns utilise multiple assessors and so it is possible that each of your answers would be viewed by different assessors.

In the event that we receive a large number of applications, we may conduct an initial sift using the lead sift question listed in the advert. Candidates who pass the initial sift may be progressed to a full sift, or progressed straight to interview. :

Stage 2: Interview

• Behaviours: Managing A Quality Service, Changing and Improving, Leadership
• 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.

Candidates will be asked to prepare a ten minute presentation assessing on technical success profiles, with details to follow for successful candidates.

Sift and Interview Dates

Sifting is envisaged to take place the week commencing 16th February 2026 with interview dates to follow.

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.

G7 Group 1 Digital and Data Salary

• The basic pay for this role will be between £66,929- £81,112 (London), £61,374 - £75,581(National). Candidates will usually be recruited to the median of the payscale.

• 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