Senior Infrastructure Engineer (365 & AI) – SEO

Job summary

Team/Division Overview

Working in IT Services as part of the Centralised Technology Service team. This post is to design, implement, maintain, and optimise WGs investment in Microsoft 365 services and solutions. The role will involve providing technical leadership, mentoring junior engineers, and ensuring the successful delivery of Microsoft 365 projects.

It will play a critical role in shaping and maintaining our organization's Microsoft 365 environment and optimising the opportunity and risk profile for AI capabilities provided by the platform. Providing expertise, leadership, and technical prowess that will contribute to the success of Microsoft within Welsh Governments technical estate.

This role maps to the senior infrastructure engineer within the DDaT framework: Infrastructure engineer - Government Digital and Data Profession Capability Framework.

We are looking for people who are:

• Experienced in managing and securing information and modern workplace services in a large, user‑focused environment.
• Confident communicators, able to engage with technical teams and end users to deliver clear guidance and effective support.
• Proactive and detail‑driven, with a strong commitment to service reliability, security, and continuous improvement.

Job description

At this role level, you will:

• Take ownership of service delivery, ensuring end user computing and communications services are operated, governed, and consumed in line with agreed standards, policies, and service objectives.
• Lead and manage relationships with third‑party suppliers and partners, providing technical oversight and assurance to ensure infrastructure services are delivered securely, reliably, and in line with contractual and operational expectations.

Your day to day main responsibilities will include

• Provide technical leadership and service ownership for Microsoft 365, identity, and Copilot/AI platforms, ensuring security, resilience, compliance, and alignment with organisational priorities.
• Own and govern security, compliance, and information governance across Microsoft 365 and AI services, including Purview, DLP, eDiscovery, and information protection.
• Lead the design, assurance, and optimisation of Microsoft 365 and underpinning infrastructure, including Entra ID, Azure AD Connect, Active Directory, Exchange Online, and Azure services.
• Act as technical authority for identity and access management, including authentication, authorisation, and Conditional Access at enterprise scale.
• Design and assure security, resilience, and performance controls, including disaster recovery, service continuity, and high‑availability arrangements.
• Oversee service monitoring, availability, and performance, acting as the senior escalation point for critical and cross‑service incidents.
• Lead problem management and root cause analysis to reduce incident recurrence and improve service reliability.
• Set and maintain service standards and documentation, ensuring high‑quality architectural artefacts and operational guidance.
• Provide technical leadership for collaboration services, including Microsoft Teams, ensuring secure and scalable integration with Microsoft 365 and approved third‑party platforms.
• Lead the design and operationalisation of Copilot and AI solutions, embedding automation into business workflows and supporting organisational adoption.
• To provide guidance on, and champion, the safe and effective development and use of Copilot Agents in line with established standards.

Person specification

Your role will form part of Welsh Government’s Digital, Data and Technology profession. You will have the opportunity to work with multiple projects and programmes across all areas of Welsh Government, with staff at all levels including senior staff, Ministers, and our Digital Apprentice cohort. You will help build and improve links and collaboration within the cross-government Digital, Data and Technology community.

Behaviours

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Leadership

Technical skills

We'll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:

• You can build, configure, administer and support infrastructure technologies and solutions.
• You can design systems characterised by managed levels of risk, manageable business and technical complexity, and meaningful impact.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £47,675, Welsh Government contributes £13,811 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides (opens in a new window).

• Learning and development tailored to your role
• An environment with flexible working options
• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
• A Civil Service pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%

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

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours, Experience and Technical skills.

A reserve list may be held for this opportunity. Any candidate who is successful in being offered a reserve status, will remain on the reserve list for 12 months.

Candidates who successfully demonstrate that they meet the minimum Experience Criteria will be invited to interview. Interviews will be scheduled, and a date will be confirmed.

You will receive a technical scenario for you to prepare a response to ready for your interview. The technical scenario and instructions will be emailed to you 5 days before your interview.

Under Hybrid working we operate blended remote / office attendance, some regular face to face attendance is a requirement of the role.

Welsh Government has introduced a DDaT Allowance for posts categorised as Group 1. This post has been categorised as a Group 1 post and is therefore eligible for the allowance. Upon appointment, the post-holder will be eligible for the ‘Developing’ proficiency level of Welsh Government’s DDaT Allowance which will be £3150 for SEO Further information will be provided upon appointment.

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.

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.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 : ICTServiceControl@gov.wales
• Email : ICTServiceControl@gov.wales

Recruitment team

• Email : SharedServiceHelpdesk@gov.wales