Lead Azure DevOps Engineer

This role may be located in one of the following locations; Blackpool or Manchester. Please find further information on the Corporate hub locations here. Job Summary Please note this role requires you to pass Security Check clearance. For further information, please see 'Selection process details'. Are you excited about the opportunity to protect critical citizen facing services from cyber threats at scale? Are you passionate about cloud technologies, automation, and building secure, resilient platforms? Can you provide technical leadership while driving engineering excellence across DevOps and Azure services? If so, we're looking for an experienced Lead Azure DevOps Engineer to help shape and deliver the future of cloud engineering. In this role, you'll lead the design and evolution of enterprise DevOps capabilities across our Azure platform, driving automation, improving delivery speed, and embedding secure by design principles across critical services. You'll provide technical leadership, set engineering standards, and support teams in adopting best practices across CI/CD, Infrastructure as Code, cloud governance, and observability. Working with modern Azure technologies, you'll architect secure, scalable, and highly available solutions, champion DevSecOps and Zero Trust principles, and help drive the adoption of cloud native approaches that improve reliability, resilience, and value for money. This is a fantastic opportunity to influence strategy, mentor engineers, and lead the delivery of secure digital services that millions of people rely on every day. Job Description Lead the strategy, architecture, and continuous evolution of enterprise Azure cloud and DevOps capabilities.Define and embed best practice across CI/CD, Infrastructure as Code, cloud governance, and engineering standards.Provide technical leadership and assurance, acting as a subject matter expert and influencing key architectural decisions.Architect, deploy, and support secure, scalable, and highly available Azure solutions using modern cloud native technologies.Drive automation and delivery excellence through Azure DevOps, Terraform, and Azure native tooling, enabling reliable and repeatable deployments.Champion DevSecOps, observability, resilience, and cost optimisation through proactive monitoring, security controls, and disaster recovery practices.Mentor engineers and collaborate across multidisciplinary teams to build capability, drive continuous improvement, and deliver secure, high quality services.Lead the strategy, architecture, and continuous evolution of enterprise Azure cloud and DevOps capabilities.Define and embed best practice across CI/CD, Infrastructure as Code, cloud governance, and engineering standards.Provide technical leadership and assurance, acting as a subject matter expert and influencing key architectural decisions.Architect, deploy, and support secure, scalable, and highly available Azure solutions using modern cloud native technologies.Drive automation and delivery excellence through Azure DevOps, Terraform, and Azure native tooling, enabling reliable and repeatable deployments.Champion DevSecOps, observability, resilience, and cost optimisation through proactive monitoring, security controls, and disaster recovery practices.Mentor engineers and collaborate across multidisciplinary teams to build capability, drive continuous improvement, and deliver secure, high quality services. Person specification See selection process for further details. If you would like to learn more about the role, please contact Richard.hanley@dwp.gov.uk. Qualifications Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert or similar. Should you progress to interview, you will be asked to provide evidence of this. Technical skills We'll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process: Technical Breadth Alongside your salary of £75,026, Department for Work and Pensions contributes £21,735 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). We also have a broad benefits package built around your work-life balance which includes: Working patterns to support work/life balance such as job sharing, term-time working, flexi-time and compressed hours.Generous annual leave – at least 25 days on entry, increasing up to 30 days over time (pro–rata for part time employees), plus 9 days public and privilege leave.Support for financial wellbeing, including interest-free season ticket loans for travel, a cycle to work scheme and an employee discount scheme.Health and wellbeing support including our Employee Assistance Programme for specialist advice and counselling and the opportunity to join HASSRA a first-class programme of competitions, activities and benefits for its members (subscription payable monthly).Family friendly policies including enhanced maternity and shared parental leave pay after 1 year’s continuous service.Funded learning and development to support progress in your role and career. This includes industry recognised qualifications and accreditations, coaching, mentoring and talent development programmes.An inclusive and diverse environment with opportunities to join professional and interpersonal networks including Women’s Network, National Race Network, National Disability Network (THRIVE) and many more. Hybrid Working This role may be suitable for hybrid working, which is where an employee works part of the week in their DWP office and part of the week from home. This is a voluntary, non-contractual arrangement and your office will be your contractual place of work. If a hybrid working arrangement is suitable for the role and for you, you will normally be required to spend a minimum of 60% of your contracted working hours from your DWP office. If you have a disability, caring responsibilities, or other circumstances that may affect your ability to meet the minimum office attendance requirement, please discuss this with us using the contact details in this advert. Salary Information Pay for this role is from £75,026 to £92,522. The maximum salary for the grade is £80,267, however a Digital Allowance of up to £12,255 per annum is available for exceptional candidates. Digital Allowance is non-salary, and non-pensionable, and is classed as a temporary allowance. It is reviewed annually where it could be retained, amended, or removed. Our offer to successful candidates will be based on an assessment of your skills and experience as demonstrated at interview. Existing Civil Servants who secure a new role on lateral transfer will maintain their current substantive salary. Civil Servants who gain promotion will move to the bottom of the grade pay scale or receive a 10% increase applied to their current substantive salary, whichever is greater. Any temporary allowances that you are currently in receipt of will not form part of the calculation to determine your pay. Any allowances that are in payment will cease when you move into your new role. 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 Experience and Technical skills. Stage 1: Application Your Application Will Consist Of Five Parts A Personal Details application form. Employment history - this should contain your work experience and any skills and accomplishments relevant to the jobs you have completed. Qualifications - please list any qualifications relevant to this role. Personal statement - up to 1250 words. This statement should be used to provide examples of how you meet the essential criteria below:CI/CD and Infrastructure as Code - Advanced, demonstrable capability in pipeline engineering and Infrastructure as Code, with hands-on experience designing, implementing and optimising CI/CD pipelines (for example Azure DevOps, GitHub Actions or GitLab CI) and defining reusable, governed infrastructure using Terraform and Azure-native tooling (ARM or Bicep), setting the engineering standards that others follow.Containerisation and orchestration - Extensive experience building and operating scalable, resilient container platforms using Docker and Kubernetes, preferably Azure Kubernetes Service, from design through to production support.Security and DevSecOps - Strong, practical application of secure-by-design and Zero Trust principles, including managed identities, secrets management (for example Key Vault), RBAC and vulnerability management, embedding security throughout the delivery lifecycle.Automation and reliability engineering - Proficient in Python with solid scripting in PowerShell and Bash to drive automation and operational efficiency, combined with strong observability practice (for example Azure Monitor, Sentinel, Application Insights and Log Analytics) using SLIs, SLOs and distributed tracing to sustain and improve system reliability.Autonomy and technical leadership - Proven ability to work independently and self-manage priorities with minimal direction, taking end-to-end ownership of complex services. Sets technical direction and standards, drives the adoption of modern engineering practices, and influences and guides engineers and stakeholders to deliver measurable outcomes such as fewer incidents, faster and safer releases, and improved resilience. Technical statement (up to 250 words). The following statement is aligned to the required technical skill of Technical Breadth. This statement should be used to provide example(s) of how you meet the criterion below:Azure platform expertise and architecture - Deep hands-on expertise across the Microsoft Azure ecosystem, including core compute, networking, storage, identity and security services. Proven track record of independently designing, delivering and owning secure, scalable and highly available cloud environments at enterprise scale, with clear regard for availability, cost optimisation and compliance. Ensure that all examples provided in your statements are taken directly from your own experience and that you describe the examples in your own words. If you choose to use gen-AI to support your statements, you must follow the guidelines outlined in the Artificial intelligence and recruitment guide. The sift panel will use the information in your employment history, personal statement, and technical statement to assess your experience, skills and knowledge. An initial sift will be conducted using the technical statement. Candidates who pass the initial sift will be progressed to a full sift. If you do progress to a full sift, you will be provided with one combined overall assessment score for both your employment history and Personal Statement. For Hints and Tips on completing your application visit Applying for jobs at DWP Digital. Important Information You will be asked to complete your employment history. Any information that you would customarily share on a CV should therefore be entered onto the application form.Personal details that could be used to identify you including your name, contact details and address must be removed for your application to be considered.If your employment history, personal statement or technical statement contain any personal details your application will be withdrawn. Stage 2: Interview If you’re successful at the sift stage, you’ll be invited to a video interview via Microsoft Teams. During the interview, you’ll be assessed against the experience criteria listed under both the essential criteria and technical skill. You will be asked to do a 5 minutes presentation on a specific topic. Further details will be provided to candidates invited to interview. Interviews will take place from late September 2026. Sift and Interview dates to be confirmed. Further Information If high application volumes are received, the benchmark for candidates to proceed to the next stage may be raised. In line with our commitment to the Disability Confident Scheme (DCS), we aim to advance all candidates applying under the DCS who meet the minimum standard. However, we may only progress those candidates who best meet the required standards. All successful candidates and those placed on reserve will be posted in merit list order by location. For these vacancies, we strongly recommend that applicants consult with an immigration specialist or qualified advisor to assess their eligibility for Visa Sponsorship before deciding to apply. Please note that while we consider sponsorship requests in accordance with current DWP guidance and Home Office policy, sponsorship cannot be guaranteed. Security Clearance Requirement You must meet the security requirements before you can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check. You must have resided continuously in the UK for at least 3 of the last 5 years, 2 of which must have been the immediately preceding years from the point of applying for this job. For further information on National Security Vetting please visit the Demystifying Vetting website. Further Information At the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) we value diversity and inclusion and actively encourage and welcome applications from everyone, including those that are underrepresented in our workforce. Find out more about working for DWP on the DWP Careers Hub. Reserve List A reserve list may be held for a period of 6 months from which further appointments can be made. If you are placed on a reserve list but we cannot immediately offer you a post, please note: If you are later offered the role you applied for, in a location you have expressed a preference for, and you decline the offer or are unable to take up the post within a reasonable timeframe you will be withdrawn from the campaign and removed from the reserve list, other than in exceptional circumstances (e.g. a contractual Part Time Working Pattern cannot be accommodated in the initial role offered or in cases of serious ill health). If DWP makes an offer of an alternative role or location to that which you originally applied for, and you decline that offer, you will be able to remain on the reserve list. Disability Confident Scheme If high application volumes are received, the benchmark for candidates to proceed to the next stage may be raised. In line with our commitment to the Disability Confident Scheme (DCS), we aim to advance all candidates applying under the DCS who meet the minimum standard. However, we may only progress those candidates who best meet the required standards. Reasonable Adjustments We consider visible and non-visible disabilities, neurodiversity or learning differences, chronic medical conditions, or mental ill health. Examples include dyslexia, epilepsy, autism, chronic fatigue, or schizophrenia. If you need a change to be made so that you can make your application, you should contact the Government Recruitment Service via DWPRecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk as soon as possible before the closing date to discuss your needs. Complete the “Reasonable Adjustments” section in the “Additional requirements” page of your application form to tell us what changes or help you might need further on in the recruitment process. For instance, you may need wheelchair access at interview, or if you’re deaf, a Language Service Professional. If you are experiencing accessibility problems with any attachments on this advert, please contact the email address in the 'Contact point for applicants' section. Integrity, plagiarism and Civil Service Principles The Civil Service values honesty and integrity and expects all candidates to abide by these principles. Please ensure that all examples provided in your application are taken directly from your own experience and that you describe the examples in your own words. Examples Of Plagiarism Can Include Presenting the work, ideas and experience of others as your own Copying content or answers from an online or published source that is not your own Disclosure and Barring Service and Internal Fraud Database Checks To process applications without delay, we will be sending a Criminal Record Check to Disclosure and Barring Service on your behalf. However, we recognise in exceptional circumstances some candidates will want to send their completed forms direct. If you will be doing this, please advise Government Recruitment Service of your intention by emailing Pre-EmploymentChecks.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk stating the job reference number in the subject heading. Applicants who are successful at interview will be, as part of pre-employment screening, subject to a check on the Internal Fraud Database (IFD). This check will provide information about employees who have been dismissed for fraud or dishonesty offences. This check also applies to employees who resign or otherwise leave before being dismissed for fraud or dishonesty had their employment continued. Any applicant’s details held on the IFD will be refused employment. A candidate is not eligible to apply for a role within the Civil Service if the application is made within a 5 year period following a dismissal for carrying out internal fraud against government. If successful and transferring from another Government Department, a criminal record check will be carried out. Important New entrants are expected to join on the minimum of the pay band. Before applying for this vacancy, current employees of DWP should check whether a successful application would result in changes to their terms & conditions of employment, e.g. mobility, pay, allowances. If you are a current employee and are successful you must be able to be released from your current post within four weeks. Those on protected TUPE/ COSoP terms and conditions applying on promotion or voluntary permanent level move will adopt DWP’s Terms and Conditions and this may have a different impact on pay and allowances. Please review this prior to acceptance of a role. Civil Servants that would transfer into DWP from other government organisations, following successful application, will assume DWP's terms & conditions of employment current on the day they are posted, unless DWP has stated otherwise in writing. Accepting a post will be taken to mean acceptance of revised terms & conditions. Civil Servants applying on promotion will usually be appointed to the salary minimum or within 10% of existing salary. Any move to DWP from another employer will mean you can no longer access childcare vouchers. This includes moves between government departments. You may, however, be eligible for other government schemes, including Tax Free Childcare. Determine your eligibility at the Childcare Choices Website. For further information on reasonable adjustments, terms and conditions and how we recruit visit the How we recruit page. Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment. This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Experience and Technical skills. Security Successful candidates must undergo a basic (or equivalent) criminal record check. 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. Successful candidates must undergo a basic (or equivalent) criminal record check. 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 nationalsnationals of the Republic of Irelandnationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UKnationals 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 2020Turkish 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. 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 the Civil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window). 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 : Richard HanleyEmail : Richard.hanley@dwp.gov.uk Recruitment team Email : digitalrecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk Further information Appointment to the Civil Service is governed by the Civil Service Commission’s Recruitment Principles. If you feel your application has not been treated in accordance with these principles and you wish to make a complaint, you should in the first instance contact DWP by email: HR.BUSINESSASSURANCE@DWP.GOV.UK. If you are not satisfied with the response you receive from the Department, you can contact the Civil Service Commission. Click here to visit the Civil Service Commission.