Principal DevOps Engineer - Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency - G6

We are currently looking for a Principal DevOps Engineer to join our Technology & Service Operations function within the Digital & Technology group. 

This is a full-time opportunity, on a permanent basis. This role can be based in 10 South Colonnade, Canary Wharf London, E14 4PU or South Mimms, Hertfordshire. Please be aware that this role can only be worked in the UK and not overseas.   

Government departments and agencies are working towards implementing a minimum 60% attendance in office sites. 

We are currently implementing a flexible, hybrid way of working, with a minimum of 8 days per month working on site to enable the collaboration and contact with partners and stakeholders needed to deliver MHRA business. Attendance on site is driven by business needs so depending on the nature of the role, this can flex up to 12 days a month, with the remainder of time worked either remotely or in the office. Some roles will need to be on site more regularly. 

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency enhance and improve the health of millions of people every day through the effective regulation of medicines and medical devices, underpinned by science and research.   

The Digital and Technology Group (DTG) lies at the heart of the Agency and is responsible for delivering an optimised IT infrastructure and maximising the secure use of data to enable our scientists, inspectors, and the rest of the organisation to deliver world class services which can improve outcomes for patients and the general public. The Group was essential in the race to approve COVID-19 vaccines in 2020 and in supporting the UK to set up its own medicines and devices approvals systems following our exit from the EU. The work we do matters! 

The Technology & Service Operations function is responsible for managing the existing IT infrastructure including both software and hardware, databases, and other technology platforms; leading the support and maintenance of applications; development and testing of new applications and platforms; and cyber and information security for the Agency. 

The Engineering team, made up of software developers, DevOps engineers, Quality Assurance testers, and data professionals including engineers, scientists, and visualization experts, is tasked with the creation of applications and services, ensuring quality for both new and existing agency offerings, and developing data visualizations through their expertise in data engineering and science.  

Job description

This role requires a highly skilled and experienced DevOps Engineer with a passion for building and driving the culture of DevOps. The ideal candidate will possess technical expertise in DevOps tools and frameworks, as well as a solid understanding of development, testing and automation practices. You will ensure while increasing capability, standards and practices across the organisation by developing in-house capability, while also providing oversight and assurance of supplier teams.

The successful candidate will collaborate with other teams within Digital and Technology Group, other business teams and third-party suppliers, to build a DevOps culture and contribute to the Engineering community ensuring that our DevOps practices align with the technology roadmap and evolve in line with technology advances. 

Key responsibilities:  

Drive a mindset and culture change within the agency to foster strong continuous integration and continuous delivery(CI/CD) practices alongside robust and secure software engineering activities. 

Work across multiple teams as a technical specialist driving engineering standards at the agency. 

Lead, mentor and manage a DevOps engineering team, with responsibility of a team of civil servants, including apprentices, along with coordinating supplier teams to ensure best practices adherence. 

Integrate DevOps practices within the developer and testing community to facilitate CI/CD while also working closely with the CyberSec team to ensure approaches are secure by design. 

Support the ongoing development of the DevOps platform for programme, project and innovation teams. 

Create capability through practice alignment and act as an enabler for the various software engineering and AI initiatives at the agency. 

Be responsible for automation of CI/CD pipelines using GitHub Actions to streamline development workflows, testing, and deployment processes

Person specification

Who are we looking for?  

Our successful candidate will have:  

Knowledge and experience of various tools and applications, including Git/GitHub, Terraform, and Azure 

Creating and working with CI/CD pipelines for building, testing and deploying application workloads in the cloud 

Ability to drive continuous learning and development for self, the team and the organisation as a whole 

Involvement in the architecture of software systems using cloud native technologies 

Experience working closely with multi-supplier and civil servant teams and across digital professions such as Development, Security and Architecture, external suppliers and stakeholders 

If you would like to find out more about this fantastic opportunity, please read our Job Description and Person Specification!  

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