Lead Data Platform Engineer

COVID-19 has reinforced the impact that threats to health can have on society and the economy and driven health security as a critical component of our national security architecture. The United Kingdom Health Security Agency (UKHSA) is a system leader for health security; taking action internationally to strengthen global health security, providing trusted advice to government and the public and reducing inequalities in the way different communities experience and are impacted by infectious disease, environmental hazards, and other threats to health.

UKHSA’s remit, as an agency with a global-to-local reach, is to protect the health of the nation from infectious diseases and other external threats to health. As the nation’s expert national health security agency UKHSA will:

• Prevent: anticipate threats to health and help build the nation’s readiness, defences and health security
• Detect: use cutting edge environmental and biological surveillance to proactively detect and monitor infectious diseases and threats to health
• Analyse: use world-class science and data analytics to assess and continually monitor threats to health, identifying how best to control and mitigate the risks
• Respond: take rapid, collaborative and effective actions nationally and locally to mitigate threats to health when they materialise
• Lead: lead strong and sustainable global, national, regional and local partnerships designed to save lives, protect the nation from public health threats, and reduce inequalities

UKHSA will build on the legacy of the COVID-19 response to ensure resilient and scalable infrastructure to secure the UK in the strongest position to protect the public from future threats to health.

UKHSA mission is challenging, innovative and in the spotlight. To achieve our objectives effectively and fairly, we commit to representing modern Britain and all its diversity. UKHSA recognises that diversity of background and life experience brings different insights, creates challenge, and encourages change and innovation. This in turn produces more accountable and trusted public services and better decisions; better because they are more attuned to the needs and interests of all our communities. Differences of thought and outlook are not only respected but expected. We want all our employees to feel that they can be themselves at work and that they are valued.

Data Operations

The UKHSA Data Operations Directorate provides strategic leadership and oversight for developing and managing a common and bespoke suite of performant, modern, secure, data and analytical tools, services, platforms and applications, ensuring access to high quality data and analytics services, internally and externally.

Job Overview

You will work in the Data Engineering and Enablement Division that reports into the Data Operations Directorate. It’s an exciting time to join as we seek to create leading Health Protection data capabilities that enable data scientists and data analysts to develop insights that inform public health decisions with resilience platforms and curated data assets.

The core activities of Engineering and Enablement include the ingestion of data sources, building data pipelines, curated data views and data capabilities fused from data, models and software that enable the exploitation of data by analysts, data scientists and MI teams.

We are seeking to mature our advanced platform capabilities with standardised practices, machine learning and agility needed to pro-active detect and respond to new public health issues. We are looking for a Lead Platform Engineer to work as part of the Engineering and Enablement team to support the operation and the development of our Enterprise Data and Analytics platform, specifically:

• Leading the design and maintenance of scalable and reliable infrastructure, ensuring optimal performance and continuous optimisation.
• Develop tools and scripts for automating deployment and monitoring, whilst managing systems to maintain environment consistency.
• Establish and enhance CI/CD pipelines for automated software delivery, ensuring rapid and reliable code integration and deployment.
• Implement security best practices, including access control and threat detection, and ensure compliance with industry standards.
• Identify and address performance bottlenecks in the infrastructure, conducting load testing and capacity planning for increased workloads.
• Establish monitoring and alerting systems for proactive issue detection and quickly troubleshoot infrastructure-related incidents.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams and effectively communicate technical concepts and solutions to non-technical stakeholders.
• Responsible for reviewing and editing comprehensive documentation for infrastructure and processes.

We work collaboratively in agile multi-disciplinary teams, and we are looking for engineers who can operate in an environment that values DevOps principles and agile methodologies.

We are developing our engineering community of practice to share knowledge, enhance our standards and processes to provide a strong foundation to develop individuals, teams and innovation.

Main Duties of the Job

As a Lead Platform Engineer, you will be responsible for:

• Lead and manage up to 2x Senior Platform Engineers, providing guidance and support to ensure their growth and professional development.
• Lead the design and implementation of robust, scalable, and highly available infrastructure solutions, while continuously monitoring, maintaining, and optimising existing infrastructure for performance and reliability.
• Develop automation scripts and tools to streamline deployment, configuration, and monitoring processes, and implement configuration management systems for environment consistency.
• Establish and enhance CI/CD pipelines to automate software delivery, testing, and deployment, managing code integration for rapid and reliable releases.
• Implement security best practices including access control, vulnerability scanning, and threat detection, and ensure infrastructure compliance with industry standards and regulations.
• Identify and address performance bottlenecks and optimisation opportunities within the infrastructure stack and conduct load testing and capacity planning for anticipated increased workloads.
• Set up monitoring and alerting systems for proactive issue detection and resolution and troubleshoot and resolve infrastructure-related incidents promptly.
• Create comprehensive documentation for infrastructure, processes, and procedures, ensuring it remains up-to-date and accessible to team members.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams such as developers and system administrators, and effectively communicate technical concepts and solutions to non-technical stakeholders.
• Stay informed about emerging technologies and industry best practices in Platform Engineering and DevOps, introducing innovative solutions to enhance infrastructure and processes.
• Encourage and develop a diverse range of people, promote business objectives, and model the behaviours and standards expected of an experienced civil service member.
• Lead the decision-making throughout the product life cycle and phases of product delivery, from stakeholder engagement to analysis, development of platform designs, and implementation.
• Act as a DevOps champion, taking responsibility for specific deliverables, promoting DevOps and Agile best practices with passion.
• Be a team player, empowering team members for success, recognising the bigger picture, and going the extra mile for high quality delivery in a high-performing organisation.
• Interpret the needs of technical and business stakeholders into technical requirements, manage stakeholder expectations, and facilitate challenging discussions.
• Apply detailed knowledge of techniques and concepts required for the role, liaise with other technical teams for seamless service delivery, and identify areas for impactful innovation in data tools and techniques.
• Advance engineering excellence across the Agency through the development and leadership of our engineering community of practice, focusing on sharing knowledge, enhancing standards, and providing a foundation for technical growth.

Apply before 11:55 pm on Sunday 17th March 2024