Head of Engineering and Operations in England

Base Pay Range Location: London

Working Pattern: This role is available for full‐time (including job share partnerships and condensed working hours) but you should discuss your needs with the hiring manager if you are invited to interview.

Role Purpose: The Head of Engineering and Operations is a pivotal Senior Civil Service (SCS) leadership role within the Cabinet Office's Digital, Data and Technology (DDaT) leadership team. Reporting directly to the CDIO, you will serve as the Head of Profession for all Development and Infrastructure Engineering disciplines, overseeing the capability, competency, and capacity of the engineering and operations profession. The core mandate of this role is to drive technical excellence and high delivery velocity across all digital programmes and services, specifically by embedding and governing engineering best practices within a large‑scale Agile delivery model. You will work in close partnership with the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) to ensure technology standards are not only defined but are rigorously and consistently applied in execution across all technical teams.

Key Responsibilities

• Delivery and Velocity Leadership: Accelerating Flow: Systematically identify, analyse, and remove technical debt and bottlenecks within the Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery (CI/CD) pipeline, focusing on optimising engineering practices to significantly increase delivery velocity across all Agile teams and value streams and digital services.
• Execution Governance: Ensure that engineering teams operate effectively within the Agile structure, supporting key delivery roles (e.g., Delivery Managers, Product Owners) to achieve frequent, reliable, and high‑quality releases.
• Engineering Tooling: Own the strategy and lifecycle management of core engineering platforms, CI/CD tooling, observability, and testing frameworks to maximise developer productivity and automation.
• Technical Standards and Assurance: Standards Adherence: Work collaboratively with the CTO, who defines the target technical architecture and standards, to establish robust mechanisms for the governance and consistent application of these standards by all engineers.
• Technical Integrity: Be accountable for the technical integrity, quality, security, and sustainability of the entire digital estate, ensuring all services are built to be secure, resilient, and scalable by default.
• Security & Compliance: Ensure all infrastructure‑as‑code and development practices align strictly with Cabinet Office security policies and government‑wide technical mandates.
• Head of Profession & Capability Management: Professional Strategy: Act as the strategic Head of Profession for the Engineering Development (e.g., Software, Data, DevOps) and Infrastructure (e.g., Cloud, Platform, Network) communities.
• Talent and Skills: Define the technical capability frameworks, recruitment strategy, and career pathways for all engineering roles, ensuring the Cabinet Office can attract, retain, and develop world‑class technical talent.
• Community Leadership: Lead and sponsor thriving Communities of Practice (CoPs) to drive knowledge sharing, mentorship, and a culture of continuous learning and technical mastery across the organisation.
• People Leadership: Provide inspirational line management, coaching, and direction to senior engineering leaders (e.g., Principal Engineers, Heads of Engineering), fostering an inclusive, high‑trust, and performance‑driven culture.
• Corporate and Stakeholder Leadership: Strategic Influence: Serve as a key DDaT representative in corporate and cross‑government forums, advocating for the strategic importance of engineering capability and infrastructure investment.
• Budget Management: Strategic oversight of the budget and commercial relationships related to engineering tooling, platforms, cloud consumption, and professional development.
• Stakeholder Engagement: Effectively communicate complex technical strategy, progress, and risks to non‑technical senior stakeholders, including SCS colleagues and Ministerial private offices.

Person Specification

It is important that, through your CV and supporting statement, you provide evidence of the professional skills, breadth of experience and personal qualities for this post. Significant experience in a senior technical leadership role (e.g., Chief Engineer, VP of Engineering, Head of Technology) in a large, complex, and high‑scale digital environment. Deep expertise acting as a successful Head of Profession for multiple DDaT specialisms, with proven success in defining capability and managing technical talent. Demonstrable track record of successfully implementing and operating within a large‑scale Agile delivery framework or equivalent large‑scale delivery model. Expert knowledge of modern cloud‑native architectures, DevOps principles, infrastructure‑as‑code, and platform management in a major public cloud environment (e.g., AWS, Azure, GCP). Proven ability to work in a demanding environment with senior stakeholders (SCS level and above), demonstrating excellent influencing and collaboration skills.

How to Apply

To apply for this post, you will need to complete the online application process, outlined below via the CS Jobs account. This should be completed no later than 23:55pm, Thursday 29th January 2026. A CV setting out your career history, with key responsibilities and achievements. Please ensure you have provided reasons for any gaps within the last two years. A Statement of Suitability (no longer than 1250 words) explaining how you consider your personal skills, qualities and experience provide evidence of your suitability for the role, with particular reference to the essential criteria in the person specification. Failure to complete both sections of the online application form (CV and Statement of Suitability) will mean the panel only have limited information on which to assess your application against the criteria in the person specification. As part of the online application process, you will be asked a number of diversity‑related questions. If you do not wish to provide a declaration on any of the particular characteristics, you will have the option to select 'prefer not to say'.

Indicative Timeline

We will try and offer as much flexibility as we can, but it may not be possible to offer alternative dates for assessments or interviews. You are therefore asked to note the below timetable, exercising flexibility through the recruitment and selection process, in order to meet the dates given. Please note that these dates may be subject to change. Advert Closing Date: 23:55, Thursday 29th January 2026. Shortlist: Week commencing 9th February 2026. Assessments: Week commencing 16th February 2026. Interviews: Week commencing 2nd March 2026.

Seniority Level: Director

Employment Type: Full-time

Job Function: Other

Industries: Government Administration