At a Glance
- Tasks: Build and operate reliable, scalable digital services for businesses across the UK.
- Company: Join the Department for Business and Trade, a leader in cloud engineering.
- Benefits: Enjoy flexible working, competitive salary, generous pension, and 25+ days of annual leave.
- Other info: Opportunities for professional development and a culture of continuous improvement await you.
- Why this job: Make a real impact on government services while developing your skills in a collaborative environment.
- Qualifications: Experience in coding, cloud platforms, and a passion for automation are essential.
The predicted salary is between 67547 - 83778 £ per year.
Help build and operate reliable, scalable and secure digital services that support businesses across the UK.
The Department for Business and Trade (DBT), in partnership with Inspire People, is seeking a Senior Site Reliability Engineer with strong software engineering capability (either experience of Python development or a desire to develop Python expertise), experience building applications hosted on cloud platforms, expertise within a modern cloud engineering environment and a passion for automation and continuous improvement.
Based from London, Cardiff, Darlington, Edinburgh, Belfast, Birmingham or Salford, this permanent opportunity offers hybrid working, flexible working patterns and a salary of £67,547 to £83,778 for London) plus 29% Pension and Civil Service Benefits.
Salary awarded based on technical skills assessed at interview.
Shape the Future of Cloud Engineering at DBT
The Department for Business and Trade has a clear mission: to grow the economy by helping businesses invest, grow and export, creating jobs and opportunities across the UK.
DBT's Digital, Data and Technology directorate develops and operates the digital platforms and services that support this mission.
As a Senior Site Reliability Engineer, you'll join a highly skilled engineering team responsible for developing, operating and improving cloud-based platforms and services used across DBT and wider government.
Working across Python development, cloud infrastructure, CI/CD pipelines, observability and automation, you'll help improve reliability, developer experience and service performance while supporting critical business services used by thousands of users.
As a Senior Site Reliability Engineer you will
- Build and maintain shared service products enabling developers to work more efficiently.
- Write clean, maintainable and well‑tested code to support platform and tooling development.
- Work closely with development teams to provide and improve platform tooling, including monitoring, logging, metrics, dashboards and CI/CD pipelines.
- Build, maintain and improve reliable, secure and scalable cloud‑based infrastructure using infrastructure‑as‑code approaches.
- Support teams to adopt Site Reliability Engineering practices, including Service Level Indicators (SLIs), Service Level Objectives (SLOs) and error budgets.
- Contribute to observability across services, helping teams better understand performance, reliability and user impact.
- Develop and improve CI/CD pipelines to enable safe, frequent and low‑risk delivery of changes.
- Collaborate with product, delivery and architecture colleagues to ensure platform services meet user and business needs.
- Support live service operations, including incident response, troubleshooting and problem management.
- Share knowledge and provide coaching and mentoring across the engineering community.
- Contribute to improving security, resilience and compliance practices within the platform.
Essential skills for the Senior Site Reliability Engineer include
- Experience writing clean, maintainable code in at least one programming language.
- Experience designing, operating and improving distributed systems, with a focus on reliability, performance and user impact.
- Experience of building applications hosted on cloud platforms such as AWS, Azure or Google Cloud.
- Ability to build code‑defined, reliable and well‑tested infrastructure using tools such as Terraform, Cloud Formation or similar.
- Knowledge of Linux/Unix fundamentals and TCP/IP networking.
- Strong communication skills, with the ability to build effective working relationships with both technical and non‑technical stakeholders.
In return, you can expect a flexible working culture, including
- Flexible, hybrid working with employees typically spending 2–3 days per week in the office.
- Offices located in London, Cardiff, Darlington, Edinburgh, Belfast, Birmingham and Salford.
- Full‑time, part‑time and flexible working options.
- A Civil Service pension with an average employer contribution of 28.97%.
- Annual leave starting at 25 days, rising to 30 days with service.
- Three paid volunteering days every year.
- Learning and development tailored to your role.
- Access to professional training, certifications and technical development opportunities.
- A culture encouraging inclusion, collaboration and continuous improvement.
- Employee benefits including cycle to work and wider Civil Service benefits.
Why Join DBT?
Join a highly collaborative engineering team where you'll work across software engineering, cloud infrastructure, automation and developer enablement.
You'll have the opportunity to develop new skills, gain industry certifications and contribute to modern cloud engineering challenges that support services used across government.
The team encourages experimentation, continuous learning and new ideas, giving engineers the freedom to improve services, solve complex problems and shape future platform capabilities.
This role requires SC clearance.
DBT's requirement for SC clearance is to have been present in the UK for at least 3 of the last 5 years.
Failure to meet this requirement will result in your application being rejected and your offer withdrawn.
If you're a software engineer, cloud engineer, Dev Ops engineer or Site Reliability Engineer looking to work on modern cloud platforms while building services that support businesses across the UK, apply today via Inspire People.
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Contact Details:
Department for Business and Trade Recruitment Team
StudySmarter Expert Advice🤫
We think this is how you could land Senior Site Reliability Engineer - Python in London
✨Join Local Tech Meetups
Get out there and mingle with fellow developers by joining local tech meetups. It’s a fantastic way to meet people who might be working at Department for Business and Trade or know someone who does. Plus, you can pick up some trendy tech skills and trends while you're at it!
✨Contribute to Open Source Projects
Show off your coding chops by jumping into open-source projects. Not only does this give you practical experience, but it also gets you noticed in the dev community. You'll create a killer portfolio that speaks volumes about your skills to Department for Business and Trade.
✨Tap into Online Developer Communities
Don’t underestimate the power of online developer communities like GitHub, Stack Overflow, and even Reddit. Participate in discussions, share your projects, and build your visibility. We can often find opportunities through these channels that can lead to a full-time gig at companies like Department for Business and Trade.
✨Explore Job Boards Specifically for Tech Roles
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We think you need these skills to ace Senior Site Reliability Engineer - Python in London
Some tips for your application 🫡
Show off your coding skills:When applying for a software engineering role, it's super important to showcase your coding skills. Make sure your CV includes your tech stack, any relevant programming languages you’re comfortable with, and examples of projects you've worked on. If you have a GitHub profile, link it up! We love to see code in action.
Tailor your portfolio:For a full-time role, we’d expect to see some solid examples of your work in your portfolio. Make sure to include at least two or three projects that highlight your problem-solving skills and your ability to work with different technologies. Focus on the projects that are most relevant to the position at Department for Business and Trade.
Craft a killer cover letter:Your cover letter is your chance to stand out—make it personal! Explain why you want to work at Department for Business and Trade and how your skills align with the role. Show us your passion for software development. We dig enthusiastic candidates who understand the value of collaboration and continuous learning!
Be clear and concise:When it comes to writing your CV and cover letter, clarity is key. Avoid jargon that could confuse us and stick to simple, direct language. Highlight your achievements with quantifiable results where possible, and keep everything easy to read. A well-organised application goes a long way!
How to prepare for a job interview at Department for Business and Trade
✨Brush Up on Your Coding Skills
For a full-time software engineering role, it's crucial that we stay sharp with our coding abilities. Expect technical questions that might involve solving problems on the spot or discussing algorithms. Practise on platforms like LeetCode or HackerRank to get comfortable with the types of questions that often come up.
✨Know Your Tools and Frameworks
Make sure we’re well-acquainted with the tools and technologies listed in the job description. Familiarise ourselves with any specific frameworks or programming languages mentioned. If Department for Business and Trade uses React or Node.js, for instance, be ready to discuss how we’ve used them in previous projects or coursework.
✨Showcase Your Projects
Bring along a portfolio that highlights our best work. This could be code samples, GitHub repositories, or any side projects we’ve built. Make sure we can talk through our thought process for each project, especially the challenges we faced and how we solved them—this shows our problem-solving skills in action.
✨Prepare for Behavioural Questions
While technical skills are key, full-time positions also require cultural fit. Be ready to discuss our previous experiences and how we handle teamwork, conflict, and deadlines. Brush up on the STAR method—Situation, Task, Action, Result—to clearly articulate our past experiences when discussing how we've contributed to a team.
