Head of Engineering and Operations - Cabinet Office - SCS1

Key Responsibilities

• Delivery and Velocity Leadership: Accelerating Flow: Systematically identify, analyse, and remove technical debt and bottlenecks within the 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.

Candidate Profile

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.