Senior DevOps Engineer in Manchester

HMRC is transforming the UK's tax system through cutting-edge digital innovation and the Chief Digital and Information Officer (CDIO) Group is at the heart of that mission. We are building high-quality digital services that will enhance the customer experience, enable real-time interactions, and make tax simpler and more intuitive for everyone. By equipping our colleagues with modern tools and technologies, we are also reshaping how we work — allowing HMRC to focus its resources where they can deliver the greatest impact.

Do you want to help keep critical cloud platforms secure, reliable, and running smoothly for millions of citizens? We're looking for experienced Senior DevOps Engineers to join HMRC's Enterprise Cloud Services (ECS) team, working within product teams to design, build, automate, and operate cloud services. We are redefining our offerings and growing the team of outstanding people to improve the Cloud Centre of Excellence. We are already a diverse team of 90+ technologists, creating a dynamic and inclusive working environment whose skills cover architecture, platform development, service design, platform operations and governance.

You will play a key role in delivering secure, resilient, and scalable cloud platform services, working closely with engineers and product owners, delivering improvements iteratively, driving automation, and championing modern engineering practices across CI/CD, IaC, and cloud security.

Important: Travel to Telford is required as part of this role, and 60% of your working time will need to be office based.

Your Responsibilities will include:

• Build, automate and operate cloud platform services using Infrastructure as Code (Terraform) and an automation-first approach.
• Design, standardise and maintain GitLab CI/CD pipelines, including testing, security scanning, compliance checks and reusable templates.
• Apply cloud security best practice, support audits and ensure services meet compliance requirements.
• Optimise platform performance, reliability, cost and operational efficiency through proactive monitoring and analysis.
• Provide technical guidance, troubleshoot complex engineering issues and share best practice across teams.
• Provide hands-on support and mentorship to engineering teams, helping to resolve complex technical challenges.

Essential Criteria:

• Experience in one or many of the following areas:
• Building enterprise-scale AWS or Azure cloud platforms.
• Delivering CI/CD tooling services (GitLab, Artifactory, Jira, Confluence).
• Implementing security and secrets tooling (Vault, OpsView).
• Building container platforms (AKS, EKS, Kubernetes).
• Delivering machine image pipelines and/or DNS solutions.
• Strong IaC experience (Terraform preferred) plus scripting skills (Python, Go, or Bash).

Mentoring & Technical Leadership:

As a Senior DevOps Engineer, you will proactively mentor junior engineers, share knowledge, offer constructive feedback and guide others through complex problems. You will lead by example, communicate clearly, and help build a collaborative, high performing engineering culture.

Critical Thinking & Technical Mindset:

We’re looking for someone who applies strong critical thinking, challenges assumptions, and makes informed technical decisions. You will navigate ambiguity confidently, analyse root causes, and propose practical, well-aligned solutions.