IT First Responder - Defence

At IBM CIC, we provide technical and industry expertise to a wide range of public and private sector clients in the UK. A career in IBM CIC means you’ll have the opportunity to work with leading professionals across multiple industries to improve the hybrid cloud and AI journey for the most innovative and valuable companies in the world. You will get the chance to deliver effective solutions, driving meaningful business change for our clients, using some of the latest technology platforms. Curiosity and a constant quest for knowledge serve as the foundation to success here. You’ll be encouraged and supported to constantly reinvent yourself, focusing on skills in demand in an ever changing market. You’ll be working with diverse teams, coming up with creative solutions which impact a wide network of clients, who may be at their site or one of our CIC or IBM locations. Our culture of evolution centres on long‑term career growth and development opportunities in an environment that embraces your unique skills and experience.

Benefits

• Many training opportunities from classroom to e‑learning, mentoring and coaching programs and the chance to gain industry recognised certifications.
• Regular and frequent promotion opportunities to ensure you can drive and develop your career with us.
• Feedback and checkpoints throughout the year.
• Diversity & Inclusion as an essential and authentic component of our culture through our policies and process as well as our Employee Champion teams and support networks.
• A culture where your ideas for growth and innovation are always welcome.
• Internal recognition programs for peer‑to‑peer appreciation as well as from manager to employees.
• Tools and policies to support your work‑life balance from flexible working approaches, sabbatical programs, paid paternity leave, maternity leave and an innovative maternity returners scheme.
• More traditional benefits, such as 25 days holiday (in addition to public holidays), private medical, dental & optical cover, online shopping discounts, an Employee Assistance Program, life assurance and a group personal pension plan of an additional 5% of your base salary paid by us monthly to save for your future.

Role Overview

In this role, you'll work in one of our IBM Consulting Client Innovation Centers (Delivery Centers), where we deliver deep technical and industry expertise to a wide range of public and private sector clients around the world. Our delivery centers offer our clients locally based skills and technical expertise to drive innovation and adoption of new technology.

IT First Responder

The IT First Responder is a proactive and technically skilled support specialist for a Defence project at IBM. You will be the first point of contact for identifying, diagnosing, and resolving technical issues across complex cloud‑based and enterprise applications. You will work closely with development, infrastructure, and security teams to ensure system reliability, rapid incident response, and minimal downtime in mission‑critical environments.

Key Responsibilities

• Act as the initial responder for technical incidents and service requests, ensuring timely triage, root cause analysis, and resolution.
• Monitor application and infrastructure performance across cloud and on‑premises environments.
• Collaborate with engineers and project teams to troubleshoot and resolve issues in both front‑end and back‑end systems.
• Maintain and update incident logs, technical documentation, and response procedures in accordance with Defence security protocols.
• Support deployment activities and assist in implementing fixes, patches, and updates.
• Escalate complex issues to appropriate technical specialists while ensuring continuity of service.
• Participate in on‑call rotations and readiness drills to ensure rapid response capability.

Technical Environment

• Front End: TypeScript, React, Material UI
• Back End: Java, Spring Boot, Node.js
• APIs: REST & GraphQL
• Databases: MongoDB & Neo4J
• Familiarity with UX patterns, UI design tools such as Figma, and Defence‑specific compliance/security standards.

Required Technical and Professional Expertise

• Cloud Experience: Familiarity with cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud) and services.
• Problem‑Solving: Basic problem‑solving skills to tackle day‑to‑day technical challenges.
• Communication: Effective verbal and written communication skills to engage with team members and stakeholders.

Eligibility

To be eligible, you must have the valid right to work in the UK, be a resident in the UK, have lived continuously in the UK for the last 5 years, and be able to hold or gain a UK government security clearance. Visa sponsorship is not offered.

Preferred Technical and Professional Experience

• Experience with containerization technologies (Docker, Kubernetes).
• Knowledge of CI/CD pipelines and practices.
• Familiarity with serverless architectures.
• Understanding of microservices and event‑driven design.
• Experience with databases (SQL, NoSQL).

Equal Opportunity Statement

IBM is proud to be an equal‑opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, pregnancy, disability, neurodivergence, age, or other characteristics protected by the applicable law. IBM is also committed to compliance with all fair employment practices concerning citizenship and immigration status.