At a Glance
- Tasks: Lead a team of Site Reliability Engineers to enhance digital services and improve reliability.
- Company: Join the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, a leader in public sector tech.
- Benefits: Inclusive workplace, competitive salary, and opportunities for professional growth.
- Other info: Be part of a supportive community focused on learning and innovation.
- Why this job: Make a real impact on critical government services while working with cutting-edge cloud technologies.
- Qualifications: Experience in leading teams and applying modern SRE or DevOps practices in cloud environments.
The predicted salary is between 63000 - 77000 £ per year.
Location: Belfast, Birmingham, Cardiff, Darlington, Edinburgh, London, Manchester
The Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade (BIST) helps businesses invest, innovate, export and grow across the UK. The Digital, Data and Technology (DDaT) directorate helps to deliver this by designing, building and running the services, platforms and technology that businesses and colleagues rely on every day.
Our teams work on a wide range of services and technologies, including:
- Digital services that help businesses access government support, guidance and opportunities
- Data and AI products that support decision making and enable innovation
- Internal tools and services that help colleagues work more effectively
- Secure technology and platforms that support critical government services
- Cyber security services that protect systems, data and users
By joining DDaT, you'll work on services used by businesses, colleagues and citizens across the UK. You'll be part of multidisciplinary teams focused on improving services, solving complex problems and delivering better outcomes for users. We are committed to creating an inclusive and supportive workplace.
As a Lead Site Reliability Engineer, you will lead a team of Site Reliability Engineers while providing technical leadership across the design, delivery and continuous improvement of reliable, scalable and secure services that underpin critical BIST digital products. You’ll work across modern cloud technologies and collaborate with multidisciplinary teams to improve how we build and operate services.
This is a hands-on technical leadership role alongside responsibility for developing and supporting your team. You’ll help shape our approach to Site Reliability Engineering, improve reliability and reduce operational burden, while creating an environment where engineers can learn, develop and do their best work.
You’ll work closely with product managers, architects, delivery colleagues and engineers across DDaT, helping to shape platform strategy and influence good engineering practices. You’ll also help build and scale our global platform, support live services through an on-call rota and lead improvements that enhance service quality and delivery outcomes.
You will:
- Lead and develop a team of Site Reliability Engineers, providing technical direction, coaching and support.
- Provide technical leadership across SRE and DevOps, helping teams build reliable, scalable and sustainable services.
- Design, build and maintain cloud infrastructure using infrastructure-as-code approaches.
- Lead the adoption of effective observability, including monitoring, logging, metrics and alerting.
- Help teams define and use SLIs, SLOs and error budgets to make informed decisions about reliability and delivery.
- Improve CI/CD and engineering automation to enable safe, frequent and low-risk change.
- Oversee live-service reliability and support effective incident and problem management, promoting a learning-focused and blameless culture.
- Work with product, delivery and architecture colleagues to ensure platform services meet user and business needs.
- Coach and mentor engineers and contribute to the wider DDaT engineering community.
- Ensure security, resilience and compliance are embedded into engineering practices.
It Is Essential That You Have:
- Experience leading, supporting and developing engineers, providing technical direction through line management, coaching or mentoring.
- Strong experience applying modern SRE, DevOps or platform engineering practices within cloud environments such as AWS, Azure or Google Cloud.
- Experience designing, operating and improving reliable and scalable distributed systems, with a focus on reliability, performance and user impact.
- Experience designing and delivering infrastructure-as-code and automation solutions, using technologies such as Terraform, CloudFormation or equivalent.
- Strong communication and stakeholder skills, with the ability to influence engineering practices, explain complex technical concepts clearly and build effective relationships.
It Is Desirable That You Have:
- Experience writing clean, maintainable and well-tested code in at least one programming language such as Python.
- Experience defining and using SLIs, SLOs, error budgets and observability practices to improve service reliability.
Lead Site Reliability Engineer - Department for Business and Trade - G7 employer: Manchester Digital
Join a dynamic SaaS company in Wigan as a Lead Software Engineer, where you'll thrive in a collaborative and innovative work culture that values your expertise and contributions. With competitive compensation of up to £80k plus benefits like a 5% matched pension, share options, and private healthcare, you’ll have the resources to grow both personally and professionally while enjoying the flexibility of hybrid working. This is an exciting opportunity to take ownership of system design and implementation in a supportive environment that encourages modern engineering practices.
StudySmarter Expert Advice🤫
We think this is how you could land Lead Site Reliability Engineer - Department for Business and Trade - G7
✨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 Manchester Digital 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 Manchester Digital.
✨Tap into Online Developer Communities
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Keep your eyes peeled on job boards that focus on tech roles. Sites like TechCareers or Stack Overflow Jobs can often have listings for companies like Manchester Digital that might not show up on broader job sites. Make it a habit to check these regularly, and don’t hesitate to apply directly through our website!
We think you need these skills to ace Lead Site Reliability Engineer - Department for Business and Trade - G7
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 Manchester Digital.
Craft a killer cover letter:Your cover letter is your chance to stand out—make it personal! Explain why you want to work at Manchester Digital 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 Manchester Digital
✨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 Manchester Digital 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.
