Lead DevSecOps Engineer

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) is the UK’s largest producer of official statistics, covering a range of key economic, social and demographic topics. These include measuring changes in the value of the UK economy, estimating the size, geographic distribution and characteristics of the population, and providing indicators of price inflation, employment, earnings, crime and migration.

Corporate Platform Engineering sits at the centre of ONS’ digital delivery model, providing the secure, reliable and reusable platform foundations that enable Digital Services and product teams to deliver business outcomes at pace. Its mission is to provide reliable, secure, reusable and well-supported platform services that help teams deliver faster and with lower operational risk, reducing duplication and allowing product teams to focus their effort on meeting user and business needs.

By setting clear standards, providing well-supported “paved roads”, and enabling safe adoption of cloud, automation and AI-assisted engineering practices, Corporate Platform Engineering helps strengthen ONS’ ability to deliver resilient, secure and sustainable digital services that support critical decision-making across the UK.

Lead DevSecOps Engineers are responsible for shaping and delivering technical services, products and platforms of high complexity using secure by design principles and infrastructure as code. A Lead DevSecOps Engineer provides technical leadership across teams and contributes to the development of the strategic direction.

They advocate organisational, cross-Government and cross-sector strategies for product and service engineering, provide technical leadership and guidance through coaching and mentoring, and drive the sharing of knowledge and good standards of practice across the communities.

Working as a member of the Platform Enablement team in Corporate Platform Engineering, the Lead DevSecOps Engineer will have broad knowledge of public cloud infrastructure including AWS, GCP and Azure, with perhaps specialist knowledge in one or more of these clouds. They will provide support to the wider platform engineering and product delivery teams in solving complex problems. The role will also require an awareness of how AI and automation capabilities can be safely applied within cloud and platform engineering contexts, in line with ONS strategy and governance.

They will be working together with the Delivery Managers, Service Managers, colleague Lead DevSecOps Engineers, Business Analysts, Security Advisors and Technical Architects to consult, refine, prioritise, risk assess and mobilise work for the branch; they will be accountable for ensuring continuously improved patterns of delivery, including automation and AI-assisted engineering are available for consumption by the product teams throughout the infrastructure development lifecycle. This role is pivotal for providing ‘paved roads’ for product teams and accelerating their journey in building data ingest, data analysis and data output systems to inform critical decision-making across the UK.

Responsibilities

• Advocate and develop medium-to-long term strategies for products and services.
• Provide technical leadership and guidance through coaching and mentoring.
• Lead the sharing of knowledge and good practice.
• Have deep technical knowledge, providing support to delivery teams and solving complex problems.

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours, Experience and Technical skills.

Security Clearance

For ONS the requirement for SC clearance is to have been present in the UK for 3 consecutive years immediately prior to applying and the department will consider eligibility by exception on a case-by-case basis. You will be asked to provide information regarding your UK residency during your application, and failure to provide this will result in your application being rejected.

If you are unsure that you meet the eligibility above, please read the information available on Gov.uk on this link or contact the recruitment email on the advert before applying to discuss, as failure to meet the residency requirements will result in your security clearance application being rejected and any offer of employment being withdrawn.

At the point of SC application, you will need to provide or give access to the following evidence:

• Departmental or company records (personnel files, staff reports, sick leave reports and security records)
• UK criminal records covering both spent and unspent criminal records
• Your credit and financial history with a credit reference agency
• Security Services records

Please note we will reach out to you once the advert has closed to confirm eligibility for this role, this will be via an e-mail. Please check your junk e-mails for any correspondence.

Visa Sponsorship

ONS may be able to provide visa sponsorship where the role meets ONS sponsorship criteria and all relevant Home Office requirements. Applicants must hold, or be eligible to obtain, the right to work in the UK before employment commences.

Application Process

Number of Stages: 2 stage process

Stage 1: Application

Stage 2: Interview

Stage 1 – Application

The assessment process at the application stage will be based on your work history, CV, skills, experience, and personal statement. It is important that your application is tailored to highlight the skills, knowledge, and experience relevant to the role.

A personal statement is required at application stage, the maximum word count allowed is 1250 words, which should not be exceeded. You should provide evidence for each essential skill criterion listed in the person specification. As these criteria are scored, it is advisable to give clear examples for each one, including the impact of your actions, ideally utilising the STAR technique (Situation, Task, Action, Result).

Please note that Success Profiles Behaviour examples are not required at this stage of the application process.

In instances where a high number of applications are received, the sift pass mark may be adjusted, and candidates will be invited to interview based on merit order, i.e., those with the highest scores.

When a high volume of applications are received, the sift pass mark may be adjusted. Candidates will be invited to interview based on their merit order, with those achieving the highest scores being prioritised. Applicants who score below the adjusted pass mark but still pass will be placed on hold and may be invited to interview at a later date.

We often have similar roles available at different grades. If a candidate is suitable for a similar role or a lower grade than they have applied for, we may offer the candidate that role without the need to go through a further selection process providing the role has the same behaviours, and essential skills.

Stage 2 – Interview

If invited to interview, you will be assessed using techniques aligned with the Civil Service Success Profiles framework, covering all behaviours listed in the job advert and any required technical skills.

You will be required to provide a 10 minute presentation at interview. The presentation topic will be emailed to candidates who have passed the initial online application stage, 1 week prior to interview. This presentation will assess candidates against the Success Profiles Behaviour Changing and improving.

Interviews will be via Microsoft Teams.

Please note you will be asked to provide ID at the start of the interview.

A reserve list may be held for a period up to 12 months from which further appointments may be made.

Important Dates

• Eligibility Security Clearance checks from 02/10 - 09/10. We will be sending you an e-mail with a form to fill out. Please check your junk e-mails for any correspondence.
• Sift will be conducted from 12/10/2026
• Interviews will be conducted from 26/10/2026

For the full terms and conditions of the post, please see attachment.

Please note that all campaigns may be subject to withdrawal at any stage if the internal resource position changes.

This role is eligible for the Government Digital and Data (GDD) Capability and Pay Framework. If you are successful at interview, your salary will be directly linked to your capability outcome, as determined by your performance in the Technical section of the interview.

• Capability Outcome: Assessed based on scores achieved during the technical interview.
• Salary Determination: Your starting salary will reflect the capability level assigned.
• Feedback: Full feedback on your capability outcome will be provided at the point of offer.

All successful candidates are required to undertake an annual capability assessment as part of their ongoing employment terms. The outcome of this assessment directly influences individual pay levels:

• Higher Capability Outcome: Results in an increase in pay.
• Lower Capability Outcome: Results in a decrease in pay.

Completion of the assessment is mandatory. Failure to complete the annual capability assessment will result in the individual being transitioned to ONS pay terms and conditions, with a corresponding adjustment to their pay.

If you're already in a GDD Group 1 role and receiving GDD pay, and you make a lateral move (i.e. same grade, different role):

Initial Capability Assessment:

• You’ll be assessed in your new role through the interview process.
• If your proficiency level is lower than your current one, you retain your current level and pay for 6 months.

If your proficiency level is higher than your current one, you will move to that level of pay.

Development Plan:

• During those 6 months, you’ll work with your line manager to create and follow a development plan to build the required skills.

Reassessment at 6 Months:

• If you reach your previous proficiency level, you keep your current pay.
• If your proficiency is still lower, your pay will decrease to match the new level.
• If your proficiency level is higher, your pay will increase to match the new level.

Starting salary for roles within the Government Digital and Data (GDD) Capability and Pay Framework is determined solely by the capability outcome achieved during the recruitment process.

Please note:

• Existing allowances (scarce skills) will not be taken into account when calculating starting salary.
• This policy applies to all candidates, including existing Civil Servants and ONS colleagues transitioning to the GDD Capability and Pay Framework.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.