Senior 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.

The ONS Dissemination is responsible for the dissemination of all ONS data via the website and APIs. We are undergoing a transformation to a new hosting Platform on AWS Kubernetes to host the website, APIs and all supporting services.

As part of the Dissemination Platform team you will be responsible for:

• Working within the team; assisting in development activities including CI/CD, backing services and infrastructure, observability stack, and AWS Kubernetes Platform
• Troubleshooting and bug-fixing for issues on the new hosting platform
• Coaching and mentoring team members
• Collaborating with others to design solutions and taking guidance from the Technical Lead
• Producing documentation and knowledge transfer with team members

After onboarding, you'll spend approximately one week every five weeks with a rota-d team, supporting live dissemination services during office hours. You'll also handle market-sensitive publishing once a month between 6:30 and 8:30 am, this currently comes with a discretionary allowance.

As a Senior DevSecOps Engineer, you will deliver and integrate software and infrastructure to form critical elements of our service delivery. You will be responsible for delivering more complex solutions, including integration into wider technologies as appropriate.

You will:

• Transform technical requirements into an effective DevSecOps roadmap to enable product delivery.
• Provide coaching and mentoring to more junior colleagues.
• Make sure deployment strategies for products and services are repeatable, secure, scalable, sustainable, and highly available.
• Have deep technical knowledge, providing support to delivery teams and solving complex problems.

Responsibilities:

• Authoring and defining Infrastructure as Code
• Execution, troubleshooting and blueprinting of CI/CD pipelines
• Working in an Agile team – following and contributing to team standards and ways of working
• Ability to research and apply new technologies in a self-sufficient manner
• Coaching and mentoring team members
• Collaborating with others to design solutions and taking guidance from the Technical Lead
• Documentation and knowledge sharing with team members

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

Visa Sponsorship

ONS is unable to offer visa sponsorship for this role. Applicants must have a valid right to work in the UK when employment commences. If you are currently in the UK on a time-limited visa, it must have at least 18 months remaining at the point of application.

Right to Work and Nationality Requirements

To work at ONS, applicants must meet the Civil Service nationality requirements, satisfy UK right to work requirements and, where applicable, meet the relevant security clearance requirements.

If you are unsure whether you meet the appropriate right to work or security clearance eligibility criteria, please refer to the guidance on Gov.uk or contact the recruitment email provided in the advert before applying. Failure to meet these requirements will result in your application being rejected and employment offers being withdrawn.

For full guidance in relation to the use of AI through the recruitment process, please read A candidate’s guide to artificial intelligence (AI) in recruitment

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

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, skills, experience, CV, 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 wordcount allowed is 1250, 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 Profil/es Behaviour examples are not required at this stage of the application process.

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.

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.

A presentation may be required at interview.

Interviews may be in person or via Microsoft Teams.

If there are more successful candidates than vacant positions, a reserve list may be held for period of up to 12 months from which further appointments can be made. Candidates should note this is a multi-location campaign and therefore the reserve list is recorded by location in merit order.

The Sift will be conducted from 05/10/2026

Interviews will be conducted from 15/10/2026

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

Near Misses

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.

GDD Pay

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:
• Development Plan:
• Reassessment at 6 Months:

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.

Curious about Government Digital and Data? Dive into the Candidate Pack to learn more

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