Senior IT Infrastructure Engineer
As the living, growing home of our national story, The National Archives is already a special place to work. We’re an institution nearly 200 years old with a collection spanning 1,000 years of history. But it’s where we go next that makes things really interesting .
In our strategic vision: *Archives for Everyone,* we set ourselves the challenge of becoming the 21st Century national archive \- a different kind of cultural and heritage institution: Inclusive, Entrepreneurial, Disruptive. We won’t become this overnight. It will take time, focus, effort and daring.
That’s where you come in. Because we can’t do this without you.
Job Overview
Salary: £50,569 per annum
Contract type: permanent
Band: F / SEO
Closing date: Friday 3rd July at midnight
Help run and improve critical infrastructure:
We’re looking for a highly capable, hands\-on infrastructure engineer to join our IT Operations team at The National Archives.
This is a role for someone with strong technical depth who is comfortable operating across complex environments and taking ownership of real production services. You’ll be diagnosing issues, restoring services, leading infrastructure change, and contributing to the design and improvement of the systems we rely on every day. If you take pride in understanding systems properly, solving problems thoroughly and building reliable infrastructure, you’ll fit well here.
What you’ll be doing:
You will work across a broad production environment, supporting and maintaining infrastructure that underpins critical services. This includes cloud, network and on prem systems, where you will investigate issues, identify root causes and restore service with minimal disruption.
Alongside operational work, you will lead and implement infrastructure change, ensuring that changes are introduced in a controlled and deliberate way. You will monitor systems proactively, identifying risks and opportunities for improvement, and contribute to strengthening security, resilience and overall service reliability. You will also work closely with colleagues, stakeholders and suppliers to deliver and improve services, bringing a practical and informed technical perspective to decisions.
This role also includes contributing to the ongoing development of the environment, providing input into technical design and helping shape improvements over time.
Our environment:
You will be working across a varied and evolving technical estate that includes Microsoft 365, Azure, cloud and on prem infrastructure, networking, virtualisation, and enterprise storage and backup platforms.
We are actively improving our infrastructure, with a clear focus on strengthening resilience and service recovery, improving security and reducing risk, and modernising core services in a controlled and sustainable way.
What we’re looking for:
We are looking for an engineer who is technically strong, credible and able to operate at depth across complex infrastructure.
This is not a role for someone building their foundational skills. You should already be comfortable working in environments where systems are interconnected, business\-critical and not always straightforward, and where issues require structured investigation, sound judgement and a clear understanding of impact.
You will bring strong experience designing, supporting and maintaining enterprise infrastructure across cloud and on prem environments, and a solid understanding of infrastructure, networking and security fundamentals and how they interact in practice. You will be comfortable diagnosing complex issues, identifying root cause and implementing fixes that address the underlying problem rather than the symptom. You will also have experience delivering change in live environments, with a clear appreciation of risk, dependencies and the need for control.
You do not need to have experience in every technology we use, but you do need a strong technical foundation and the ability to apply it confidently in unfamiliar or evolving situations.
This is a full time post. However, requests for part\-time working, flexible working and job share will be considered, taking into account at all times the operational needs of the Department. A combination of onsite and home working is available and applicants should be able to regularly travel to our Kew site for a minimum of 60% of their work time.
SC clearance/willingness to obtain SC clearance will be required for this role. This requires candidates to have been resident in the UK for at least the past three years. Please do not apply if you have been resident in the UK for less than three years as your application will be rejected.
We are unable to offer sponsorship for this role.
Who this role would suit:
This role suits someone who takes pride in their technical capability and wants to work in a team where standards are high and the work is taken seriously.
You are likely to enjoy getting properly into the detail of how systems behave and will be comfortable working through complex problems that do not have an obvious answer. You take ownership of issues end\-to\-end and are motivated to resolve them properly, rather than relying on workarounds or quick fixes.
You will value clarity, quality and long\-term reliability, and will be motivated to improve services over time rather than simply keeping them running. You will also be confident working with others, able to explain technical issues clearly and contribute to shared understanding and decision\-making.
Most importantly, you will want to work in an environment where technical standards matter, good judgement is expected, and engineering is taken seriously.
Why this role matters:
This is a core role within a small specialist team. The work you do will directly affect the stability of production services, the pace and quality of infrastructure improvements, and the organisation’s overall security and resilience. You will have the opportunity to influence decisions and shape how services evolve, not just implement change.
About us:
The National Archives is the UK government’s official archive and a centre for digital expertise. We run services that are relied on by government, researchers and the public.
We are a collaborative, learning\-focused environment where technical expertise is respected, knowledge is shared, and continuous improvement is part of everyday work.
Interested?
If you are looking for a role where you can operate at depth, solve real problems and work with others who take infrastructure engineering seriously, we would like to hear from you.
Application process:
As part of your application, you will be asked to provide a summary of your relevant work history and experience and respond to a scenario\-based question.
Your work history should include the following:
- Highlight roles where you have worked with infrastructure operations, support or delivery
- Include the technologies and environments you have worked with (e.g. cloud, networking, Microsoft platforms, enterprise systems)
- Show the scale and complexity of the environments you have supported
Interviews will be held on\-site on Thursday 23rd and Friday 24th July.
Artificial Intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please visit the Civil Service Careers website where you can find further information on the use of AI in the application guidance section.
Job Description
Job Purpose
The main purpose of this role is to design, build, support, manage and maintain the core physical and virtual infrastructure that underpins our production services, working as part of a team responsible for developing and supporting The National Archives’ cloud services, business systems infrastructure, telecommunications and network infrastructure.
The role works collaboratively across business and digital functions and with operational delivery teams to deliver services, identify opportunities for improvement, support service change, and ensure services meet or exceed service level agreements, objectives and key performance indicators in line with organisational and industry best practice.
The Senior IT Infrastructure Operations Engineer provides second and third line support for incidents, problems and changes, and helps ensure high standards of operational service delivery. The role also leads on the implementation of new technology solutions and contributes to the design and development of the infrastructure environment, providing expert guidance to stakeholders and operational teams.
Role and Responsibilities
Supporting ICT Services
- Prepare, deliver and support IT operations solutions and services, physical or virtual, in line with industry and organisational best practice, service requirements and key performance indicators throughout the product lifecycle.
- Respond to incidents, problems and service interruptions, working with third parties and colleagues to investigate, analyse and resolve issues and restore normal service as quickly a
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