Lead Engineer (Infrastructure and Cloud) - Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills - G7

Location

23 Stephenson Street, Birmingham, Piccadilly Gate, Manchester or Loxley House, Nottingham

About the job

Job summary

We are seeking a Lead Engineer, Infrastructure and Cloud to join our Information Systems team.

This is an exciting opportunity to lead the engineering and operational management of Ofsted’s core infrastructure, cloud, and digital technology platforms. As Lead Engineer, Infrastructure and Cloud, you will provide technical leadership across Azure, Microsoft 365, enterprise device management, identity and access management, cyber security tooling, and cloud infrastructure. You will play a key role in ensuring services remain secure, resilient, and reliable, while driving platform modernisation, automation, and continuous improvement to support Ofsted’s wider digital ambitions.

Leading a team of infrastructure engineers, you will build technical capability, set engineering standards, and shape the future direction of our technology estate. Working closely with stakeholders, suppliers, and delivery teams, you will influence technical decision-making, lead responses to major incidents and high-risk changes, and strengthen cyber resilience through the implementation of effective security controls and modern engineering practices. This is a high-impact leadership role for someone passionate about delivering secure, scalable, and user-focused technology services.

This role requires Security Check (SC) clearance. 

This is a fantastic opportunity to further your experience in Ofsted’s well-established team. The post holder will work with high-achieving professionals at all levels, surrounded by a friendly and supportive team. They will have access to amazing benefits, such as flexible working hours, the Civil Service Pension Scheme, and 32.5 days annual leave + 8 bank holidays. We offer a hybrid working model, so you may also choose to spend a proportion of time working from home.

Person specification

Please refer to the job specification for further information.

Qualifications

Microsoft Azure certification, or evidence of completed Microsoft training in Azure administration, architecture, security tooling or cloud infrastructure.

Technical skills

We'll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:

• Knowledge and experience of managing Microsoft technologies including Microsoft 365, Entra ID, Intune, Sentinel, Defender and Windows operating systems.
• Knowledge and experience of managing Azure cloud platforms, including governance, networking, cloud services, security, automation and compliance.
• Experience of planning and delivering improvements across enterprise device management, identity, Microsoft 365 and cloud platforms, aligned with Government security standards, policies and best practice.
• Experience of Infrastructure as Code and automation technologies, such as Terraform, PowerShell or Azure DevOps.
• Experience of leading, coaching and developing technical teams within an enterprise environment.
• Extensive experience of supporting and improving complex technology platforms and services, identifying risks and delivering mitigations.