Senior Development Operations Engineer - Planning Inspectorate - SEO

Manchester Digital; West of England; Hybrid; GBP 45,000 - 50,000; Full time

Job summary

A public service organization is looking for a Senior DevOps Engineer to contribute to the development of digital services. You will work in a multidisciplinary team, providing technical solutions and improving service delivery using modern technologies like Azure and Terraform. The role offers hybrid working and a salary ranging from £45,219 to £49,462, along with additional allowances.

Qualifications

• Experience applying a modern standards approach to software development.
• Experience with Azure and Azure DevOps.
• Proficient in troubleshooting and problem-solving for service support.

Responsibilities

• Collaborate with a multidisciplinary team to deliver high quality code.
• Provide technical recommendations for integration and deployment.
• Stay updated with new technologies and trends in the industry.

Skills

Experience applying a modern standards approach

Excellent troubleshooting and problem-solving skills

Experience with Azure and Azure DevOps

Experience with open-source technologies including Terraform and Git

Effective interpersonal and communication skills

Tools

GitHub

Terraform

Docker

NodeJS

JIRA

Job description

Overview

Senior Development Operations Engineer - Planning Inspectorate - SEO

Salary: £45,219 - £49,462 + DDaT Allowance of up to £12,181. Published on 17 September 2025. Deadline 28 September 2025.

Location: Bristol, South West England, BS1 6PN

Job summary

Are you ready to make a real impact in public service through technology? The Planning Inspectorate is looking for a Senior DevOps Engineer to join our Digital and Data Services team as we rise to meet increasing demands from colleagues, government, and the public.

As a Senior DevOps Engineer, you’ll play a key role in a multidisciplinary team, helping to shape and support the development and operation of our digital services. From casework management systems to public-facing websites and internal tools, your work will directly contribute to modernising and driving efficiency.

You’ll be working as part of a focused team delivering service and continuous improvement. You’ll be part of the wider Developer Community of Practice where you’ll have peer support and opportunities to share knowledge and solve problems.

The Planning Inspectorate has a long and proud history in ensuring a fair planning system for England. The work we do has a significant impact on people’s lives, the communities where they live and the economy.

We’re undergoing a major transformation, refreshing the systems that support our core services and redesigning how we deliver them across all channels. Modern technology is at the heart of this change, improving service delivery for both internal and external users.

It’s a great time to join the Planning Inspectorate as a DevOps Engineer. We’re investing heavily in our people, systems, and tools to ensure digital services are central to everything we do. Our commitment is reflected in our Civil Service People Survey results, which place us among the top performers.

To meet growing demand from colleagues, government, and customers, our Digital Services team is expanding. We’re increasing capacity and capability to deliver outstanding digital, data, and technology services. This is a high profile, business critical role, and we’re looking for a motivated, dynamic individual to join us during this exciting period.

We want our colleagues to be able to work more flexibly and more collaboratively, exploring new and innovative ways to improve the way we provide services.

For further information on the Planning Inspectorate, please visit our careers page at Civil Service Careers.

Responsibilities

You will be responsible for working collaboratively as part of a multidisciplinary team, focused on delivering high quality code and infrastructure in line with project goals and delivery cycles. You will work with a team of Developers, DevOps engineers and Testers where team members are supported and developed to enable them to fulfil their potential and contribute to the success of the organisation.

As a DevOps Engineer, you will provide technical recommendations and assurance within the team to identify the best technology and solutions to support integration and deployment of applications. You will also keep up to date with the latest technologies and trends, delivering working software early and often, learning new languages and frameworks and picking the right solutions.

We rely heavily on:

• Terraform for Infrastructure as Code
• GitHub to host and manage our code
• Docker and Web Apps for Containers
• NodeJS for our back-end code
• UK Design System for web interfaces

We’re happy to help you learn our tech stack once you are part of our team.

Check out GitHub for a closer look at the technology we use.

New entrants to the Civil Service are expected to start on the minimum of the pay band. Internal rules apply to existing Civil Servants, i.e. level transfers move on current salary or the pay range minimum, transfers on promotion move to new pay range minimum or receive 10% increase. Either case is determined by whichever is highest.

This role is being advertised at SEO Grade.

Salary range for the Grade role is £45,219 - £49,462 plus a DDAT allowance of up to £12,181 based on capability and base salary.

Working hours:
Standard working week is 37 hours, flexible working hours policy available.

This role is contractually based at Temple Quay House, Bristol which is currently out of use due to undergoing refurbishment work. In the interim, we have the use of alternative office space in very close proximity to Bristol Temple Meads railway station. We recognise and value the mutual benefits of hybrid working and have a flexible approach to in person attendance, which can vary dependent on the requirements of individual business units - the details of which can be discussed with candidates if invited to attend an interview.

Person specification

We will assess your application against the Essential Criteria listed:

• Experience applying a modern standards approach (using the latest technologies and best practices to improve the quality of the software development process).
• Experience with Azure and Azure DevOps
• Excellent troubleshooting and problem-solving skills, including experience of supporting services.
• Experience with open-source technologies including Terraform and Git.
• A working knowledge of DevOps principles and processes.
• Experience identifying process optimisation opportunities and contributing to implementation of these optimisations.
• Understanding of information security and ability to design solutions and services with security controls embedded.
• Effective interpersonal and communication skills.
• Experience of JIRA or other management tooling
• Knowledge of the Government’s Digital strategies and codes of practice
• Awareness and understanding of industry standard security issues and processes. An understanding of ISO27001 would be an advantage.

We\'ll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Delivering at Pace
• Changing and Improving
• Working Together
• Managing a Quality Service

Technical skills

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