Engineers in the Home Office work in agile, product-focused teams to design, build and implement technologies and solutions. These include compute, storage, networking, physical infrastructure, software, commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) and open-source packages and solutions utilising both virtual and cloud computing.

Our agile teams enable flexibility, but also support interdisciplinary team working to deliver shared outcomes.

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Home Office engineering teams and developers currently work on more than 500 services across policing, borders, immigration, security and passports. They use cutting-edge technology to continually improve Home Office applications, creating sustainable user centred, data driven products with internet style engineering technologies and architecture. 

A big element of the team’s work is about building in-house capability for software engineering and DevOps services for existing and new applications. In terms of DevOps platforms, our goal is to converge 10 existing Home Office platforms (currently developed and managed independently) into one. Read more about this work in a blog on converging DevOps platforms on GOV.UK.

This is work on a massive scale, with an impact on the everyday lives of millions of people.

What you could be doing

Infrastructure Engineer

Infrastructure Engineers design, build and implement infrastructure technologies and solutions, for both internal user services and services to the public. They also support, design and implementation of infrastructure technologies and solutions. This can include computing, storage, physical infrastructure, software, commercial-off-the-shelf software (COTS), and open-source packages and solutions. They can also include virtual and cloud computing such as Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS) and Software as a Service (SaaS). 

Network Engineer

Network Engineers design, implement, administrate and support network services. They resolve network issues impacting Home Office users and monitor network engineering performance to ensure system availability and reliability. They configure and install various network devices and services (e.g. routers, switches, firewalls, load balancers, VPN). They also perform network maintenance and system upgrades including service packs, patches, hot fixes and security configurations. 

DevOps Engineer

DevOps Engineers support the development and operation of software through tools, environments, and practices. They are responsible for underpinning good development processes including managing tools and testing environments central code control, maintaining development standards, and writing software that automates systems. They’re also responsible for the reliable use of our platforms and maintain and update them, design, and build elements of them, and consider and monitor their security. 

Developer

Developers are key for delivering our products, developing core components of our solutions and selecting appropriate technologies. They work to our technical standards, writing clean, secure code following a test-driven approach, ensuring it is open as far as possible and can be re-used.

The benefits of working in Engineering at the Home Office

As well as the benefits generally available to Home Office staff and members of the Digital, Data and Technology Profession, there are number of benefits specific to working in the Engineering cluster.

We offer an outstanding catalogue of technical training and development options to help identify opportunities for your professional and personal development. This includes AWS and Azure training and certification, O’Reilly Books and high-quality management training.

We also offer allocated study leave and support for relevant qualifications or other accredited development. This may include BCS Membership or study towards a degree or master’s qualification.

The scale of our work means access to a tech stack that includes:

• Backend: Java, Node.js, Java Spring, Python, C#
• Frontend: React, Typescript, Angular, JavaScript
• Data: PostgreSQL, Microsoft SQL Server, Mongodb, Apache Cassandra
• DevOps: Aws, Kubernetes, Azure, Jenkins, Docker, Ansible, Terraform

We have an SFIA-based skills and competency model mapped to all role levels in Infrastructure, Network, Security, DevOps and Software Engineering, providing insight into which skills are required to develop, be promoted or to move roles. Our career pathways illustrate typical upwards and sideways moves. This includes a distinction between managerial and technical specialisms, and we have developed role definitions that provide clarity on responsibilities and expectations for your role.