Senior DevOps Engineer - MI6 Secret Intelligence Service - HEO

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Location

London

Central London

About The Job

Job summary

Salary

£66,059, with an opportunity to qualify for additional allowances and a skills‑related payment under the Government Digital and Data Profession Capability (GDDPC) Framework - formerly known as DDaT.

Flexible working

We support full time (36 hours per week) or part‑time working (minimum three days a week).

Due to the sensitive nature of our work, this role is fully office‑based with no option for remote or home working.

Essential Requirements

You need to be a British citizen or hold dual British nationality. You should also only apply when you’re in the UK. If you are based overseas, you should wait until you visit the UK.

• Read about our eligibility criteria.

About Us

We're MI6, also known as the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS). Our mission is to protect the security and economic wellbeing of the UK from overseas threats such as regional instability, terrorism, and cyber attacks. Working across the globe and in close partnership with MI5 and GCHQ, we help the Government to counter these threats through the provision of secret intelligence. You’ll provide vital support to this work, within a collaborative and encouraging environment that puts the emphasis on teamwork.

Job Description

The role

As a senior member of our software engineering team, you'll be expected to provide technical direction and mentorship to less experienced colleagues. You will be a hands‑on practitioner responsible for deploying, operating and maintaining software services across a variety of platforms, from standalone systems to large Kubernetes clusters on cloud platforms, and everything in between.

You will deploy and operate software services on established platforms, where you will build, maintain, and continuously improve Kubernetes‑based deployments. Your role involves developing and optimising CI/CD pipelines and release automation to ensure seamless delivery. You’ll apply Site Reliability Engineering principles to production services, and monitor service health, performance, availability, and reliability to maintain high standards of stability.

When challenges arise, you will troubleshoot deployment and operational issues, while working to improve observability, incident response, and general operational processes. You will make appropriate use of AI‑assisted tools to improve delivery efficiency. Throughout these tasks, you will collaborate closely with development, platform, and infrastructure teams, always seeking out opportunities to reduce manual effort and increase the speed of deployment.

About You

You’ll be self‑motivated, with high standards and a commitment to excellence. You’ll have experience of using AI within engineering processes, reviewing the output of AI, guiding AI to produce software and deployments that meet corporate standards, and experience integrating AI capabilities into production systems, including familiarity with emerging standards such as the Model Context Protocol (MCP).

You’ll have a relevant degree or equivalent experience in industry, and a passion for writing code, improving processes, and communicating with technical and non‑technical colleagues alike. You’ll be constantly looking to improve yourself and learn new things, and you’ll thrive in a fast‑paced, dynamic environment.

Training and development

You’ll be joining a community that invests in helping people to grow their skills. You’ll have access to a broad mix of learning opportunities, including in‑house and online training, technical deep dives and development pathways shaped around your interests and the needs of the organisation. This includes support to strengthen your capability across modern AI techniques, Cloud technologies and wider analytical or engineering practices.

We’ll support you with the Government Digital and Data Profession Capability Framework. You’ll also have opportunities to work with external professional bodies and training providers offering routes to specialist accreditation, advanced AI training and broader professional recognition. Whether you choose to deepen your expertise in a specific technical area or expand your capability across new domains, you’ll have the guidance and support you need to progress.

You’ll also benefit from mentoring, peer support and a collaborative community that shares knowledge openly. You’ll have opportunities to rotate across different teams, explore emerging technologies and contribute to shaping how MI6 evolves its AI and data science capability. As you develop, you’ll have the space to experiment, increase your expertise and play an active role in strengthening our AI practice across the organisation.