Systems Operations Support

Description:

The GLA’s Digital Experience Unit is responsible for the delivery of all internal and external digital products and services at the GLA.

The unit is responsible for the design, delivery and management of dozens digital, data and technology services that support the delivery of the functions of the Mayor and the Assembly; and, in doing so, directly serve Londoners.

The GLA’s largest and most visible digital products – the London Datastore and Talk London – are used by millions of Londoners every year and provide the GLA with platforms for communications, convening, public engagement, data and information-sharing, and transparency. These services support delivery, scrutiny and democratic engagement at scale and at a low cost per user compared to non-digital channels and services.

This role will sit within the Delivery team, and report into Head of Delivery. The post will work very closely with inhouse and third-party development and testing suppliers.

About the role

The GLA has been at the forefront of digital and data innovation in London since its inception – will you join us as we make an exciting step change in our digital capability?

Digital and data services play a critical role in enabling the delivery of the functions of the Mayor of London and the London Assembly – and it’s critical to ensure these are reliable and of high quality.

As a Systems Operations support officer, you will be responsible for supporting the organisation's cloud computing infrastructure and ensure the delivery of high-quality, scalable software applications using Infrastructure as Code techniques to build, deploy and provision these systems.

You will work with in-house development operations team to support the smooth running of the digital estate working to optimise our development, testing and release processes. You will initially work mostly with AWS & Linux developing and supporting systems and infrastructure through to production using modern continuous integration/deployment (CI/CD) techniques and supporting analysis, identification, prioritisation and implementation of incremental improvements to our existing services.

What your day will look like

1. Support development and rollout of a continuous integration and deployment pipeline across the GLA’s Digital estate, use of containerisation techniques where appropriate, and working collaboratively with development operations team

2. Support the design and implement infrastructure as code using Terraform (or similar) to provision performant and secure infrastructure. Use cross-platform APIs and automation/deployment technologies such as Ansible (or similar) to orchestrate automated cloud platform deployments and system builds

3. Implement and maintain the monitoring solution for digital services and implementing robust security controls and monitoring solutions – across infrastructure and application components - including security and feature patching. Assist in managing user access and permissions to all GLA digital systems and tools.

4. Develop and maintain robust and reliable systems to ensure data integrity including: regular backups onsite and to the cloud in accordance with agreed schedules, and; data masking in development and test systems in order to ensure data protection compliance.

5. Diagnose and resolve issues within GLA digital services and infrastructure, using standard debugging tools to track down and identify root causes. Work independently to find

6. solutions / identify problems and in collaboration with in-house Dev Ops team, Technical Architect, and third-party suppliers Developers to solve more challenging issues.

7. Lead, manage and maintain GLA-wide IT issue and knowledge management systems. Provide technical support up to second level, and proactively liaise with external expert partner for third level support.

8. Work with the development operations team during software release management. Take full responsibility for technical release management tasks assigned as part of the release management process.

9. Proactively produce and maintain technical and warranty documentation for all GLA digital services, work with external third-party suppliers and cloud service providers to ensure they adhere to our technical standards.. Liaise with users of the documents to ensure that the content is appropriate, understandable and well formatted, promote the documentation amongst target users, as necessary.

10. Continuously look for improvements to the wider GLAs Digital estate, particularly in areas such as cyber security improvements, threat and intrusion detection, system recovery, tracking and reducing technical debt and ensuring the estate is secure, reliable and stable.

11. Continuously improve your own knowledge of work areas, drive the Development community of practice, and embrace the Agile framework of software delivery. Support colleagues to reach full agility using DevOps best practices including continuous integrations, delivery, and release.

Skills, knowledge and experience

To be considered for the role you must meet the following essential criteria:

1. Experience of, and demonstrable interest in, technologies used in a System and Development operations environment

2. Knowledge and understanding of technical and non-technical aspects of maintaining development and test environments, including continuous integration, technical testing and quality assurance

3. Experience of developing and managing technical systems and procedures in area such as data integrity (including patching and backups).

4. Experience of automated deployment of applications and services to AWS.

5. Knowledge/experience of technologies such as Ansible, Packer, Terraform Linux, MySQL, PostgreSQL, NGINX, PHP, Drupal, Tomcat, Maven, Composer, Java.

6. Able to define the continuous integration build, co-ordinate build activities across systems and understand how to undertake and support integration testing activities

Assessment process

Once you have submitted an application, your details will be reviewed by a panel.

If shortlisted you’ll be invited to an interview and an assessment. The interview/assessment date is: to be confirmed.

Equality, diversity and inclusion

London's diversity is its biggest asset and we strive to ensure our workforce reflects London's diversity at all levels. We welcome applications from everyone regardless of age, gender, gender identity, gender expression, ethnicity, sexual orientation, faith or disability.

We particularly encourage applications from Black, Asian and Minority ethnic candidates and disabled candidates who are currently underrepresented in our workforce.

We are committed to being an inclusive employer and we are happy to consider flexible working arrangements. We would welcome applications from candidates who are seeking part time work as this role is open to job share.

Please note we are a Disability Confident Employer so for candidates who wish to be considered under the scheme and meet the essential criteria, they will automatically be invited to interview. Please note, should you require any adjustments through the process, we will accommodate as much as possible. Please contact the recruitment team for further information if required.

GLA staff are hybrid working up to 3 days a week in our offices and remotely depending on their role. As part of this, you will need to split your time between home working and coming into the office.

In addition to a good salary package, you will be paid every four weeks, providing frequent salary payments. We also offer an attractive range of benefits including 30 days’ annual leave, interest free season ticket loan, interest free bicycle loan and a career average pension scheme.

Additional Information

Please note, all candidates will need to confirm that the information provided in this application form is true and correct. Should a candidate deliberately give false information, including the use of AI software, they understand that this would disqualify them from consideration.

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record (DBS) check but some roles may require additional security screening.

Person specification

1. Educated to degree level in relevant subject such as computer science with core development element or equivalent level qualification or experience of working at a similar level in specialist area

2. Experience of, and demonstrable interest in, technologies used in a System and Development operations environment

3. Knowledge and understanding of technical and non-technical aspects of maintaining development and test environments, including continuous integration, technical testing and quality assurance

4. Experience of developing and managing technical systems and procedures in area such as data integrity (including patching and backups).

5. Experience of working as part of a technical team with responsibility for assigned technical tasks and proactive communication.

6. Experience of automated deployment of applications and services to AWS.

7. Knowledge/experience of technologies such as Ansible, Packer, Terraform Linux, MySQL, PostgreSQL, NGINX, PHP, Drupal, Tomcat, Maven, Composer, Java.

8. Able to define the continuous integration build, co-ordinate build activities across systems and understand how to undertake and support integration testing activities

9. An understanding of and commitment to equality of opportunity and good working relationships, both in terms of day-to-day working practices, but also in relation to management systems

Behavioural competencies

BUILDING AND MANAGING RELATIONSHIPS

… is developing rapport and working effectively with a diverse range of people, sharing knowledge and skills to deliver shared goals.

Level 2 indicators of effective performance

·Develops new professional relationships

·Understands the needs of others, the constraints they face and the levers to their engagement

·Understands differences, anticipates areas of conflict and takes action

·Fosters an environment where others feel respected

·Identifies opportunities for joint working to minimise duplication and deliver shared goals

STAKEHOLDER FOCUS

… is consulting with, listening to and understanding the needs of those our work impacts and using this knowledge to shape what we do and manage others

Level 1 indicators of effective performance

·Listens to understand requirements without making assumptions

·Demonstrates an enthusiastic and ‘can do attitude’ to all requests

·Provides timely, accurate and personalised responses

·Provides a polite and helpful first point of contact for stakeholders

·Learns from feedback to improve personal service to others

MANAGING AND DEVELOPING PERFORMANCE

… is setting high standards for oneself and others, guiding, motivating and developing them, to achieve high performance and meet the GLA’s objectives and statutory obligations.

Level 2 indicators of effective performance

·Seeks opportunities to develop professional skills and knowledge and encourages team to do so.

·Ensures own and others’ workloads are realistic and achievable

·Provides staff with clear direction and objectives, ensuring they understand expectations

·Recognises achievements and provides constructive feedback and guidance

·Gives staff autonomy and confidence to perform well and to their potential

PLANNING AND ORGANISING

… is thinking ahead, managing time, priorities and risk, and developing structured and efficient approaches to deliver work on time and to a high standard.

Level 2 indicators of effective performance

·Prioritises work in line with key team or project deliverables

·Makes contingency plans to account for changing work priorities, deadlines and milestones

·Identifies and consults with sponsors or stakeholders in planning work

·Pays close attention to detail, ensuring team’s work is delivered to a high standard

·Negotiates realistic timescales for work delivery, ensuring team deliverables can be met

PROBLEM SOLVING

… is analysing and interpreting situations from a variety of viewpoints and finding creative, workable and timely solutions.

Level 2 indicators of effective performance

·Processes and distils a variety of information to understand a problem fully

·Proposes options for solutions to presented problems

·Builds on the ideas of others to encourage creative problem solving

·Thinks laterally about own work, considering different ways to approach problems

·Seeks the opinions and experiences of others to understand different approaches to problem solving

RESEARCH AND ANALYSIS

… is gathering intelligence (information, opinion and data) from varied sources, making sense of it, testing its validity and drawing conclusions that can lead to practical benefits.

Level 2 indicators of effective performance

·Proactively seeks new information sources to progress research agendas and address gaps in knowledge

·Grasps limitations of or assumptions behind data sources, disregarding those that lack quality

·Analyses and integrates qualitative and quantitative data to find new insights

·Translates research outcomes into concise, meaningful reports

·Identifies relevant and practical research questions for the future