Job summary
- Main area
- Systems Engineering
- Grade
- NHS AfC: Band 8b
- Contract
- Permanent
- Hours
- Full time
- Part time
- Job share
- Flexible working
- Job ref
- 990-TDD-D&A-EC883
- Employer
- NHS England
- Employer type
- NHS
- Site
- Wellington Place / Wellington House
- Town
- Leeds / London
- Salary
- £79,898.40 - £92,841.60 per annum (includes a RRP payment of 20%) (Excludes London HCAS)
- Salary period
- Yearly
- Closing
- 18/03/2026 23:59
Employer heading
Senior Systems Engineer (Senior Cloud Engineer)
NHS AfC: Band 8b
Our Organisation
The NHS is building a culture that is positive, compassionate and inclusive – and we all have our part to play.
As employers we are committed to protecting and promoting the physical and mental health and wellbeing of all our colleagues. This underpins our values as set out in the NHS Constitution and supports us to be an Employer of Choice, while helping our colleagues to deliver high quality services for our patients and communities.
As a flexible employer, we want to support you to work in a way that is best for the NHS, our patients and you. Talk to us about how we might be able to accommodate a flexible working arrangement whether that’s a job share, part time, hybrid working or another flexible pattern. In addition, although the role advertised may have a ‘home’ office base indicated, we remain committed to supporting flexibility around workplace locations. If it works for the service, we will do our best to make it work for you.
We are an accredited Living Wage Employer which means that every colleague working for our organisation and third-party contractors will earn a real Living Wage. We are one of over 15,000 organisations, who voluntarily chose to pay the real Living Wage.
Job overview
The Data Platforms team is an engineering team within the Data & Analytics division of the Transformation directorate. The role relates to our work in both maintaining our legacy data platforms estate and transforming how the NHS uses data through the Federated Data Platform.
Senior Systems Engineer (Senior Cloud Engineers) work on national systems, leading the development and operation of these key systems as part of small teams. Senior Systems Engineers (Senior Cloud Engineers) will work closely with and provide mentorship for Systems Engineers, leading the technical delivery across multidisciplinary teams. We utilise Agile, Lean and DevOps delivery practices, with an emphasis on internet facing services utilising Cloud and open standards to create large scale national solutions for the NHS.
The post of Senior Systems Engineer (Senior Cloud Engineer) has been awarded a Recruitment and Retention Premia (RRP) in response to current labour market conditions. In recognition of this, the role attracts an additional monthly RRP payment equal to 20% per annum.
Please be aware that RRP is none contractual and subject to review.
Main duties of the job
This role will report into the Principal Systems Engineer
As a Senior Systems Engineer (Senior Cloud Engineer) you will focus on:
- providing technical leadership to Senior and other Systems Engineers for national, highly available distributed systems being built and run within NHS England
- leading the engineering maturity for these systems
- identifying and implementing efficiencies in the running these systems
- leading and contributing to broader engineering improvement initiatives across the directorate / organisation, and the ongoing refinement of the engineering principles
Working for our organisation
Our staff bring expertise across clinical, operational, commissioning, technology, data science, cyber security, software engineering, education, and commercial specialisms — enabling us to design and deliver high-quality NHS services.
We lead the NHS in England by:
- Enabling local systems and providers to improve the health of their people and patients and reduce health inequalities
- Making the NHS a great place to work, where people can develop and make a difference
- Working collaboratively to ensure our healthcare workforce has the right knowledge, skills, values and behaviours to deliver accessible, compassionate care
- Optimising the use of digital technology, research, and innovation
- Delivering value for money
Earlier this year, the Government announced that NHS England will gradually merge with the Department of Health and Social Care, to create a smaller, more strategic centre that reduces duplication and waste.
If successful at interview, we will initiate an Inter Authority Transfer (IAT) via the Electronic Staff Record (ESR). This retrieves key data from your current or previous NHS employer to support onboarding, including competency status, Continuous Service Dates (CSD), and annual leave entitlement. You may opt out at any stage of the process.
Colleagues with a contractual office base are expected to spend, on average, at least 40% of their time working in-person.
Staff recruited from outside the NHS will usually be appointed at the bottom of the pay band.
Detailed job description and main responsibilities
You can find further details about the role, including key responsibilities and accountabilities, alongside the organisational structure and person specification in the attached Job Description and other supporting documents.
Applicants should demonstrate experience in:
- Cloud-based platform engineering experience – across AWS and/or Azure adopting PaaS and SaaS services
- Experience working on a complex application across all layers of the stack including application, infrastructure, CI/CD, testing, monitoring and alerting etc.
- Working within a team to deliver software in a collaborative way
It would be advantageous to have experience of:
- Working on enterprise level data platforms in a regulated environment
- Hands‑on full‑stack engineering, including cloud infrastructure
- Coaching and developing engineers
- Agile delivery
At interview, we will also explore the following competencies: INFLUENCE: Uses evidence to make decisions and build alignment; KNOWLEDGE: Grows and shares expertise; understands evolving user needs;
BUSINESS SKILLS: Introduces and leads on new technologies, collaborates with peers across the wider organisation; COMPLEXITY: Synthesises complex information and communicates it effectively; AUTONOMY: Empowers others, develops talent, and drives accountability
You can find further details about the role in the attached JD.
Important: Please be aware there are residency requirements you need to meet:
All NHS England Senior Systems Engineer (Senior Cloud Engineer) personnel must hold SC level as a minimum.
To meet National Security Vetting requirements, SC clearances require 5 years continuous UK residency. In certain cases, this can be reduced to three years continuous UK residency, with additional overseas checks for the previous two years.
Candidates who were posted abroad for service with HM Government, Armed Forces or within a UK government role - will still be considered.
Please make sure you meet these requirements before applying for this role.
You don’t need to have SC already, however, failure to achieve the requirements for SC after offer, will result in the job offer being withdrawn.
For further advice please check https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/united-kingdom-security-vetting-clearance-levels/national-security-vetting-clearance-levels#security-check-sc or contact [email protected].
Person specification
Qualifications
Essential criteria
- • Masters or equivalent qualification, specifically in a computer, scientific or mathematical subject or equivalent experience.
Experience
Essential criteria
- • Experience working on a complex application across all layers of the stack including application, infrastructure, CI/CD, testing, monitoring and alerting etc.
- • Experience working within a team to deliver software in a collaborative way
Desirable criteria
- • Working on enterprise level data platforms in a regulated environment
- • Hands on full stack engineering, including cloud infrastructure
- • Coaching and developing engineers
Knowledge
Essential criteria
- • Knowledge of cloud-based platform engineering – across AWS and/or Azure adopting PaaS and SaaS services
Desirable criteria
- Agile Delivery
Applicant requirements
This post will require a submission for Disclosure to be made to check for any unspent criminal convictions.
Documents to download
Further details / informal visits contact
- Name
- Chris Ward
- Job title
- Assistant Director of System Engineering
- Email address
- [email protected]
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