Lead infrastructure engineer

Band 8a · Infrastructure engineer · 560 job evaluation points

UK GDaD PCF level: Lead infrastructure engineer

Most often performed at Civil Service grade G7 or G6.

A lead infrastructure engineer manages third party provision of infrastructure services and the provision of expertise to develop architectural solutions for infrastructure services, throughout the service product life cycle.
At this role level, you will:
oversee programmes and projects
work with technical architects to translate the architectural designs into operations and support technical architects in operationalising the designs
lead and direct infrastructure specialist teams in building, managing, supporting and maintaining solutions according to departmental policy (if taking a managerial path)

Contains public sector information from the UK Government Digital and Data Profession Capability Framework (https://understand-digital-data-roles-skills.service.gov.uk/), licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. © Crown copyright.

Responsibilities

Lead the infrastructure for a major platform or group of services, and set its technical direction.
Manage third-party infrastructure suppliers, and hold them to service levels for availability and recovery.
Oversee infrastructure programmes, such as network renewal or moves to cloud hosting.
Make sure infrastructure meets security, information governance, and medical device network standards.
Lead infrastructure teams and develop their skills.

Skills

Skill	Expected level	What this level means
Coding and scriptingUK GDaD PCF	Working (2)	You can: interact with, read and write code carry out baseline repair activities
Information securityUK GDaD PCF	Practitioner (3)	You can: design solutions and services with security controls included, specifically engineered to mitigate security threats
IT infrastructureUK GDaD PCF	Expert (4)	You can: lead teams and departments in the design, implementation, administration and support of infrastructure solutions and services
Modern development standardsUK GDaD PCF	Expert (4)	You can: identify and apply modern development standards to support complex projects and programmes lead others in applying modern development standards
Ownership and initiativeUK GDaD PCF	Practitioner (3)	You can: take accountability for issues that occur and be proactive in searching for potential problems achieve excellent user outcomes
Problem managementUK GDaD PCF	Working (2)	You can: initiate and monitor actions to investigate patterns and trends to resolve problems effectively consult specialists where required determine the appropriate resolution and assist with its implementation determine preventative measures
Service focusUK GDaD PCF	Working (2)	You can: take inputs and establish coherent frameworks that work
Systems designUK GDaD PCF	Practitioner (3)	You can: design systems characterised by medium levels of risk, impact, and business or technical complexity select appropriate design standards, methods and tools, and ensure they are applied effectively review the systems designs of others to ensure the selection of appropriate technology, efficient use of resources and integration of multiple systems and technology
Systems integrationUK GDaD PCF	Expert (4)	You can: establish standards and procedures across a service product life cycle, including the development product life cycle, and can ensure that practitioners adhere to these manage resources to ensure that the systems integration function works effectively
Technical understandingUK GDaD PCF	Expert (4)	You can: anticipate and advise on future technology changes that present opportunities for the product or programme
TestingUK GDaD PCF	Practitioner (3)	You can: manage the planning of system and acceptance tests, co-ordinating both functional and non-functional specifications provide authoritative advice and guidance on test planning identify process improvements and contribute to the definition of best practice
Troubleshooting and problem resolutionUK GDaD PCF	Expert (4)	You can: use lateral thinking to break a problem down into its component parts to identify and diagnose root causes troubleshoot and identify problems across different technology capabilities including computing, storage, networking, physical infrastructure, software, commercial-off-the-shelf software (COTS) and open source software
Understanding health and care servicesThis reference	Practitioner (3)	You can: analyse how a service fits into care pathways across organisations work with clinicians, care staff, and patients to shape digital services explain the effect of digital decisions on care, safety, and staff workload
Information governance and data protectionThis reference	Practitioner (3)	You can: lead data protection impact assessments and information sharing agreements advise teams on lawful basis, consent, confidentiality, and retention investigate incidents and recommend improvements
Security operationsThis reference	Working (2)	You can: monitor alerts and triage them using runbooks gather evidence and escalate events tune simple detection rules under guidance
Vulnerability managementThis reference	Practitioner (3)	You can: prioritise vulnerabilities by risk, including to patient services scope and manage penetration tests and remediation
Clinical risk managementThis reference	Working (2)	You can: take part in hazard workshops and contribute to a hazard log follow the clinical risk management process for your work provide evidence for a clinical safety case, such as test results
Organisational risk managementThis reference	Practitioner (3)	You can: run the risk process for a directorate or programme assess risks against the risk appetite and escalate them report on risks to committees
People managementThis reference	Practitioner (3)	You can: line manage a team, setting objectives and running appraisals support wellbeing and manage attendance, performance, and conduct plan the team's development and succession

Typical qualifications and experience

Extensive experience of leading infrastructure engineering for complex, high-availability services.

Band 8a outline

Knowledge: Expert knowledge of a discipline and its management.
Autonomy: Interprets organisational policy for a service; sets the team's direction.
Scope: A service area or a discipline across the organisation.
Leadership: Manages a team, or leads a discipline without line management.
Accountability: A service area, its staff, and its budget.

Job evaluation (illustrative)

Factor	Level	Level summary	Points
Communication and relationship skills	5	Gives highly complex or contentious information needing developed persuasion and negotiation, presents to large groups, or communicates where there are significant barriers to acceptance.	45
Knowledge, training, and experience	7	Highly developed specialist knowledge across the range of the specialism (master's level or equivalent).	196
Analytical and judgemental skills	5	Judgements on highly complex facts or situations needing analysis, interpretation, and comparison of options.	60
Planning and organisational skills	4	Plans a broad range of complex activities or strategies, adjusting them as needed.	42
Physical skills	2	Skills gained through practice, such as standard keyboard use or driving.	15
Responsibility for patient and client care	1	Helps patients, clients, or relatives during incidental contact.	4
Responsibility for policy and service development	4	Implements policy and develops policy or services for a service or several areas.	32
Responsibility for financial and physical resources	3	Authorises payments, buys some assets or supplies, monitors or holds a delegated budget, or maintains assets.	21
Responsibility for people	3	Manages a group of staff day to day, teaches core or specialist training, or gives core HR advice.	21
Responsibility for information resources	5	Designs and develops major information systems, or runs information systems for several services as the main duty.	34
Responsibility for research and development	2	Regularly does research, development, trials, or equipment and system testing as part of the job.	12
Freedom to act	5	Works within general policies, and in most cases decides how to interpret them.	45
Physical effort	1	Sitting, standing, and walking, with little physical effort.	3
Mental effort	4	Frequent prolonged concentration, or occasional intense concentration.	18
Emotional effort	1	Rare exposure, or occasional indirect exposure, to distressing circumstances.	5
Working conditions	2	Occasional unpleasant conditions, frequent travel or outdoor work, or near-continuous screen use on most days.	7
Total (Band 8a: 540 to 584)			560

The UK GDaD PCF suggests Band 8b for both lead and principal infrastructure engineers. This reference places lead at Band 8a, so that the two levels sit in different bands, in line with lead and principal roles in other technical families.