Senior infrastructure engineer

Band 7 · Infrastructure engineer · 490 job evaluation points

UK GDaD PCF level: Senior infrastructure engineer

Most often performed at Civil Service grade SEO or G7.

Working in a team of infrastructure specialists and engineers, a senior infrastructure engineer builds, administers, supports and maintains solutions as directed and according to departmental policy.
At this role level, you will:
ensure services are integrated, delivered and operated as required
work with and support third parties in providing infrastructure services
work with technical architects to translate architectural designs into operations
provide input into overall management - workforce, budget, technology roadmaps, projects and tasks
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

Design and build infrastructure solutions from architects' designs, with the resilience that clinical services need.
Plan and lead major infrastructure changes, such as data center moves, network refreshes, and cloud migrations, around clinical activity.
Design and test disaster recovery and ransomware recovery for critical clinical systems.
Lead the technical response to infrastructure incidents and drive fixes for their causes.
Manage compensating controls for legacy systems and medical devices that cannot be patched.
Lead and coach infrastructure engineers.

Skills

Skill	Expected level	What this level means
Coding and scriptingUK GDaD PCF	Awareness (1)	You can: describe different scripting tools and software that are available and currently in use
Information securityUK GDaD PCF	Working (2)	You can: use information security practices and available security controls to contribute to protecting solutions and services
IT infrastructureUK GDaD PCF	Practitioner (3)	You can: design and implement infrastructure solutions and services, for example, networking and physical infrastructure, commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) software, open source packages and solutions, or virtual and cloud computing
Modern development standardsUK GDaD PCF	Practitioner (3)	You can: apply modern development standards and support others in applying them
Ownership and initiativeUK GDaD PCF	Working (2)	You can: own an issue until a new owner has been found or the problem has been mitigated or resolved
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	Practitioner (3)	You can: define the integration build co-ordinate build activities across systems understand how to undertake and support integration testing activities
Technical understandingUK GDaD PCF	Practitioner (3)	You can: show a thorough understanding of the technical concepts required for the role, and can explain how these fit into the wider technical landscape
TestingUK GDaD PCF	Working (2)	You can: review requirements and specifications, and define test conditions identify issues and risks associated with work analyse and report test activities and results
Troubleshooting and problem resolutionUK GDaD PCF	Practitioner (3)	You can: break a problem down into its component parts to identify and diagnose root causes troubleshoot and identify problems across different technology capabilities
Understanding health and care servicesThis reference	Working (2)	You can: explain the clinical and care workflows your work supports use common health care terms correctly with clinical and care colleagues recognize when a change could affect patient care and raise it
Information governance and data protectionThis reference	Working (2)	You can: apply data protection principles to your work contribute to data protection impact assessments handle information requests and records correctly
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: prioritize 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
Organizational risk managementThis reference	Working (2)	You can: record and update risks for your area suggest controls and track actions

Typical qualifications and experience

Substantial experience of designing and running production infrastructure, at a level equivalent to a postgraduate diploma.

Band 7 outline

Knowledge: Highly developed specialist knowledge, typically to master's level or equivalent experience.
Autonomy: Works to organizational policy; decides how results are achieved; is the expert others consult.
Scope: Several products or services, or a specialist function.
Leadership: Leads a team or a professional practice area.
Accountability: Delivery of a service or specialist function, and its budget if held.

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	6	Specialist knowledge across the range of the specialism (postgraduate diploma level or equivalent).	156
Analytical and judgmental skills	4	Judgments on complex facts or situations needing analysis, interpretation, and comparison of options.	42
Planning and organizational skills	4	Plans a broad range of complex activities or strategies, adjusting them as needed.	42
Physical skills	3	Developed skills needing speed or accuracy, such as advanced keyboard use.	27
Responsibility for patient and client care	1	Helps patients, clients, or relatives during incidental contact.	4
Responsibility for policy and service development	3	Implements policies for own area and proposes changes that affect other areas.	21
Responsibility for financial and physical resources	3	Authorizes 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	4	Results are defined, but the job holder decides how to achieve them, within broad policy.	32
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 7: 466 to 539)			490

Mental effort reflects frequent prolonged concentration during incidents and complex changes, including out of hours.