Lead DevOps engineer
Band 8b · DevOps engineer · 604 job evaluation points
UK GDaD PCF level: Lead DevOps engineer
A lead DevOps engineer leads one or a small number of related project teams and contributes to the development of the strategic direction.
At this role level, you will:
- act as a technical product owner, developing medium to long term strategies for product lines
- provide technical leadership and guidance through coaching and mentoring
- lead the sharing of knowledge and good practice
There are 2 different roles at this level - a technical role and a management role.
Responsibilities
- Lead DevOps and platform engineering for a group of teams, acting as technical owner of the shared platform.
- Set the medium-term roadmap for the organisation's delivery tooling, hosting, and observability.
- Make sure shared platforms are resilient, secure, and able to meet the availability needs of clinical services.
- Manage platform costs and capacity with finance and service owners.
- Lead the DevOps community of practice and line manage or lead DevOps engineers.
Skills
| Skill | Expected level | What this level means |
|---|---|---|
| Availability and capacity management | Working (2) | You can:
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| Development process optimisation | Working (2) | You can:
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| Information security | Practitioner (3) | You can:
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| Modern development standards | Expert (4) | You can:
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| Programming and build (software engineering) | Practitioner (3) | You can:
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| Prototyping | Practitioner (3) | You can:
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| Service support | Expert (4) | You can:
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| Systems design | Practitioner (3) | You can:
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| Systems integration | Expert (4) | You can:
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| User focus | Practitioner (3) | You can:
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| Understanding health and care services | Practitioner (3) | You can:
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| Clinical risk management | Working (2) | You can:
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| Information governance and data protection | Practitioner (3) | You can:
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| Vulnerability management | Practitioner (3) | You can:
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| Security operations | Working (2) | You can:
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| People management | Practitioner (3) | You can:
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| Budget management | Working (2) | You can:
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Typical qualifications and experience
- Extensive experience of leading DevOps or platform engineering for complex services.
Band 8b outline
- Knowledge
- Expert knowledge across several disciplines or a large service.
- Autonomy
- Shapes policy and strategy for a large area.
- Scope
- Several services or teams, or a principal-level discipline.
- Leadership
- Manages managers, or is the principal authority in a discipline.
- Accountability
- Several services, their staff, and their budgets.
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 | 8 | Advanced knowledge (doctorate plus further training or equivalent), or specialist knowledge across more than one discipline built over a long period. | 240 |
| 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 8b: 585 to 629) | 604 | ||
Self assessment
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Rated 0 of 17 skills: 0 meet the expected level, 0 below, 0 above.