We are looking for a technical leader with deep expertise in platform engineering and cyber security to ensure the resilience, scalability and security of the government’s citizen‑facing digital infrastructure. The role leads a large, multidisciplinary workforce of approximately 100 staff and operates as a trusted peer to senior stakeholders across government, ensuring the resilience, scalability, and security of critical digital platforms.
This role will focus on platform delivery, cyber strategy and technical governance, safeguarding critical systems that underpin modern digital services relied upon by millions of users each week.
You will set the strategic direction for shared platforms and infrastructure, embedding security by design and ensuring compliance with relevant frameworks. Your leadership will enable teams to build and operate high‑quality services at scale, while maintaining robust defences against evolving threats.
This is a senior role requiring deep technical understanding, strong stakeholder engagement, and a track record of delivering complex digital infrastructure at scale. You will partner closely with the Director General Digital Products and other GDS Directors to drive the usability, availability and performance of critical digital infrastructure relied upon by thousands of public services and millions of users including: the GOV.UK publishing system and information engine; GOV.UK One Login; GOV.UK App and wider ecosystem of GOV.UK platform products.
Key Responsibilities
- Own the architecture and delivery of shared platform components (APIs, developer tools, cloud infrastructure, CI/CD pipelines, shared services) and production environments that enable high‑quality digital services.
- Ensure platforms are highly available, fault‑tolerant, and performant, supporting 24/7 operations and rapid recovery in the event of failure. As the range of GOV.UK products and platforms grows, the need for robust, high‑performance, and cost‑effective shared solutions for support, live monitoring, incident management, and continuous improvement of services will become increasingly critical.
- Drive adoption of modern engineering practices, including containerisation, microservices, and automated observability.
Cyber Security
- Define and implement the cyber security strategy for GDS platforms, embedding zero‑trust principles and advanced threat detection.
- Ensure compliance with NCSC guidance, ISO standards, and relevant government security frameworks.
- Lead on secure‑by‑design architecture, encryption standards, and identity management.
Critical Infrastructure Resilience
- Establish and mature robust live service operations, including real‑time monitoring, automated alerting, and incident response protocols.
- Build resilience into every layer of the stack, from network to application, ensuring continuity of service under extreme load or attack scenarios.
- Oversee disaster recovery planning and execution for nation‑scale systems.
Technical Governance and Roadmap
- Own the technical roadmap for platform and infrastructure services, ensuring alignment with government priorities and emerging technologies.
- Set and enforce engineering standards for scalability, interoperability, and cost‑efficiency.
- Lead multidisciplinary teams of engineers, architects, and cyber specialists.
- Foster a culture of technical excellence, innovation, and accountability, with a strong focus on continuous improvement and knowledge sharing.
Stakeholder Engagement
- Work with senior leaders across government and industry to ensure platforms meet user needs and support transformation goals.
- Represent GDS in cross‑government forums on cyber security, resilience, and digital infrastructure.
Person Specification
- Strong understanding of engineering practices and evidence of leadership in designing, delivering and scaling critical and complex digital platforms and infrastructure at national or enterprise scale.
- Expertise in cloud‑native architecture, platform engineering, and cyber security, including zero‑trust models, identity management, encryption, and threat detection.
- Experience operating mission‑critical, 24/7 live services with stringent SLAs and high security requirements.
- Strong track record in incident management, disaster recovery, and resilience planning for large‑scale systems.
- Proven ability to provide strategic leadership in the establishment, governance, and enforcement of enterprise‑wide technical standards, ensuring alignment with organisational strategies across diverse teams and supplier ecosystems.
- Skilled in influencing and collaborating across complex public or private stakeholder landscapes, such as government, banking and financial institutions, regulators, and industry partners.
How to Apply
To apply for this post, please submit the following documents no later than 23:55, Monday 16th February 2026.
1. A CV setting out your career history, with key responsibilities and achievements. Please ensure you provide employment history that relates to the essential and desirable criteria, and that any gaps in employment history within the last 2 years are explained.
2. A Statement of Suitability (maximum 1250 words) explaining how you consider your personal skills, qualities, and experience provide evidence of your suitability for the role, with reference to the essential criteria in the person specification.
As part of the online process, you will be asked to complete a number of diversity‑related questions. If you do not wish to provide a declaration on any of the characteristics, you will have the option to select ‘prefer not to say’. The diversity information you provide when submitting your application will help us monitor our progress towards the Civil Service becoming an inclusive employer.
The timeline later in the advert indicates the date by which a decision is expected to be made, and all candidates will be advised of the outcome as soon as possible thereafter.
We will be hosting a 30 minute virtual townhall on Tuesday 3rd February 2026 at 6pm where interested candidates can learn more about GDS and its ambitions. Please contact scscandidate.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk if you’d like to come along.
Assessment
If you are shortlisted, you will be asked to take part in a Staff Engagement Exercise in advance of the final panel interview and an Individual Leadership Assessment in advance of the final panel interview. This assessment will not result in a pass or fail decision. Rather, it is designed to support the panel’s decision making and highlight areas for the panel to explore further at interview. Full details of the assessment process will be provided to shortlisted candidates at the earliest opportunity. For further information regarding the assessments please visit https://scs-assessments.co.uk/.
Shortlisted candidates will have the option to join an informal fire side chat about the role with Christine Bellamy prior to interview. This discussion does not form part of the assessment. You may also be invited to an informal discussion with the Minister of State for Science, Research and Innovation (which will be observed by a representative of the Civil Service Commission) and / or the Permanent Secretary.
Interview
Shortlisted candidates will be invited to attend a panel interview in person at The White Chapel Building, 10 Whitechapel High St, London E1 8QS to have a more in-depth discussion of your previous experience and professional competence in relation to the criteria set out in the Person Specification.
As part of the process there may be assessment of skills either by a presentation or simulated exercise with follow up questions. Full details of the requirements will be given to shortlisted candidates ahead of their interview.
Selection Panel
Ash Smith – Director GOV.UK, GDS
Expected Timeline
The anticipated timetable is as follows:
Advert Closing Date: 23:55pm, Monday 16th February 2026
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