Power SPPA’s cloud-first operational excellence with your expertise!
The Scottish Public Pensions Agency is an Agency of the Scottish Government. Our principal role is to administer the pensions for employees in the National Health Service, Teachers’, Police and Fire-fighters’ pension schemes in Scotland.
This role is central to enabling SPPA’s secure, reliable and modern cloud services by leading the design, implementation and ongoing management of critical infrastructure across Azure and wider platforms.
Working closely with colleagues, suppliers and partners, you will drive the development of scalable, secure solutions using modern standards, scripting tools (such as Python and DevOps platforms) and infrastructure-as-code approaches, while ensuring robust governance, effective problem resolution, system integration and continuous improvement across SPPA’s technology landscape.
Job overview
- Lead and line manage the SPPA Infrastructure/Cloud Engineering team.
- Build and maintain knowledge and awareness of best practice of cloud and IT infrastructure management. An in-depth knowledge of MS Azure is critical to this role, as is knowledge of the wider Microsoft product suite and Linux. Oracle knowledge, or the ability to acquire it rapidly, would be advantageous to the postholder. Knowledge of securely integrating MS Azure with other cloud platforms is essential.
- Work closely with SPPA colleagues, suppliers, and managed service providers to deliver the design, implementation and ongoing maintenance of critical cloud services. This should include a deep cloud expertise, including key IaaS, PaaS and SaaS technologies such as IAM, Networking, Storage, Compute and Governance.
- Manage the environment and ensure quick and easy deployments using Infrastructure as Code (IaC) via Terraform and have some experience using and supporting scripting and software tools, in particular a knowledge of Python and MS DevOps platforms would be beneficial.
- 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.
- Use information security practices and available security controls to contribute to protecting solutions and services.
- Shape contributions to IT Change and Architecture Boards in the capacity of trusted advisor, and/or present to them, to ensure compliant and secure services are developed in line with best practice and architectural principles.
- Own an issue until a new owner has been found or the problem has been mitigated or resolved and consult specialists where required determine the appropriate resolution and assist with its implementation, initiating and monitoring actions to investigate patterns and trends to resolve problems and determine future preventative measures.
Person specification
Success profile
Success profiles are specific to each job and they include the mix of skills, experience and behaviours candidates will be assessed on.
Technical / Professional Skills
- Technical Understanding - Practitioner
- Systems Design - Practitioner
- Systems Integration - Practitioner
- Modern Development Standards - Practitioner
- Troubleshooting and Problem Resolution - Practitioner
You can find out more about the full skills required here: Infrastructure engineer - Government Digital and Data Profession Capability Framework.
Experience
You must have a minimum of five years’ experience of the secure administration, deployment and maintenance of Microsoft Azure. Oracle and AWS experience in addition to this would be advantageous as would prior public sector experience.
Behaviours
- Leadership – Level 3
- Making Effective Decisions – Level 3
- Communicating and influencing – Level 3
- Managing a quality service – Level 3
Qualifications
You must hold a relevant MS Azure qualification such as: Azure DB Administrator Azure Administrator Azure Security Engineer Azure Developer Azure Data Engineer.
Behaviours
We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:
- Leadership
- Making Effective Decisions
- Communicating and Influencing
- Managing a Quality Service
Technical skills
We'll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:
- Technical Understanding - Practitioner
- Systems Design - Practitioner
- Systems Integration - Practitioner
- Modern Development Standards - Practitioner
- Troubleshooting and Problem Resolution - Practitioner
Benefits
Alongside your salary of £49,401, Scottish Government contributes £14,311 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides (opens in a new window).
- Learning and development tailored to your role
- An environment with flexible working options
- A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
- A Civil Service pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%.
Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience.
Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action.
Please see our candidate guidance (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.
Selection process details
This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours, Experience and Technical skills.
How to apply
Apply online, providing a CV and Supporting Statement (of no more than 1,500 words) which provides evidence of how you meet the skills, experience and behaviours listed in the Success Profile above.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools can be used to support your application, but all statements and examples provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience.
Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, and presented as your own) applications will be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action.
Please see our candidate guidance for more information on acceptable and unacceptable uses of AI in recruitment.
If invited for further assessment, this will consist of an interview and job-related simulation.
Sifting will commence from 6 July 2026.
Assessments are scheduled for w/c 27 July 2026, however this may be subject to change.
Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.
Security
Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.
People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.
Nationality requirements
This job is broadly open to the following groups:
- UK nationals
- nationals of the Republic of Ireland
- nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
- nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
- nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
- individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
- Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service
Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window).
Working for the Civil Service
The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants. We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window).
The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.
Diversity and Inclusion
The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the Civil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).
Apply and further information
This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans (opens in a new window) initiative.
Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.
Contact point for applicants
Job contact
Recruitment team
