The University of Sheffield is a remarkable place to work. Our people are at the heart of everything we do. Their diverse backgrounds, abilities and beliefs make Sheffield a world-class university.

We offer a fantastic range of benefits including a highly competitive annual leave entitlement (with the ability to purchase more), a generous pensions scheme, flexible working opportunities, a commitment to your development and wellbeing, a wide range of retail discounts, and much more.

Find out more about our benefits (opens in a new window) and join us to become part of something special.

Overview

IT Services at the University of Sheffield provide a full range of complex IT and technology-enabled services that support education, research, workplace, corporate services and infrastructure enablers to all our staff and students.This highly innovative department is a key enterprise IT partner that works across the University, with stakeholders and key partners to deliver enterprise-wide products and services in line with strategic aims.

Our main focus for the future is:

• Build more services in AWS and increase our automation for server setup and code deployments
• Improve resilience in the design of our services and hosting to deal with more recent challenges and threats to our services
• Put in place good practice to help developers with designing and hosting systems

We are looking for a talented technical leader to head up our DevOps Team and lead the growth of the team and our continued growth into the cloud space.

Main duties and responsibilities

• Providing DevOps support to developers across the department. Manage and develop Continuous Integration pipelines and tooling, including Jenkins, Github Enterprise and Jira
• Designing and maintaining the hosting for a number of critical systems including our single sign on infrastructure and integration tooling.
• Designing, implementing and managing the hosting of all systems run by the team so they are resilient and performant enough for our 40,000+ staff and student users (plus the general public who use our systems too)
• Automating deployment processes where we can to ensure reliable deployments to production services
• Configuration of servers using Apache, NGINX, PulseSecure Virtual Traffic Managers, Tomcat, NodeJS and a range of other technologies as required
• Learning about the latest tools, techniques and frameworks and share that knowledge with other teams we collaborate with
• Designing and planning the future direction of our infrastructure and hosting platforms
• Carry out other duties, commensurate with the grade and remit of the post

Working in our team means you get to:

• Work on delivering systems from the concept, through the design and development process, launch of a service and the ongoing maintenance
• Design solutions using the right tools including AWS and our on premise infrastructure
• Work on designing resilient and reliable services used by large numbers of users
• Use a wide-range of technologies to develop and host websites and applications
• Work on collaborative developments with product owners from the business using Scrum and Agile techniques
• Take time to learn new technologies from knowledgeable team members, and have chance to try out and evaluate new things as they come out
• Bring your own experience and expertise to change and improve the work of the department
• Understand some of the wider aspects of how the department and University work, often working with colleagues from across the organisation

Person Specification

Our diverse community of staff and students recognises the unique abilities, backgrounds, and beliefs of all. We foster a culture where everyone feels they belong and is respected. Even if your past experience doesn't match perfectly with this role's criteria, your contribution is valuable, and we encourage you to apply. Please ensure that you reference the application criteria in the application statement when you apply.

Essential criteria

• Experience of designing and running resilient web systems on Linux, AWS and Terraform (assessed at interview stage and via a written task)
• Automated build and deployment experience with tools like Jenkins or GitHub Actions (assessed at interview stage)
• Understanding of network and security concepts such as HTTP, TLS, load balancing, DNS etc (assessed at interview stage)
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to influence and persuade and the ability to build internal and external networks (assessed at application and interview stage)
• Ability to work with people with a wide range of disciplines and backgrounds across formal team boundaries (assessed at application and interview stage)
• Ability to resolve problems using own creative solutions, with an appreciation of longer-term implications (assessed at interview stage and via a written task)
• Experience leading a team, with techniques to get the best from them, making use their skills and expertise and ensuring high standards of work across the team  (assessed at interview stage)
• The ability to plan and prioritise the maintainability of our systems through things like documentation, knowledge sharing, standardisation, testing and automation (assessed at application and interview stage)
• Ability to learn new technologies, techniques and best practice quickly and effectively (assessed at application stage and via a written task)
• The ability to plan and prioritise the maintainability of our systems through things like documentation, knowledge sharing, standardisation, testing and automation (assessed at application and interview stage)
• Experience developing and using software good practices - version control, work tracking, testing etc. (assessed at application and interview stage)
• Experience of leading on projects and activities and delivering from conception through to completion (assessed at application and interview stage)
  
  

Further Information

Grade: 8

Salary: £48,148- £57,422 per annum (with the potential to progress to £64,605 with sustained exceptional contribution)

Work arrangement: Full-time (35 hours)

Line manager: Head of Development, Development Operation and Integration

Direct reports: Senior Development Operation Engineer (x4)

Our website: https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/it-services/about (opens in new window)

For informal enquiries about this job contact:
Richard Brierton, Head of Development, DevOps and Integration at r.brierton@sheffield.ac.uk

Next steps in the recruitment process

It is anticipated that the selection process will consist of a take-home technical task and interview. We plan to let candidates know if they have progressed to the selection stage within two weeks of the closing date. If you need any support, equipment or adjustments to enable you to participate in any element of the recruitment process you can contact it-services-recruitment@sheffield.ac.uk

Our vision and strategic plan

We are the University of Sheffield. This is our vision: sheffield.ac.uk/vision (opens in new window).
 

What we offer

• A minimum of 41 days annual leave including bank holiday and closure days (pro rata) with the ability to purchase more.
• Flexible working opportunities, including hybrid working for some roles.
• Generous pension scheme.
• A wide range of discounts and rewards on shopping, eating out and travel.
• A variety of staff networks, providing opportunities for social interaction, peer support and personal development (for example, Race Equality, LGBT+, Women’s and Parent’s networks).
• Recognition Awards to reward staff who go above and beyond in their role.
• A commitment to your development access to learning and mentoring schemes.
• A range of generous family-friendly policies
  • paid time off for parenting and caring emergencies
  • support for those going through the menopause
  • paid time off and support for fertility treatment
  • and more

More details can be found on our benefits page: sheffield.ac.uk/jobs/benefits (opens in a new window).

We are a Disability Confident Employer. If you have a disability and meet the essential criteria for this job you will be invited to take part in the next stage of the selection process.

Criminal record

A basic DBS check will be needed for this role. More details on the checks can be found on the Government website: gov.uk/criminal-record-checks-apply-role (opens in a new window).

Possession of a criminal record is not an automatic bar to employment at the University of Sheffield. We recognise the value of steady employment in the rehabilitation process and examine each case in its own right. More information can be found on our Information for candidates page: -  sheffield.ac.uk/jobs/candidates (opens in a new window).

Closing Date : 22/06/2025 

The University of Sheffield is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of our staff and students. It is an offence to apply for this role if you have been barred from engaging in regulated activity relevant to children. Applicants will be subject to relevant safeguarding checks in line with the requirements of each role and the guidance from the Department for Education.

Our recruitment process follows the keeping children safe in education guidance.
Offers of employment may be subject to the following checks (where relevant):
- Childcare disqualification
- Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS)
- Medical
- Online and social media
- Eligibility to work
- Satisfactory references
- Suitability to work with children
You must tell us about any unspent conviction, cautions, reprimands or warnings under the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exceptions) Order 1975.

Safeguarding policy

Employment of ex-offenders policy