Job Description

Within NHS England, system engineering is about building in the whole-system space rather than focusing on a specialism such as application or infrastructure.



Senior Systems Engineers will work on systems that improve healthcare for millions of people in the UK. Systems range from citizen facing web portals to internal back-end services and will typically feature complex application logic that requires robust, secure, quality-focussed development practices.



We have an exciting opportunity to join our Demographics team in Products and Platforms, which builds and operates a set of products including the Personal Demographics Service (PDS) and GP Registration



PDS is the national master database for NHS patients in England, Wales and the Isle of Man. It contains more than 80 million records, of which over 60 million are for people currently registered with a GP.



GP Registration Services manage the end to end GP Registration process to reduce the burden on practices releasing time back to practice staff. The service improves NHS Number matching and reduces duplications and confusions for patient records. The service also improves patient access to GP services with patients being able to access the service via the NHS App and nhs.uk.



The main technologies we use in this team are AWS, Terraform, and Python

As a Senior Systems Engineer you will:

Developing, building, and operating national, highly available distributed systems being built and run within NHS England.

Operating within and contributing to the NHS England engineering principles .

Technical ownership across the system space, including application, environments, infrastructure and networks, pipelines, and operational tools.

Engage in peer-to-peer collaboration to solve engineering problems and drive-up organisation engineering standards.

Contributing to Engineering maturity within the team.

Coaching and mentoring colleagues.



Our work supports the NHS to deliver high quality services for patients and best value for taxpayers.



Our staff bring expertise across hundreds of specialisms -- including clinical, operational, commissioning, technology, data science, cyber security, software engineering, education, and commercial -- enabling us to design and deliver high-quality NHS services.

We lead the NHS in England by:

Enabling local systems and providers to improve the health of their people and patients and reduce health inequalities



Making the NHS a great place to work, where our people can make a difference and achieve their potential



Working collaboratively to ensure our healthcare workforce has the right knowledge, skills, values and behaviours to deliver accessible, compassionate care



Optimising the use of digital technology, research, and innovation



Delivering value for money



Earlier this year, the Government announced that NHS England will gradually merge with the Department of Health and Social Care, leading to full integration. The aim is to create a smaller, more strategic centre that reduces duplication and eliminates waste.



If successful at interview, we will initiate an Inter Authority Transfer (IAT) via the Electronic Staff Record (ESR). This retrieves key data from your current or previous NHS employer to support onboarding, including competency status, Continuous Service Dates (CSD), and annual leave entitlement. You may opt out at any stage of the recruitment process.



Candidates will need to demonstrate experience of the following:



Infrastructure / application development experience



Experience working across all layers of the stack including application, infrastructure, CI/CD, testing, monitoring and alerting etc.



Implementing quality-focussed development practices



Evidence using appropriate testing techniques



Working within a team to deliver software in a collaborative way



The post of Senior Systems Engineer has been awarded a Recruitment and Retention Premia (RRP) in response to current labour market conditions. In recognition of this, the role attracts an additional monthly RRP payment equal to 13% per annum.



Please be aware that RRP is non-contractual and subject to review



Please note that the reason for the fixed term of this contract is - Short-term vacancy.



Earlier this year the Government announced that NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care will increasingly merge functions, ultimately leading to NHS England being fully integrated into the Department. The purpose of this change is to create a smaller, more strategic centre which will reduce duplication and eliminate waste.



You can find further details about the role, including key responsibilities and accountabilities, alongside the organisational structure and person specification in the attached and other supporting documents.

Secondments



Applicants from within the NHS will be offered on a secondment basis only, agreement should be obtained from their employer prior to submitting the application.