Awarded to Redrock Consulting Ltd

Start date: Wednesday 12 April 2017
Value: £39,000
Company size: SME

College of Policing

Infrastructure Specialist - NPPV3 & SC Cleared

13 Incomplete applications

11 SME, 2 large

12 Completed applications

9 SME, 3 large

• Published: Monday 6 March 2017
• Deadline for asking questions: Wednesday 8 March 2017 at 11:59pm GMT
• Closing date for applications: Monday 13 March 2017 at 11:59pm GMT

Overview

• Specialist role: Technical Architect
• Summary of the work: Infrastructure Manager with strong skills in technical design and infrastructure operations to meet the rigorous technical security strategy and availability demands within Digital Services for externally facing College National Systems; ensuring continued connection to the Police and wider public services networks (PSN).
• Latest start date: Week Commencing 20th March 2017
• Expected contract length: 3-6 Months
• Location: London
• Organisation the work is for: College of Policing

About the work

• Who the specialist will work with: You'll be a part of the College Digital Services Management team working closely with Head of Service Management, Software Development Manager, Database Manager and Security Manager.
• What the specialist will work on: 1. Lead technical discovery of Infrastructure of National Policing Platforms and small-scale Local IT development network to maintain high availability and stability; 2. Lead fixes and changes to meet ITHC remediation plan; 3. Technical leadership for future replacement of infrastructure, looking at new technologies for creating better resilience, failover, scalability and performance.

Work setup

• Address where the work will take place: Metropolitan Police Service, Peel Centre, Hendon, London. NW5 9JE
• Working arrangements: Full-Time, On-Site. Monday to Friday, 36 Hours per week. Flexible working patterns will be allowed.
• Security clearance: Must have - NPPV3 & SC Clearance

Additional information

Skills and experience

Buyers will use the essential and nice-to-have skills and experience to help them evaluate suppliers’ technical competence.

• Essential skills and experience:
  • Experience in managing, supporting and securing IT systems in a Policing or Government environment
  • Strong awareness of PSN Code of Connection and government security standards
  • Strong demonstrable experience working in an Infrastructure or Network role
  • Expert knowledge in Microsoft System Centre Products (SCOM, SCCM), HP Servers, Virtualisation, Antivirus products and event management (SIEM)
  • Advanced skills in VPN, Hyper-V, Virtualisation, Storage solutions, routing, configuration and server builds
  • Good knowledge of MS SQL
  • Expert technical knowledge of IT security and infrastructure methods, tools and techniques to OFFICIAL-SENSITIVE level
  • Strong experience of HP Blade Architecture
• Nice-to-have skills and experience:
  • Knowledge and/or experience of the policing, government and criminal justice organisations
  • Demonstrable experience of implementing disaster recovery solution with successful replication and failover.

How suppliers will be evaluated

• How many specialists to evaluate: 3
• Cultural fit criteria:
  • Strong team working experience with the ability to think and problem solve independently
  • Engaging with team to create an environment for knowledge sharing and handover of completed products with knowledge transfer
  • Excellent written and communication skills with the ability to translate complex issues to a non-technical audience
  • Strong ownership and commitment to delivery
  • Good collaboration skills and ability to share skills and information among team members
  • Ability to build and develop good working relationships with staff and stakeholders
  • Applying the principles of successful negotiation to influence and persuade technical leads, stakeholders and suppliers
• Assessment methods:
  • Work history
  • Reference
  • Interview
• Evaluation weighting:

  Technical competence

  60%

  Cultural fit

  20%

  Price

  20%

Questions asked by suppliers

• 1. Can you sponsor our specialist to get NPPV3 & SC Cleared at this stage now prior to the award of contract?: Unfortunately not as we are seeking individuals who already hold the levels of clearance required due to the urgency of the project.
• 2. Would you accept a candidate with current NPPV but whose SC recently lapsed or do both clearances have to be current?: We require both clearances to be valid do the access requirements of the physical infrastructure.
• 3. Could candidates be considered who have not previously been cleared? If not, do the candidates need to hold current NPPV3 and / or SC Clearance or can they be considered if this clearance has lapsed?: Candidates must already hold current and valid NPPV3 and SC clearance due to the urgency.
• 4. If a consultant just holds current NPPV3 clearance will this be suitable for this requirement?: Please see answer to Question 3.
• 5. Can the NPPV2 clearance be gained upon application or offer or does the consultant have to currently hold the NPPV2?: We require NPPV3 not NPPV2 together with SC level clearance - both have to be valid and current.
• 6. Is there any flexibility on that start date?: Yes, possibly up to 2 weeks depending on candidates skills and experience.
• 7. Has this role been assessed within IR35?: The tax status of this requirement is unclear at present until the official HMRC tool is released and each resource is assessed.
• 8. Will SC be acceptable?: We require both NPPV3 and SC valid clearances.
• 9. Is clearance required prior to starting, or can this be sponsored?: It will be required prior to starting.
• 10. What is the budget for the role?: At this stage we are asking for suppliers to submit candidates based on matching skills and experience and put forward their day rates.
• 11. What will the candidate do in a typical day?: First priority is to ensure systems are National Policing and local IT system is operational with the latest patches and fixes. Resolve and deal with outstanding infrastructure items relating to the ITHC remediation plan. Advise and provide technical leadership on replacement of existing infrastructure hardware.
• 12. What are the key things you need to see on a CV?: We would like to see strong evidence against the criteria set out in the Skills and Experience section.
• 13. What is the interview process like?: Interview will be face to face for 1 hour at our Hendon office. It will be semi-structured to assess suitability on technical ability and cultural fit.
• 14. What is the split between working in the office and being able to work from home?: We have set the working arrangements on the advert to be on site due to the locality of the infrastructure.