The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)

Senior DevOps support with on-call (DBA focused)

27
Incomplete applications
26 SME, 1 large
13
Completed applications
12 SME, 1 large
Published Monday 19 November 2018
Deadline for asking questions Monday 26 November 2018 at 11:59pm GMT
Closing date for applications Monday 3 December 2018 at 11:59pm GMT

Overview

Specialist role Data engineer
Summary of the work Senior DevOps engineer support - namely cloud database management and ETLs.

Support & maintain a cloud estate (AWS), drive infrastructure optimisation and automation. Implement best practice & scripted management of cloud based databases (Redshift, Oracle, Aurora).
Latest start date Friday 1 February 2019
Expected contract length One (1) year
Location London
Organisation the work is for The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA)
Maximum day rate £925 per day

About the work

Early market engagement
Who the specialist will work with The Infrastructure Product Group team, which consists of other DevOps Lead, DevOps engineers, team manager, and SecOps engineers.
What the specialist will work on Working within the Infrastructure Product Group team, which consists of other DevOps Lead, DevOps engineers, team manager, and SecOps engineers.

Support and maintain a cloud estate (AWS) and drive infrastructure optimisation and automation. Implement best practice and scripted management of cloud based databases (Redshift, Oracle, Aurora).

Help individuals, teams and managers be as effective as possible by embedding an agile culture.

Work setup

Address where the work will take place 12 Endeavour Square,
Stratford,
London E20 1JN
Working arrangements 5 days in the office. A week's on-call duties (rota based) will be paid an additional 6th day.
Security clearance SC cleared, or willing to undergo clearance procedure.

Additional information

Additional terms and conditions

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
  • 3+ years RedHat Enterprise Linux experience, or RHCE certified RHEL7
  • 3+ years enterprise production AWS experience, or AWS DevOps/SysOps Associate
  • 3+ years Chef/Ansible/Puppet scripting experience
  • 2+ years experience on networking management (Cisco stack), or CCNP
  • 2+ years experience with cloud networking automation
Nice-to-have skills and experience
  • Proven experience of implementing cloud infrastructure best practices in relation to network security (DirectConnect, VPN Gateways, NACLs, IDS/IPS, VPC design, patterns, standards, etc.)
  • Experience with network architecture
  • Experience using dev tools (Git, Jenkins, Nexus)
  • Experience using monitoring tools (Splunk, DataDog, Qualys)
  • ITIL Foundation certified

How suppliers will be evaluated

How many specialists to evaluate 10
Cultural fit criteria
  • Willing to take ownership of incidents, not only resolve them, but to prevent incidents in the future
  • Work as a team with our organisation and other suppliers
  • Knowledge share and provide on the job training to your colleagues
  • Collaborative and communicate to colleagues with respect
  • Positive attitude and supportive of a no-blame culture where the personal drive is all about continuous improvement
Assessment methods
  • Work history
  • Interview
  • Scenario or test
Evaluation weighting

Technical competence

60%

Cultural fit

20%

Price

20%

Questions asked by suppliers

1. Hi, is this role outside IR35 or inside IR35? The supplier shall warrant that any proposed resource falls outside the scope of the intermediaries legislation (also known as IR35). The FCA reserves the right to use HMRC’s online employment status tool to confirm that status of the resource and will not award the contract if IR35 applies.
2. Can the authority please confirm if there is a current incumbent and also the IR35 status of this requirement. There is no incumbent. This is a new vacancy due to increased workload.

Re; IR35:

The supplier shall warrant that any proposed resource falls outside the scope of the intermediaries legislation (also known as IR35). The FCA reserves the right to use HMRC’s online employment status tool to confirm that status of the resource and will not award the contract if IR35 applies.
3. What is the expected timescale regarding interviews and awarding the contract? Will you award the role leaving time for the candidate to complete the clearance process in order to start by the 1st of Feb or will candidates with existing SC be essential? We will award the role as soon as a suitable candidate is identified. Consultants can start earlier than Feb 2019 (without SC clearance, but suppliers must have a good indication that they will qualify - min 5 yrs residency in UK, no criminal record, etc.)
4. You have given two roles, one is dba focused and the other is network focused, but the essential and nice to have skills for both are same, so not sure how we can differentiate the writeups? There are subtle differences between the two roles listed in terms of experience we are looking for. However, the foundational knowledge and experience of enterprise cloud usage in AWS with automation/scripting is a must.
5. Will the FCA be willing to provide sponsorship for SC Clearance? Yes - consultants can start earlier (without SC clearance, but suppliers must have a good indication that they will qualify - min 5 yrs residency in UK, no criminal record, etc.)
6. Can you please confirm whether this is outside of IR35 ?

Also if you found a suitable Consultant will they be able to start before February 2019 ?" 		The supplier shall warrant that any proposed resource falls outside the scope of the intermediaries legislation (also known as IR35). The FCA reserves the right to use HMRC’s online employment status tool to confirm that status of the resource and will not award the contract if IR35 applies.

Yes - consultants can start earlier (without SC clearance, but suppliers must have a good indication that they will qualify - min 5 yrs residency in UK, no criminal record, etc.)
7. With a February start date, what is the time lines for interview around this as I fear candidates submitted now will not be available in Feb. We will award the role as soon as a suitable candidate is identified. Consultants can start earlier than Feb 2019 (without SC clearance, but suppliers must have a good indication that they will qualify - min 5 yrs residency in UK, no criminal record, etc.)