Her Majesty’s Passport Office

Platform and Infrastructure Architect

12
Incomplete applications
10 SME, 2 large
21
Completed applications
15 SME, 6 large
Published Thursday 16 May 2019
Deadline for asking questions Monday 20 May 2019 at 11:59pm GMT
Closing date for applications Thursday 23 May 2019 at 11:59pm GMT

Overview

Specialist role Technical Architect
Summary of the work Infrastructure and Platform Architect with good experience and knowledge of:
Linux, cloud computing, cloud security, Crown Hosting and hybrid environments. Expert of deploying and migrating to AWS services, open source, DevOps tools and culture, containers, scripting, Kubernetes etc
Latest start date Monday 10 June 2019
Expected contract length 24 Months in total. Initial 12 months then 12 months depending on business need and performance
Location London
Organisation the work is for Her Majesty’s Passport Office
Maximum day rate In the region of £750

About the work

Early market engagement
Who the specialist will work with They will work as part of a Technical Design Authority who are responsible for specific domains.

They will need to collaborate closely with delivery teams and business stakeholders across the enterprise in a multi-supplier environment.

HMPO is moving from a large outsourced SI arrangement to an in-house, largely cloud based and open source based solutions delivered iteratively.
What the specialist will work on 1 – Lead cloud architect on the migration to our strategic platform. Designing and documenting secure solutions at a logical and physical level
2. Design new capabilities for Cloud Platform (inc BYOD, Containerisation,I Pipeline Improvements, CSOC, HA),. Including identifying and utilising native AWS services (new and existing)
3. Working closely with teams to ensure the infrastructure meets HMPO needs in terms of build and deployed services and capability
4. Lead design and automation of components or layers of the infrastructure by the team ensuing they are scalable, resilient, open, efficient, secure, and cost-effective.

Work setup

Address where the work will take place Central London
Working arrangements Typically on-site with wider team and clients in an Agile environment. Some site visits. Use of Confluence, Jira and ardoq are the tools used to track progress against deliverables
Security clearance ‘SC Clearance is required. HM Passport Office will support the clearance process’

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
  • Proven track record of migrating and architecting in a hybrid environments, migrating from data centres to Cloud (AWS) and networking in these hybrid environment
  • Very good knowledge and experience designing logical and physical solutions on AWS using AWS services and microservice architecture. This must involve security adopting security best practise on AWS
  • Proven experience working in containerised environments using Kubernetes and surrounding ecosystem: Docker, Helm, KOPS etc..
  • Well versed in variety of tools and environments Linux, Relational and non-relational Databases, Monitoring systems, Queueing systems, LDAP, IDAM, Hashicorp products: Vault, Consul, Packer
  • Experience working with WAN Networks, Excellent knowledge of Network protocols & tools. Experience with Network security, firewalls, intrusion detections systems,traffic management & all other aspects of running enterprise Network environment
  • Good understanding/ experience with DevOps tools, culture and automation (terraform, puppet, ansible, scripting, Jenkin). And development workflows, CI and other open source tools
  • AWS Solution Architect Professional certification
Nice-to-have skills and experience
  • Experience of HMPO systems or similar government operational systems
  • Experience of GDS best practices

How suppliers will be evaluated

How many specialists to evaluate 3
Cultural fit criteria
  • Work as a team with our organisation and other suppliers
  • Be transparent and collaborative
  • Be comfortable standing up for their discipline
  • Have a no-blame culture and take responsibility for their work
Assessment methods
  • Work history
  • Interview
Evaluation weighting

Technical competence

65%

Cultural fit

15%

Price

20%

Questions asked by suppliers

1. Could you confirm if there is a current incumbent and if so will they be applying? There is no incumbent in post. This is a new role.
2. Is this engagement outside of IR35 We expect this engagement to be outside IR35, however status is assessed on a case-by-case basis.
3. Hi, would there be any flexibility of remote working and onsite working? Yes on occasion. Remote working is by exception and only with Project Manager’s agreement.
4. Will you support the SC process? Thanks HMPO will support the SC Clearance process.
5. What is the job title of the person/s reviewing the suppliers responses? Technical Architect / Lead Data Architect
6. One of the key skills and experiences below:
Experience working with WAN Networks, Excellent knowledge of Network protocols & tools. Experience with Network security, firewalls, intrusion detections systems,traffic management & all other aspects of running enterprise Network environment
Is this supposed to be two separate bullet points please? 		No - this is one bullet point
7. Please can you confirm full address Globe House
89 Eccleston Square
London
SW1V 1PN