About us

We are the Equality and Human Rights Commission. We are Great Britain’s national equality body and a United Nations accredited National Human Rights Institution. We were established by the Equality Act 2006 and our role is to protect and promote equality and human rights across England, Scotland and Wales. As a statutory non-departmental public body, we are funded by HM Treasury via the Cabinet Office, but we operate independently of governments.

We pride ourselves on being a flexible and inclusive employer. We celebrate difference, embrace diversity and support all our people to thrive at work. If this sounds interesting - apply to join us!

Our Vacancy

Performing a key leadership role in the ICT Team, the Principal: Lead Infrastructure Engineer will lead the design and implementation of our technology strategy, by championing ICT change and digital transformation as we increase our utilisation and reliance on cloud platforms and services. This is an exciting, yet rewarding, role directly responsible for delivering technology change which will enable our people to have access to the right digital tools in a modern hybrid working setting.

This role is an opportunity to lead our ongoing realisation of the benefits in cloud-hosted technology platforms for a high profile UK regulator. You will use your specialist skills and experience to provide effective technical leadership, working as part of a friendly, enthusiastic and technically focussed team. You will possess a broad and deep technical knowledge and demonstrable experience across our service portfolio, including Microsoft-centric technologies (cloud and premises), endpoint management, cyber and information security.

You will work closely with our senior leadership team and the wider business community to contribute effectively to the ongoing development and improvement of IT transformation so that we can deliver on the commitments we have made in our technology strategy and corporate improvement plans, ensuring projects and changes are delivered on time, to budget and0020quality standards.

You will deputise for the Head of ICT Transformation, manage your own direct reports, coach, and mentor others, and where required, and use your experience and knowledge to provide technical support to ICT service requests, incidents and problems.

Whilst the work will be varied across a broad range of technology products and services, in the first two years the focus of this role will be the leadership and delivery of our cloud transformation projects.

Key Responsibilities

• Implementation of ICT technology change and transformation, through the application of good people and leadership skills and a broad and deep knowledge and experience of applicable IT technologies.

• Acting in the capacity of technical design authority for the EHRC, working closely with our appointed partners and internal stakeholders to deliver robust changes on time and to cost and quality standards.

• Being an advocate for change and working with all internal groups to ensure they are able to realise the benefits from new services, and finding creating solutions to business problems where possible.

• Playing a key role in incident management and problem resolution, tackling complex issues and seeking out opportunities to proactively improve the service we offer and to get best value for money from our online platforms and entitlements.

• Managing some of our biggest contracts and those which present the highest cost and reward, ensuring suppliers meet their performance and service level obligations.

What we are looking for

• Knowledge of managing and maintaining Microsoft technologies including Microsoft 365 services, Windows Server, Active Directory and SQL databases services.

• Knowledge of IP networking and routing and IT security best practices.

• Knowledge of virtual infrastructure platforms, including premises and cloud.

• Proven analytical and problem solving skills, with the ability to research and evaluate issues and make sound recommendations for improvements.

• Ability to produce concise and accurate technical documentation, translating technical issues into simple descriptions for technical and non-technical audiences.

• Awareness of relevant legislation, including the Data Protection Act, the Freedom of Information Act and the Computer Misuse Act.

You will be assessed against our core skills (Leadership, Delivery Management and Stakeholder Engagement) and the knowledge, skills and experience required for the role in the application form. Please provide evidence and examples from your work history or other aspects of your life to demonstrate how you meet the criteria required. Full criteria details can be found in the candidate pack.

Important Information

Currently we are trialling hybrid working, which is where an employee works part of the week in their EHRC office and part of the week from home. This is a voluntary, non-contractual arrangement and your office will be your contractual place of work. The number of days that anyone will be able to work at home will be determined primarily by business need. If you are successful, any opportunities for hybrid working, including whether a hybrid working arrangement is suitable for this role or for yourself, will be discussed with you prior to you taking up your post.

Benefits

In addition to a competitive salary, we offer a range of benefits including flexible working patterns, 30 days annual leave plus 8 bank holidays (full time FTE), access to the Civil Service Pension Scheme and partnership pension schemes, and enhanced parental leave benefits. More information can be found in the candidate pack.

How to apply

If this sounds like the role for you, please review the attached Candidate Pack for more information and submit your application today!

Guaranteed Interview Scheme

The Equality and Human Rights Commission is an accredited Disability Confident Leader and operates a Guaranteed Interview Scheme (GIS) for candidates with a disability.

Should you wish to apply under our Guaranteed Interview Scheme or request a reasonable adjustment, please indicate this in your application.  

If you require an alternative accessible version of the application form or wish to discuss your application or reasonable adjustment  – please contact us by email at recruitment@equalityhumanrights.com or by telephone on 0161 829 8100.

Diversity in our workforce

At the Commission, we are proud of our inclusive workplace where we celebrate difference, value everyone’s contribution and where people of all backgrounds can thrive.  We do not accept discrimination or harassment, and all our recruitment decisions are based on fair and open competition, with appointment on merit. We are committed to further growing our workplace by making sure that the talent pipelines for our most senior roles are as diverse and inclusive as they can be. We welcome applications from everyone and encourage disabled people and people from an ethnic minority background to apply. This is to ensure we are taking positive action in order to achieve our legitimate aim of a balanced representation in our workforce at senior grades.