NHS England

Senior Systems Engineer

The closing date is 06 October 2025

Job summary

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

Main duties of the job

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.

About us

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.

Details

Date posted

22 September 2025

Pay scheme

Agenda for change

Band

Band 8a

Salary

£62,929 to £70,830 a year pa includes a RRP payment of 13% (excluding London weighting)

Contract

Fixed term

Duration

10 months

Working pattern

Full-time, Job share, Flexible working

Reference number

990-TD-P&P-17533-E

Job locations

Any NHSE Office

Nationally

LS1 4PL


Job description

Job responsibilities

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 Job Description 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.

Job description

Job responsibilities

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 Job Description 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.

Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

  • Qualified to Masters degree level in a suitable technical, scientific or mathematical subject (or equivalent experience)

Experience

Essential

  • Infrastructure / application development experience
  • Experience working across all layers of the stack including application, infrastructure, CI/CD, testing, monitoring and alerting etc.
  • Working within a team to deliver software in a collaborative way

Knowledge and skills

Essential

  • Implementing quality-focussed development practices
  • Evidence using appropriate testing techniques
Person Specification

Qualifications

Essential

  • Qualified to Masters degree level in a suitable technical, scientific or mathematical subject (or equivalent experience)

Experience

Essential

  • Infrastructure / application development experience
  • Experience working across all layers of the stack including application, infrastructure, CI/CD, testing, monitoring and alerting etc.
  • Working within a team to deliver software in a collaborative way

Knowledge and skills

Essential

  • Implementing quality-focussed development practices
  • Evidence using appropriate testing techniques

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

Certificate of Sponsorship

Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).

From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).

Additional information

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

Certificate of Sponsorship

Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).

From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).

Employer details

Employer name

NHS England

Address

Any NHSE Office

Nationally

LS1 4PL


Employer's website

https://www.england.nhs.uk/about/working-for/ (Opens in a new tab)


Employer details

Employer name

NHS England

Address

Any NHSE Office

Nationally

LS1 4PL


Employer's website

https://www.england.nhs.uk/about/working-for/ (Opens in a new tab)


Employer contact details

For questions about the job, contact:

Consultant Systems Engineer

Andrew Blundell

england.engineering@nhs.net

Details

Date posted

22 September 2025

Pay scheme

Agenda for change

Band

Band 8a

Salary

£62,929 to £70,830 a year pa includes a RRP payment of 13% (excluding London weighting)

Contract

Fixed term

Duration

10 months

Working pattern

Full-time, Job share, Flexible working

Reference number

990-TD-P&P-17533-E

Job locations

Any NHSE Office

Nationally

LS1 4PL


Supporting documents

Privacy notice

NHS England's privacy notice (opens in a new tab)