Digital and Technology Infrastructure Services Manager

Job Overview

Salary: £57,303

Contract Type: Permanent

Grade: G / Grade 7

Closing Date: 15th April 2026 at midnight

About Us

The National Archives (TNA) is the official archive of the UK government and one of the world’s leading centres for historical, digital and cultural knowledge. Based in Kew, it preserves and provides access to over 11 million records spanning more than 1,000 years of national history – from Domesday Book to modern digital government files. As a non-ministerial department, it plays a vital role in democracy, transparency, and the preservation of national memory.

TNA Delivers High Impact Services Across Five Core Areas:

• Public engagement, including reading rooms, exhibitions, education programmes and nationwide outreach that open history to everyone.
• Government services, advising departments on records management, digital preservation, and transparency, while operating key platforms such as: Legislation.gov.uk, Find Case Law, Public Enquiries, UK Government Web Archive.
• Research and academic support, acting as an Independent Research Organisation and collaborating with universities on archival science, digital preservation, data analysis, and historical research.
• Digital services, providing global online access to over 9 million digitised records through platforms like Discovery, digitisation programmes, and a cloud based digital preservation system.
• Commercial and specialist services, including licensing, publishing, consultancy, conservation expertise and partnerships that extend the impact of the national collection.

A recognised leader in innovation, TNA is pioneering the use of artificial intelligence in areas such as digital appraisal, sensitivity review, handwritten text recognition, named entity recognition and visual search – all aimed at improving access, efficiency and public value. Its vision is to build a “living, digital archive” for the future, combining traditional archival expertise with cutting edge technology.

Working at The National Archives means joining a purpose driven organisation where heritage, technology and public service meet. Staff contribute to safeguarding the nation’s story while shaping new ways for people to discover and use it. It is an inclusive, forward thinking environment offering opportunities to innovate, collaborate with experts across disciplines, and make a lasting difference to how society understands its past and prepares for its future.

The Infrastructure team resides within the innovative and progressive Digital and Technology Directorate and is embedded in a major and exciting three year legacy displacement programme. The directorate is a welcoming group of over 100 multidisciplinary professionals, all focused on building, delivering and supporting secure, modern and efficient digital and technology services.

This role leads the infrastructure team with responsibility for the design, implementation, administration and support of infrastructure and digital solutions and services and the effective deployment of resources.

About The Role

We are looking for an accomplished Digital and Technology Infrastructure Services Manager to join us and lead a team of engineers and their workload. You'll mentor, coach and help develop the team as well as work-load manage business as usual with projects.

This is a great opportunity for you to apply your broad skills across a range of systems and services and to provide technical leadership, working collaboratively with key stakeholders and external parties in supporting and working closely with Digital and Technology teams, security advisors and senior management to provide solutions design, expertise and assurance to projects and programmes.

You will help develop and maintain Digital and Technology infrastructure and platform policies and procedures, and work with senior management to develop the cyber security strategy.

SC-level Security Clearance or willingness to obtain SC clearance is mandatory for this role and requires that you have lived in the UK for the last 3 years. The length of required residency may depend on individual circumstances.

About You

We are looking for a self-motivated and enthusiastic senior manager who will play a major role in the delivery of Digital and Technology services, from legacy system improvements / replacements through to digital and IT transformation. You will work closely with the various Digital teams and the Cyber Security team to design, create and improve new and existing products and services and you will work with business users, delivery teams and suppliers to identify and resolve issues and user needs.

You must have very good, broad experience and knowledge of working in a Digital and Technology support environment using a variety of tools to support the management and delivery of production services. You should have experience across all IT service delivery activities including service management, incident management, change management, release management, configuration management, continual service improvement and customer satisfaction as well as playing a role in ensuring the highest levels of operational service delivery.

A key part of this role is core infrastructure lifecycle management, ensuring clear and effective roadmaps and taking responsibility for their upgrades or replacements as required. Aligned with this is working with partners to help deliver the service and contract management of these third parties, including support and maintenance contract renewals. The role incorporates budget responsibility for the infrastructure and associated services, working alongside Finance and Procurement colleagues on renewals and supplier performance management.

In addition to the activities outlined above, you must have people management experience to lead a team of infrastructure engineers, delivering a range of IT services.

Key Responsibilities

Service Leadership & Operations

• Lead and manage IT infrastructure services, acting as the senior escalation point for significant incidents, problems and changes.
• Ensure infrastructure services are operationally stable, secure and supportable, with appropriate monitoring, reporting and continuous improvement.
• Balance day‑to‑day operational needs with longer‑term planning and service evolution.

Technical Strategy & Assurance

• Lead the design, implementation and lifecycle management of infrastructure technologies and strategy, including: Compute, storage and networking, Physical and virtualised platforms, Cloud services (IaaS, PaaS and SaaS), Commercial off‑the‑shelf (COTS) and open‑source solutions.
• Provide technical leadership and assurance, ensuring solutions align with organisational standards, security requirements and industry best practice.
• Own and maintain infrastructure technology roadmaps, reflecting both legacy platforms and future cloud‑based services.
• Own and maintain all relevant support and maintenance contracts including renewals and licensing for all IT services and systems – liaising with and leading Procurement and Finance colleagues regarding IT Infrastructure budgets, renewals and tendering processes.

Change, Projects & Improvement

• Lead infrastructure input into projects and programmes, influencing design decisions and ensuring non‑functional requirements (availability, resilience, security, performance) are met.
• Take a lead role in the implementation of infrastructure change, ensuring appropriate governance, change control and stakeholder engagement.
• Identify and progress opportunities for service improvement, simplification and modernisation, working closely with architects and delivery teams.

People Management & Capability

• Line manage and develop a team of infrastructure engineers, providing: Clear direction and priorities, Performance management and coaching, Support for skills development and modern ways of working.
• Create an environment where teams can adapt to changing priorities, new technologies and evolving service models.

Security, Risk & Assurance

• Work closely with the Cyber Security team and individuals to ensure infrastructure services comply with security policies and controls.
• Support and coordinate internal and external audits, addressing findings and reducing risk.
• Contribute to business continuity and disaster recovery planning, including engagement with suppliers and stakeholders.

Supplier & Stakeholder Management

• Lead engagement with external suppliers, ensuring services deliver value, resilience and contractual compliance.
• Act as a trusted infrastructure advisor to internal stakeholders, influencing and persuading to align with organisational needs.
• Represent IT Operations on infrastructure matters with internal and external partners.

Corporate Contribution

• Manage workload, priorities and budgets to ensure delivery against agreed plans.
• Be available for scheduled releases or major changes where required.
• Deputise for the Head of IT as appropriate.
• Undertake other duties consistent with the role.

Person Specification

Essential Criteria

• Significant experience leading and assuring IT infrastructure services across on‑premise and cloud environments
• Strong understanding of information security principles and controls
• Proven experience of line management and developing technical teams
• Ability to influence, negotiate and make decisions with confidence
• Strong communication skills, able to engage senior stakeholders, technical specialists and suppliers
• Analytical and problem‑solving capability, with sound judgement in complex situations

Desirable Criteria

• Relevant professional certifications (e.g. Microsoft, HPE, Cisco)
• IT‑related degree or equivalent experience
• Experience of cloud migration and service transformation, including Microsoft 365, Azure and AWS

Benefits

You will be based in a beautiful setting by the River Thames in Kew with staff parking and good transport links. An opportunity to work a hybrid working pattern. A comprehensive benefits scheme including a generous Civil Service pension, a subsidised on-site coffee shop and restaurant, season ticket loans, on-site gym and clubs. 25 days leave rising incrementally to 30 days after six years (plus 10.5 days public and privilege holidays each year). Excellent training and development opportunities tailored to your role and an agreed development plan. Influencing the strategic objectives and the opportunity to define, design and implement improvements. An opportunity to use or learn a wide range of skills.

This is a full time post. However, requests for part-time working, flexible working and job share will be considered, taking into account at all times the operational needs of the Department.

A combination of onsite and home working is available and applicants should be able to regularly travel to our Kew site for a minimum of 60% of their work time.

Application Process

Interviews: Interviews will be held onsite, no earlier than week commencing 4th May

Applications: You will be asked to provide answers to 5 questions relating to the key requirements for the role, and to provide your work history. Artificial Intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please visit the Civil Service Careers website where you can find further information on the use of AI in the application guidance section.

Sponsorship: We are unable to offer sponsorship for this role.

Key skills/competency

• Digital Infrastructure Management
• Technology Services Leadership
• IT Service Delivery
• Cyber Security Strategy
• Cloud Services Management
• Team Leadership
• Budget Management
• Stakeholder Engagement
• Risk Management
• Project Assurance