Army Headquarters IAS - Infra Networks Solution Architect (ARMYHQ2/00190)

Tender description

Summary of the work The MOD requires a Infrastructure and Networks Technical Solutions Architect to work alongside a team of technical specialists in order to develop and maintain the Army's hosting environment and supporting infrastructure. Specialist role Technical Architect Expected Contract Length 220 days + option to extend 220 days Latest start date 31 March 2017 Maximum Day Rate £484.10 Early Market Engagement N/A Who Speclialist Work With The Specialist Company will be required to work with the Authority and other Suppliers to ensure coherent delivery of the services. The Specialist Company must have the necessary office facilities to support their own off-site working. It is anticipated that the Specialist Company will agree with the Authority to spend varying degrees of time located at the Authority’s site for face-to-face meetings and to carry out work of a security sensitive nature. What Specialists Work On 1. Architect design solutions, formulate estimates and provide design expertise for new, and enhancements to existing, Infrastructure and network services, based on the prioritised business requirements. 2. Produce and review relevant technical design documentation to support the Infrastructure, application platforms and networks. 3. Provide ad hoc support to troubleshoot problems with Infrastructure and Networks within all environments. 4. Produce network and infrastructure designs that comply with all Defence security and design standards. 5. Provide technical oversight for all IAS owned and managed infrastructure and networks. Skills & Experience • Exceptional proven recent experience in the provision of technical solutions within a large disparate organisation. • Minimum of 5 + Years recent experience working within a team of technical specialists providing design, installation and implementation of Data centres, DR sites, Remote access solutions and hosting. • 5 + Years recent experience as a Network Design Authority for large hosting environments or infrastructure projects. • Extensive recent expert knowledge and experience with HP Proliant compute hardware, HP 3PAR storage systems and Cisco adaptive security appliances and switches. • Proven recent experience of design and delivery of a Data Diode solution from low to high trust domains. • Knowledge and demonstrated experience of delivering and managing PKI solutions within a highly secure environment. • Expert knowledge and experience delivering secure VPN solutions using high grade crypto. e.g. L3 TRL Technology based solutions. • Minimum 2+ years design and implementation experience of VMware NSX-v within a secure environment. • Proven demonstrable experience in delivering accreditable infrastructure and networks solutions. • Proven experience of providing network and infrastructure support to enable the delivery of an SIEM based solutions e.g. ArcSight. • Extensive recent demonstrable experience of delivering secure multi-tier hosting platforms based on both Windows and Linux operating systems into secure SDDC based environments. • Recent in depth knowledge and demonstrable experience of delivering solutions that include VMware NSX-v, SRM and vCloud suite. • Experience designing and configuring solutions based on Cisco ASA, Source Fire IPDS and Cisco Nexus 5k and 7k security and networking technologies. • Experience installing, configuring and running wan QoS technologies e.g. Bluecoat Packet shapers • Experience using WAN emulation technologies e.g. Shunra Appliances Nice to Haves • Previous experience of working within a secure Defence Environment. • Previous knowledge and understanding of working within a DevOps/Agile environment. • Working knowledge of ITIL v3. • Working Knowledge of wider defence systems and services. • Crypto-Authorised with knowledge and experience designing solutions incorporating High grade crypto. Work Location The place of delivery of the contract shall be at such location as agreed between the Specialist Company and the Authority. Working Arrangments The Specialist company shall use its own initiative as to the manner in which services are to be delivered; for the avoidance of doubt, the Specialist Company shall not be supervised, directed or controlled regarding how the services are delivered. The Specialist Company shall use its own equipment where security requirements permit. The Specialist Company is expected to provide the services on such hours/days as required to meet any deadlines, as agreed between the Specialist Company and the Authority. The Specialist Company shall provide the necessary resources to support the Services which shall include one or more specialists. Security Clearance Developed Vetting (DV) Security Clearance will be required for the duration of the role. Incumbents are to follow both the letter and spirit of Army Headquarters security regulations. Additional T&Cs These MOD DEFCONs form part of this Call Off Contract: 5J (Edn 18/11/16) Unique Identifiers 76 (Edn 12/06) Contractors on site 129J (Edn 18/11/16) Electronic business Delivery Form 516 (Edn 04/12) Equality 520 (Edn 18/11/16) Corrupt gifts and payments of commission 522 (Edn 18/11/16) Payment and Recovery of Sums Due 531 (Edn 11/14) Disclosure of Information 534 (Edn 18/11/16) Subcontracting and Prompt Payment 566 (Edn 07/14) Change of control contractor 642 (Edn 06/14) Progress meetings The following DEFFORMS will be used: 111 Appendix - Addresses And Other Information 10 Acceptance Of Offer Of Contract No. of Specialists to Evaluate 3 Cultural Fit Criteria • Work as a team within our organisation and other suppliers. • Transparent & collaborative when making decisions. • Has a no-blame culture and encourages people to learn from their mistakes. • Previous experience of working within a Defence environment • No commercial allegiance to any technology vendor Evaluation Weighting Technical competence 75% Cultural fit 5% Price 20% Questions from Suppliers 1. What is the maximum number of resources we could submit as part of this application Each supplier can submit no more than 1 candidate per job role. 2. What is the lead time for feedback following the application submission The lead-time can take up to approximately 4 days. This allows us time to assess the applications and inform each supplier. 3. Will IR35 apply to this role? Having applied the HMRC online employment status assessment tool, the working practices of this engagement are shown to fall outside the scope of the intermediaries legislation (IR35). 4. What is the IR35 Status Having applied the HMRC online employment status assessment tool, the working practices of this engagement are shown to fall outside the scope of the intermediaries legislation (IR35). 5. Where is the location? Army Headquarters - Andover 6. From 6th April, responsibility for determining if an assignment is within IR35 will shift to the Public Sector organisation. We need to understand the client’s decision on the status of each contract assignment (including extensions) under IR35 and whether a new contractor assignment is deemed ‘Inside’ or ‘Outside’ of IR35 at the beginning of the recruitment process for hiring a contractor. There is an HMRC status portal available to help determine the status but we do require you to post a response as to whether the role is ‘inside’ or ‘outside’. The Authority has undertaken the HMRC IR35 on-line assessment for this role, producing a result stating that the intermediaries legislation does not apply to this engagement. Results will be provided to the winning Supplier. 7. The role is being addressed as South West, is there any specifics about work location and what the arrangements are required? Army Headquarters – Andover 8. Are all the essential skills truly essential if we can provide an individual at a competitive day rate that has the majority of essential and desirable skills? The day rate is essential for the Commercial evaluation and the essential skills are essential to the technical evaluation. Both of these elements are what’s used in order to produce a combined final score.