RHEL Senior Engineer

Tender description

Summary of the work Technical planning and execution of the completion of the migration of automation from Puppet to Ansible, including Satellite Technical planning of the implementation of new servers and the migration of service from the old servers to the new Assisting in implementation of the replacement Fibre Fabric Specialist role Developer Expected Contract Length 6 months with the possibility of up to 6 months' extension Latest start date Monday 11 October 2021 Maximum Day Rate £650 + VAT per day Early Market Engagement The National Archives has procured replacement servers which support the service, and needs to have these implemented, upgrading from RHEL 6 to RHEL 8, and migrating management/automation from Puppet and Satellite to Ansible and Satellite. A study has already been undertaken by consultants from Red Hat, who have undertaken some initial migration and implementation, but assistance is required to complete this work. Who Speclialist Work With The Senior RHEL specialist will report to the Service Owner of Digital Archiving Infrastructure and will work with the existing staff engineers and the Project Manager to complete the implementation of new servers and the migration from RHEL 6/Puppet to RHEL 8/Ansible, using Satellite. What Specialists Work On In collaboration with the team, work on the migration of legacy servers running Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 6 to new servers running RHEL 8 within the Digital Archiving department. This will include: Understanding current architecture of the technology stack and servers Leading on migration of the existing Puppet-enabled automation under RHEL6 to Ansible under RHEL Upgrading the service to RHEL 8, with a possibility of certain servers only moving to RHEL 7 Implementing approximately 24 new physical servers as part of the migration, with some virtualisation Mentoring team members and engagement with non-technical staff, and internal and external stakeholders Skills & Experience • Demonstrable deep experience of RHEL versions 6, 7 and 8 • Demonstrable deep experience of the design and implementation of Satellite • Demonstrable deep experience of current and recent versions of Ansibl • A demonstrable hands on understanding of Puppet • Demonstrable experience of server upgrade and migration • Demonstrable experience of server virtualisation • Demonstrable experience of application deployment • Demonstrable experience of the deployment and management of full stack environments including test environments • Demonstrable experience of testing • Demonstrable experience of working with Fibre Fabrics (not necessarily as a SAN specialist) • Strong track record in building significant IT systems or digital services successfully • Team leadership experience Nice to Haves • Experience of working within GDS standards and best practice • Experience of working in the public sector • Knowledge of SAN technologies • Knowledge of archival storage of digital records Work Location The National Archives UK, Kew, TW9 4DU https://tinyurl.com/yyzk83qo Working Arrangments Full time 5 days a week. The Digital Archiving Infrastructure team is located at The National Archives in Kew, Surrey. Whilst under pandemic restrictions, working arrangements are from home. It is expected that as pandemic restrictions are lifted work will be on a hybrid pattern of work at home and in the office as required, on a roughly 50/50 basis. All expenses must be included in the quoted rate. Security Clearance SC required No. of Specialists to Evaluate 6 Cultural Fit Criteria • Work as a team with our organisation and external partners / suppliers • Be transparent and collaborative when making decisions • Have a no-blame culture and encourage people to learn from their mistakes • Take responsibility for their work • Share knowledge and experience with other team members • Can work with colleagues with less technical expertise Assessment Method • Reference • Interview Evaluation Weighting Technical competence 65% Cultural fit 15% Price 20% Questions from Suppliers 1. Is there any incumbent? No. 2. Is this inside IR35? We have checked the role requirements (to the best of our knowledge) using the assessment tool found at https://www.gov.uk/guidance/check-employment-status-for-tax and the determination for the role(s) as advertised is that the intermediaries legislation does apply to this engagement. 3. Could you please provide breakdown of further stages with dates? When exactly the final decision would be made? Our anticipated timetable is as follows:Scoring of all responses to produce shortlist for interview by 20 September 2021.Interviews held week commencing 27 September 2021.Award decision by end of day on 1 October 2021.Contract negotiations to conclude in time for 11 October 2021 start.