Senior Operations Engineer

JOB BAND: D
CONTRACT TYPE: 10 Month Fixed-term Contract/Attachment, Full Time
DEPARTMENT: Media Operations
LOCATION: Salford
PROPOSED SALARY RANGE: Up to £61,000 depending on relevant skills, knowledge and experience. The expected salary range for this role reflects internal benchmarking and external market insights.

We're happy to discuss flexible working. If you'd like to, please indicate your preference in the application - though there's no obligation to do so now. Flexible working will be part of the discussion at offer stage.

PURPOSE OF THE ROLE

Join the BBC's Digital 24/7 Operations team and play a key role in keeping BBC Online running smoothly for millions of users every day. From iPlayer and Sounds to News, Sport, and Weather, our platforms sit at the heart of UK life, and our engineers ensure they stay reliable, resilient, and secure around the clock.

WHY JOIN THE TEAM

As a Senior Operations Engineer (SOE), you'll act as the senior technical escalation point within your shift, guiding colleagues, leading incident response, and maintaining the highest operational standards. You'll work closely with Operations Engineers and Team Leads, balancing hands on technical work with coordination and mentoring. This is an opportunity to make a tangible impact in one of the most trusted digital operations environments in the world.

We're looking for someone who can combine strong technical awareness with calm leadership and clear communication. You'll already have solid operational experience and be ready to take the next step in guiding others and shaping how we work.

YOUR KEY RESPONSIBILITIES AND IMPACT

• Lead technical incident response: Take ownership of complex or high-priority issues, guiding colleagues through resolution and coordinating across support teams.
• Coordinate the shift: Monitor workloads, distribute tickets fairly, and maintain awareness of all active alerts and escalations.
• Mentor and support others: Provide day to day coaching, feedback, and technical guidance to Operations Engineers, promoting growth and confidence across the team.
• Drive service improvement: Identify opportunities for better processes, documentation, and tooling, raising and supporting improvements through to completion.
• Represent the team: Attend stand ups, bridge calls, and post incident reviews as the shift spokesperson, ensuring outcomes are shared back with the team.
• Champion best practice: Uphold standards in documentation, data integrity, and safety, setting the tone for consistency across shifts.
• Collaborate across disciplines: Work with editorial, broadcast, and product teams to maintain platform stability and support the BBC's content delivery ecosystem.

YOUR SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE ESSENTIAL CRITERIA

• Technical expertise - A strong understanding of modern operational environments (AWS Cloud and on prem), diagnostic tools, and service monitoring.
• Incident leadership - Proven ability to coordinate responses to live service issues, maintaining focus and clarity under pressure.
• Team guidance - Experience coaching or mentoring others, giving clear direction, and maintaining professionalism when challenged.
• Collaborative communication - Examples of engaging with diverse technical and non technical stakeholders, including senior leaders.
• Demonstrable continuous improvement mindset - Examples of proactive approaches to identifying and implementing service and process improvements.

If you can bring some of these skills and experience, along with transferable strengths, we'd love to hear from you and encourage you to apply.

Before your start date, you may need to disclose any unspent convictions or police charges, in line with our Contracts of Employment policy. This allows us to discuss any support you may need and assess any risks. Failure to disclose may result in the withdrawal of your offer.

Disclaimer

This job description is a written statement of the essential characteristics of the job, with its principal accountabilities, incorporating a note of the skills, knowledge and experience required for a satisfactory level of performance. This is not intended to be a complete, detailed account of all aspects of the duties involved.

Please note: If you were to be offered this role, the BBC will conduct Employment screening checks which include Reference checks; Eligibility to work checks; and if applicable to the role, Safeguarding and Adverse media/Social media checks. Any offer made is conditional on these checks being satisfactory.

The BBC is committed to redeploying employees seeking suitable alternative employment within the BBC and they will be given priority consideration ahead of other applicants. Priority consideration means for those employees seeking redeployment their application will be considered alongside anyone else at risk of redundancy, prior to any individuals being considered who are not at risk.

Information at a Glance

This is your BBC

At the BBC you can create and innovate in an inclusive environment while contributing to some of the world's best loved content, and the BBC's mission to inform, educate and entertain.

Find out more about the BBC Life at BBC

• Fair pay and flexible benefits including a competitive salary package, a flexible 35 hour working week, 25 days annual leave with the option to buy an extra 5 days, a defined pension scheme and discounted dental, health care and gym.
• Excellent career and professional development.
• Support in your working life, including flexible working which you can discuss with us at any point during the application, selection or offer.
• A values based organization where the way we do things is important as what we do.

Benefits may vary if you are joining on an FTC basis.

Learn more about life at the BBC and our values in our candidate pack.

Candidate pack

You belong

We have a working environment where we value and respect every individual's unique contribution, so all our employees feel that they can belong, thrive and achieve their full potential.

We want to attract the broadest range of talented people to join us. The more diverse our workforce, the better able we are to respond to and reflect our audiences in all their diversity.

We welcome applications from individuals, regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, socio economic background, religion and/or belief.

Find out more about diversity, inclusion and belonging in our strategy below.

Diversity, inclusion & belonging strategy

Disability confident

We are a disability confident employer. If you need to discuss adjustments or access requirements for the interview process, or to carry out this role, please contact us via email and we'd be happy to discuss:

BBC Group and Public Services, Broadcasting House, Portland Place, London, United Kingdom, W1A 1AA. BBC Studios Distribution Limited, company no: , registered address: 1 Television Centre, 101 Wood Lane, London, United Kingdom W12 7FA.