JOB DETAILS
ROLE: Senior Operations Engineer (Infrastructure)
JOB BAND: D
CONTRACT TYPE: Full-time / Permanent
DEPARTMENT: BBC Technology and Media Operations
LOCATION: Pacific Quay, Glasgow
PROPOSED SALARY RANGE: Up to £62,250 depending on relevant skills, knowledge and experience. The expected salary range for this role reflects internal benchmarking and external market insights.
Purpose of the Role
As a Senior Operations Engineer (Infrastructure) at the BBC, you’ll be at the heart of the systems that keep our broadcasting on air. Your role is vital in ensuring the reliability, security, and performance of the infrastructure and platforms behind our creative output. You’ll manage and optimise core systems, troubleshoot complex issues, and deliver robust solutions to keep services resilient and scalable. Beyond day-to-day operations, you’ll help drive automation and cloud adoption and play a key role in shaping the future of broadcasting.
Why Join the Team
Join BBC Scotland’s Engineering team at Pacific Quay, Glasgow, supporting TV and radio output across Scotland. You’ll work with engineers nationwide to keep these services on‑air and online.
Our team is high‑performing yet relaxed—supportive, approachable, and genuinely fun to work with. If you share the BBC’s mission and want to help shape its future, we’d love to have you on board.
Key Responsibilities And Impact
* Manage Core Infrastructure
Oversee BBC Scotland’s server and storage estate (physical, virtual, and cloud). Perform upgrades, manage resources, and ensure robust monitoring and high availability.
* Administer Team Tooling and Drive Automation
Manage the team’s core tools, including monitoring (CheckMK), configuration management (Ansible), and automation (Rundeck), as well as password manager and remote access solutions. Contribute to defining future tooling requirements and identifying opportunities for automation.
* Incident Response and Recovery
Respond to service disruptions affecting broadcast‑critical systems, record actions accurately, and implement measures to prevent recurrence.
* Monitor and Support Broadcast Systems
Use diverse monitoring tools to identify and resolve complex issues across broadcast and IT platforms.
* Communicate and Collaborate
Explain technical information clearly to technical and non‑technical audiences. Act as a point of contact during post‑incident reviews.
* Develop Team Capability
Deliver training plans and provide guidance on IT and systems best practices.
Essential Criteria
* Extensive hands‑on experience administering and configuring enterprise virtualisation and storage platforms — including VMware vSphere/ESXi, vCenter, Storenext, and Dell PowerStore. Candidates must have experience performing advanced configuration, system build‑outs, upgrades, performance tuning, and troubleshooting — not just operational monitoring.
* Strong, practical experience managing and configuring Linux and Windows Server environments, ideally using Infrastructure as Code (IaC) tools such as Ansible, PowerShell DSC, or similar. Candidates must be comfortable automating server builds, patching, configuration, and compliance controls, as well as managing key enterprise services (AD, DNS, DHCP, networking components).
* Proficiency with enterprise monitoring and alerting platforms, including the ability to configure thresholds, interpret telemetry, and proactively prevent incidents.
* Demonstrated ability to diagnose and resolve complex infrastructure issues under pressure, including experience with high‑availability clusters, failover systems, and disaster recovery workflows.
* Ability to produce clear, detailed technical documentation and communicate complex system behaviours effectively across engineering teams, operational stakeholders, and editorial users.
Desired (not Required)
* Familiarity with automation tools such as Ansible and Rundeck, and scripting for infrastructure management.
* Knowledge of cloud platforms and hybrid infrastructure environments.
* Knowledge of networking in audio/video environments—familiarity with IP audio/video, streaming protocols, and networked media systems.
* Experience in media or creative environments—exposure to broadcast, production, or post‑production workflows.
Additional Information
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.
Contact
For any general queries, please contact: bbchr@bbc.co.uk
Redeployment
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.
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