IPO’s Government, Digital and Data Profession
High-Performing, with Skilled People Connected by Shared Purpose
Working at the Intellectual Property Office
IPO is a place that is friendly, supportive and full of talented people. Join our high-performing team of skilled professionals united by purpose.
Learn about what it is like to work at the Intellectual Property Office (IPO).
Join the IPO via our Future Talent Schemes!
If you’re passionate about shaping the future of technology and the Intellectual Property Office and want to work in a supportive, forward thinking environment, we’d love to have you onboard.
Keep an eye out for our next recruitment round in the IPO’s Digital, Data & Technology division!
IPO’s Digital, Data & Technology Future Talent Scheme
Hear from our Chief Digital Data and Technology Officer, Sian-Nia Davies, as she talks about some of the exciting opportunities for you to join one of our Future Talent Schemes in our Digital Data and Technology (DDAT) department.
Insights from some of the IPO’s Senior Leadership Team
Dave Prew
Principal Architect
“Personal development is one of the team’s core principles, we positively encourage the team to take time out for training and to develop their skills for the future.
My team are pivotal in the delivery and success of all technical deliveries in the IPO. Your input can directly make a difference to the entire IPO.”
Dave heads up the IPO’s Architecture, Engineering & Common Tech Teams. His team covers a wide scope of the DDaT space and is at the forefront of the OneIPO Transformation program.
Nick Curry
Head of IT Service Management
“A person working within ITSM has a chance to make a positive and tangible difference to the working days of IPO colleagues as well as working as part of larger project teams enabling delivery of new systems.
Automation and AI are now becoming a big part of the working day of ITSM staff as they understand the challenges and benefits of AI embedded tools.”
Nick works as part of the IPO’s IT directorate where he looks after our IT Service Management (ITSM) function.
Jo Burrows
Head of Platforms & Programme Tech Lead
“I feel privileged to work with a fantastic team of technical engineers who are passionate about delivering high-quality IT solutions. We are all about doing things the right way. This means constantly aiming to exceed industry standards and coming up with innovative solutions that support our organisation.”
Jo has been with the IPO just over 10 years and has worked across several roles in DDaT. Jo’s current team is built on collaboration, integrity and passion for continuous growth.
Steve Dadswell
Head of Strategic Programme Oversight
“Team culture is really important and comes through from each team in a slightly different way. There is pride in their professions, humour and support (and lots of cakes!). Most of our area work in multidisciplinary delivery teams or squads, so most day to day work is done outside of their ‘home team’ which makes the sessions together even more important, to support, challenge, share best practice, get advice, peer review etc.”
Steve looks after our Business Analysts, Interaction and Content Designers, Existing Systems, Delivery Managers and Tech planning.
Learning, Development, and Career Progression
Pluralsight
Pluralsight is an online learning platform where you can find thousands of video courses, interactive courses, webinars and much more. The Pluralsight platform provides a wide range of courses on any technical topic, from software development to data processing, cybersecurity, etc. Courses on the platform are created by more than 1,500 industry experts and partners (Google, Adobe, Oracle, Microsoft, etc.)
Microsoft Enterprise Skills Initiative
The Microsoft Enterprise Skills Initiative (ESI) provides hands-on training for learning and enhancing technical skills and knowledge of Microsoft and Azure technologies. It offers interactive courses, role-based training curriculums, and Microsoft Certifications in a platform that is accessible by participating organizations.
Talent and Learning Team
Our Talent and Learning team support staff with appropriate learning opportunities to enhance career development. They deliver all our central corporate training and collaborate officewide to support Directorate specific learning. Additionally, each directorate has a training budget available for profession-specific training and qualifications
As an organisation we:
- Encourage our people to seek out appropriate Learning & Development
- Support you in doing so by setting aside time for development
- Work with you to ensure you have the opportunity to put this learning into practice
Learning & Development can be formal or informal. For example, informal L&D could take the form of peer mentoring or job shadowing with colleagues. Formal L&D is available through recognised training courses and workshops.
Our department has a training budget to enable us to purchase technical courses online or in person.
This includes:
- courses,
- exams
- and books.
Any request supported by a business case will be considered within budgetary limits. DDaT also has a contracted relationship with QA as a training provider.
Here at the IPO we’ve always placed great value in the development of our staff, with a large training and development budget in place to ensure skills are kept up to date and aspirations attainable. The relentless pace of change in the technology arena means this mindset is even more important within our IT, or DDaT, Directorate.
With this investment in training and development in mind, it makes sense to protect that investment and give our IT Professionals the incentive to stick around. Part of that incentive comes in the form of a clear and well-structured progression process, helping to provide well-defined career paths through our extensive range of IT roles.
Future Talent
A solid progression process providing excellent career development options also helps to attract ambitious talent into schemes such as our:
- ‘IT Graduates’ and
- ‘Code First Girls’ programmes.
We see this Future Talent as crucial to the ongoing success of the cutting-edge Digital Services we provide.
When is progression available?
With progression available on an ‘ad-hoc’ basis, you and your Line Manager are free to decide when you are ready to move your career to the next level. Progression is based on the Government Digital and Data Framework wherever possible, providing you with a clear structure to plan and develop your career.
Our IT Academy are dedicated to supporting our IT Professionals, on hand to help you with training and development, career progression and promotion. They are also great believers in the famous Richard Branson quote:
“Train people well enough so they can leave, treat them well enough so they don’t want to.”
With such a diverse range of roles within our DDaT Directorate, joining the IPO in a junior technical role gives you the opportunity to progress your career in the direction most suited to your skills and interests.
No vacancies at the moment
Non-exhaustive overview of IPO Technologies
| Infrastructure / General Technology | Software Development | DevOps – Infrastructure as Code, Containerisation & Pipeline Technologies | DevOps – Scripting & Coding |
|---|---|---|---|
| Microsoft 365 Palo Alto Cisco Juniper IBM | .NET C# Microsoft Azure Power Platform & Dynamics Selenium Visual Studio React Next.JS SQL SpecFlow | Microsoft Azure Azure DevOps Pipeline Terraform Docker Git PostMan SpecFlow JMeter Selenium | Python Bash PowerShell Next.JS / Node .NET Core / C# |
Overview of the roles within Digital, Data and Technology
Architecture & Engineering
Architecture
Architect
Technical Architect
Cloud Architect
Integration Architect
Digital Delivery
Developer
AI Engineer
Front End Developer
Natural Language Processing Developer
Computer Vision Developer
Dynamics Developer
Automation Test Engineer
End to End Test Engineer
Technical Governance
Governance Manager
IT Service Management
Asset Management
IT Asset Manager
DDaT Directorate Support and Governance
DDaT Directorate Support Officer
End User Computing
Infrastructure Engineer – End User Computing
End User Services
Engineer End User Services
Evergreen
Senior Packaging Engineer
IT Academy
Technical Profession & Development Lead
Future Talent Lead
IT Training Co-ordinator
IT Operations Centre
Operations Centre Analyst
Operations Centre Engineer
Application Support Engineer
ITSM Improvement
ITSM Improvement Lead
Service Desk
Service Desk Analyst
Service Management Office
Incident and Problem Manager
Service Continuity and Disaster Recovery Manager
Change and Release Manager
Service Transition Manager
Service Measurement and Reporting Analyst
Configuration Manager
Service Level Manager
Familiarise yourself with the areas, teams and roles that make up the IPO’s Digital, Data and Technology Directorate.
Under each area heading, use the drop down arrow to see the roles that sit within each team.
Data
Data Team
Data Engineer
MI/BI Technical Lead
Data Governance
Data and Information Governor
Data Management
Data Quality
Data Steward
Data Architect
Cross Services
Common Tech Delivery
Common Technology Lead
Cross Services Test
Test Manager Cross Services
Generalist Roles
Generalist DDaT roles
Architecture (Technical, Cloud, Integration, Network, Security, Data etc.)
Software Development (Front End, NLP, Dynamics, Java, .NET etc.)
Testing (Engiineers, Automation etc.)
Data (Engineer, Steward, Quality, Governor, MI/BI)
Business Analysis
Service Design
Delivery Management
Cyber Security
Data Protection, FOI & Knowledge Management
Asset Management
End User Computing & Services
IT Academy (Tech Profession Specialist, Future Talent)
IT Operations and Application Support
Service Desk
Incident, Problem, Change, Configuration, Transition Managers
Service Continuity & Disaster Recovery
Cloud, Network, Infrastructure, DevOps, Database Engineers
IPO Secure
Cyber Security
Security Analyst
Security Architect
Security Operations Centre Analyst
Incident and Vulnerability Manager
Data Protection, FOI & Compliance
Security Education & Personal Security Lead
Head of Data Protection, Compliance and FOIA
Knowledge & Information Management (KIM)
Knowledge Manager
KIM Technical Configuration Manager
KIM Business Partner
Information Manager
Platform & Enabling Digital
Cloud Enablement
Cloud Engineer
Cloud Specialist
Data Comms
Network Engineer
Data Comms Security Specialist
DBA
Infrastructure Engineer (Database)
Senior Database Engineer
DevOps Enablement
DevOps Engineer
Test Manager
DevOps and Digital Enablement Specialist Lead
Infrastructure & Storage
Senior Infrastructure Engineer
Infrastructure & Storage Engineer
Strategic Programme Oversight
Business Analysis
Business Analyst
Existing Systems
QAT Analyst
QAT Engineer
Product Manager
Software Developer
Service Design
Service Designer
Interaction Designer
Content Designer
Technical Planning & Delivery Management
Strategic Technical Planning Manager
Delivery Manager
IT Strategic Planner
Our One IPO transformation
One IPO Transformation – the story so far
The Intellectual Property Office in the UK (IPO) launched its One IPO Transformation programme in April 2021. This five year transformation project will provide a single system for all intellectual property (IP) rights and provide better digital services for our customers.
“The IPO is addressing the imbalance from many angles, constantly refining its recruitment and promotion policies and processes. It supports true gender equality in line with the The UN Equiterra vision.”
Hazel Thorpe (she/her)
Business Change Manager at the Intellectual Property Office (IPO)
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Spotlight on our culture and benefits
We offer an extensive range of benefits to our employees, such as flexible working, excellent development opportunities and a generous pension scheme.