Operational Delivery Engineer - Shared Services, Infrastructure Operations (ATCE 4)

NATS is the UK’s leading air navigation service provider, handling over 2.4 million flights each year. We provide air traffic control services from two control centres and at airports around the UK. We also provide a wide range of commercial products and solutions internationally. Our people are at the heart of our purpose to advance aviation and keep the skies safe. 

Salary: £64,770.15 - £86,360.19

Closing Date: Thursday 30th July 2026

Job Purpose/Overview 

The main purpose of this role is to provide specialist system and application expertise to support NATS' engineering and IT services for Air Traffic Management. This includes ensuring service resilience throughout the service lifecycle and applying continual service improvement. The role also focuses on the day-to-day and strategic administration, maintenance of delegated systems and supporting project activities as required.

We’re excited to share an excellent opportunity for an Operational Delivery Engineer to join our dynamic team. 

In this role, you will play a crucial part in maintaining service resilience across the entire lifecycle while driving continuous improvement. Your work will focus on our safety-critical Shared Services infrastructure, which supports the delivery of systems and applications responsible for the safe movement of over 7,000 aircraft every day. 

As an Operational Delivery Engineer you will support the delivery, operation and continuous improvement of secure management tooling, operating systems, monitoring and infrastructure services. You will be part of Infrastructure Operations, providing support across hardware and software platforms that underpin critical operational services.

Other Duties Include

• Maintenance: Responsible for planning and executing administration, maintenance, and service support of designated systems/applications.
• Incident Management: Apply domain expert knowledge to assigned/escalated incidents, prioritizing, diagnosing, resolving and recording them using agreed procedures to restore service resilience.
• Problem Management: Analyse service events and Incidents to initiate and undertake Problem Management activities to continuously improve service provision and deliver a ‘predict and prevent’ method of operations.
• Competency Maintenance: Gain, hold, and maintain the competencies necessary to control and configure systems/applications, enabling the restoration of technical services, deploy planned changes and carry out planned maintenance.
• Service Configuration: Ensure relevant processes and tools are applied so that service configuration records remain accurate, complete, and current.
• Document Management: Produce, review, and amend engineering instructions. Maintain configuration records for hardware, software, and adaptation for Service Support Systems.
• Service Asset Management: Manage service assets to ensure they are in a known state and in the correct location for use, ensuring the correct technical services are provided at the required service levels.
• Safety Culture: Be an advocate for Safety Culture, promoting and advancing best practice, challenging poor behaviours, and ensuring personal health & safety (H&S) by adhering to H&S procedures.
• Training: Provide on-the-job training (OJT) for other colleagues this could be practical application of training or could be via an OJT plan, we would expect this role holder to be an OJTI or working towards it.
• Duty Engineer Role: Includes responsibilities for the Duty Engineer role (Be the first point of contact for service resolution - To initiate and progress actions to rectify issues relating to service availability or deliverability) and supporting the implementation of Contingency. 
• Project Work: Support project requirements and activities. 
• Supplier Engagement: Engage with suppliers when required to resolve service incidents and problems.

Dimensions

Staff Management: These posts are liable for line management responsibilities of up to 2, as well as technical supervision and task allocation for other colleagues and for any visiting managed service provider staff or contractors. Also responsible for utilising available resources to resolve complex operational incidents and problems with high impact potential.

Autonomy

Because of the safety-related environment, works within defined processes and procedures. Expected to apply own judgement and expertise to determine the course of action required to resolve complex incidents and problems within the bounds of the design envelope of the system. Determines when issues should be escalated.

Job Scope

• On Call: These posts are liable for on-call as part of the 24 hour support organisation. There may be the need to provide telephone support or attend out of hours for service restoration, or to deploy service changes in line with the defined procedures.
• Environments: Operates across multiple NATS environments, including Production, Pre-production, Training, Simulation, and TADs. 
• Operates: This post will operate within a Service Support Group.

Essential Skills and Experience

• Qualifications: Professional engineering qualification to Higher National Certificate (Level 4 or SQF Level 7) as a minimum Electronics, Telecommunications or Computer Science or other relevant Engineering discipline.

In lieu of the above qualifications the candidate will be required to demonstrate one of the following alternative criteria:

1. Relevant lower-level engineering qualifications such as an Apprenticeship coupled with demonstrable engineering experience in a relevant field (May include but not limited to: Military, Rail, other Safety Critical environment)
2. Evidence of substantial experience gained in a relevant transferable environment (such as ATSEP) gained over a significant period
3. Experience of resolution of incidents, service restoration, incident and problem management of systems and equipment in a Safety Critical environment such as but not limited to Air Navigation Service Providers (ANSPs), Military or Rail.

• Shall demonstrate an understanding of safety critical systems and the impact they may have within our operational environment. 
• Communication Skills: Effective oral and written communication skills. 
• Interpersonal Skills: Interpersonal skills that enable proactive interaction with a variety of stakeholders, customers, suppliers, and colleagues.

Additional Vacancy Information:

What We’re Looking For:

• Proven experience administering and supporting Microsoft Windows Server environments
• Understanding of networking fundamentals, including TCP/IP, DNS, routing, and firewall concepts
• Experience working with cloud technologies and platforms
• Experience delivering and supporting applications using Citrix Virtual Apps
• Experience with the secure presentation and delivery of Citrix applications using Citrix NetScaler
• PowerShell scripting skills for automation and administration tasks
• Understanding of code deployment methodologies and release management processes
• Knowledge of infrastructure automation and modern IT service delivery practices including change management.

This role will, when appropriately trained, will form part of the on-call 24hour support roster with team colleagues.  This will require, when on call, access to site within 1 hour to enable service restoration if required.

If you’re passionate about maintaining the reliability of critical Shared Services systems and have the expertise to match, we’d love to hear from you! 

Terms and Conditions On Call/Out of Hours: These posts are liable for on-call as part of the 24-hour support organisation. There may be the need to provide telephone support or attend out of hours for service restoration to meet agreed service levels, or to deploy service changes in line with the defined procedures.