Lead DevOps Engineer

What will you be doing?

As Lead DevOps Engineer, you will lead a high-performing team of DevOps engineers responsible for designing, implementing, and maintaining automated deployment pipelines, monitoring solutions, and infrastructure as code practices across Azure and AWS environments. You will drive the technical vision, manage team roadmaps and ad-hoc priorities, and ensure rapid, reliable software delivery while maintaining regulatory compliance and fostering a culture of continuous improvement through coaching and mentoring.

This is a hybrid role with occasional onsite collaboration — typically once every 2–3 months, but you are able to attend our offices as much as you like, — at either our Welwyn Garden City or Liverpool offices. From time to time, you may also travel between sites.

Key responsibilities

• Design, build, and maintain CI/CD pipelines using Azure DevOps and GitHub Actions

• Implement and manage Infrastructure as Code using Terraform and ARM templates

• Configure and maintain monitoring, logging, and alerting solutions for applications and infrastructure

• Automate deployment processes across development, staging, and production environments

• Manage containerized applications using Docker and Kubernetes orchestration

• Implement security scanning and compliance checks within deployment pipelines

• Collaborate with development teams to optimize application performance and reliability

• Maintain and improve backup, recovery, and disaster recovery procedures

• Support incident response and root cause analysis for production issues

• Manage configuration management and secrets management solutions

• Optimize cloud resource utilization and cost management

• Lead, mentor, and coach a team of 6 DevOps engineers, fostering professional growth and development

• Conduct regular 1-on-1 meetings, performance reviews, and career development planning

• Define team goals aligned with organizational objectives and roadmap priorities

• Distribute workload effectively, balancing roadmap initiatives with ad-hoc operational needs

• Identify skill gaps and develop training plans to upskill team members

• Promote knowledge sharing and establish communities of practice within the team

• Drive a culture of collaboration, continuous learning, and operational excellence

• Cover on-call rotation for production support (1 week out of 6)

What we would like from you

• Strong experience with CI/CD pipeline design and implementation (Azure DevOps, GitHub Actions)

• Proficiency in Infrastructure as Code tools, particularly Terraform

• Experience with containerization technologies (Docker) and orchestration platforms (Kubernetes)

• Strong knowledge of Azure cloud services and deployment models

• Experience with monitoring and logging tools (Azure Monitor, Prometheus, Grafana stack)

• Proficiency in scripting languages (PowerShell, Bash, Python)

• Understanding of GitOps principles and version control best practices

• Knowledge of security best practices in DevOps and SecDevOps principles

• Strong troubleshooting and problem-solving skills

• Excellent communication and collaboration skills with development teams

• Experience with agile development methodologies

It would be great if you have the following

• Experience with Azure DevOps administration

• Knowledge of database deployment automation and migration strategies

• Familiarity with microservices architecture and deployment patterns

• Experience with API management and gateway solutions

• Knowledge of network security and firewall management

• Certification in Azure, AWS, or DevOps methodologies

• Experience with chaos engineering and resilience testing

• Familiarity with service mesh technologies (Istio, Linkerd, cilium)

Even better if you have:

• PCI-DSS compliance experience

• Experience in financial services or regulated industries

• Knowledge of ITIL or similar service management frameworks

• Experience with automated testing frameworks and test automation

• Understanding of site reliability engineering (SRE) principles

Our benefits if you decide to join us:

• Holiday purchase scheme, with 25 days holiday plus bank holidays as standard.

• On-site gym at our office (Free), and nationwide corporate rate gym membership

• Online benefits portal where you can access lots of deals, discounts - for example of shopping or holidays

• Contributory company pension scheme

• Progression and Development

• Private medical insurance

• Electric Car Scheme

• Life assurance of 3 x annual gross salary, with the option to purchase additional cover

• You’re also able to purchase a range of benefits at a discounted rate including, critical illness cover, bicycles via our Cycle2Work scheme, dental insurance and TasteCard dining discount card

• Love2shop Everyday Benefits Card

As a disability-confident committed company, we have a passion for championing equality. We welcome all colleagues into a work environment where success is attainable for everyone, regardless of disability, age, race, religion, gender identity, or sexual orientation. We are committed to ensuring that everyone has equal access to growth and opportunities in our workplace.