Lead DevOps Engineer (North Yorkshire)

Job Title: Lead DevOps Engineer (SC Cleared or SC Eligible)

Location: Hybrid (2-3 days/week in office) – Yorkshire/Leeds

Contract Type: 6-Month Contract

Day Rate: Inside IR35 - Competitive

Clearance Requirement: Must be SC Cleared or eligible for SC Clearance

Our client, a leading global organisation, is partnering with a prestigious end client with offices in Leeds and Yorkshire. We are excited to offer a fantastic opportunity for a talented Lead DevOps Engineer to join a dynamic and agile development team on an initial 6 months contract, with the potential for extension.

If you are interested and have the relevant skills and experience, please apply promptly to discuss further.

About the Role:

We are seeking a Lead DevOps Engineer to join a dynamic technology environment on a high-impact government-facing programme. You will be instrumental in delivering secure, scalable, and high-performance cloud solutions, driving cloud transformation through DevOps best practices, security automation, and cost optimisation strategies.

Key Responsibilities:

• Design and manage secure, scalable, and resilient AWS-based infrastructure.
• Implement robust DevOps practices using tools such as Terraform, Jenkins, Ansible, and GitLab CI/CD.
• Lead the design of cloud-native solutions, incorporating containerisation (Docker, Kubernetes/EKS) and serverless architectures.
• Establish and enforce cloud security standards and governance frameworks.
• Automate infrastructure provisioning, configuration, monitoring, and compliance.
• Collaborate with solution architects, developers, and security teams to align technical solutions with business goals.
• Monitor system performance and troubleshoot complex infrastructure issues.
• Guide and mentor junior DevOps engineers across distributed teams.
• Maintain detailed documentation for infrastructure and DevOps practices.

Required Skills and Experience:

• Strong hands-on experience with AWS Cloud and related security services (IAM, GuardDuty, CloudTrail, KMS, etc.).
• Proven background in Infrastructure as Code using Terraform, CloudFormation, or Ansible.
• Solid understanding of container security and orchestration (EKS, ECS, Kubernetes).
• CI/CD pipeline implementation and security automation (Jenkins, GitHub Actions, etc.).
• Experience implementing network and application layer security (WAF, mTLS, SSL, VPC design, etc.).
• Knowledge of DevSecOps best practices and compliance standards (e.g., ISO 27001, GDPR, NIST).
• Proficiency in monitoring tools and centralized logging (ELK, Prometheus, Grafana, AWS CloudWatch).
• Strong scripting skills (e.g., Python, Bash) for automation and tool integration.
• Demonstrated ability to lead DevOps teams and define scalable best practices.
• Eligibility for SC Clearance (must have resided in the UK for the past 5 years continuously).

Desirable Skills:

• AWS Certifications (e.g., Security Specialty, Solutions Architect, DevOps Pro).
• FinOps expertise and cloud cost optimization (AWS Trusted Advisor, Cost Explorer).
• Familiarity with tools like Helm, Kustomize, or Macie for advanced security/automation.
• Experience with secure serverless architecture (Lambda, API Gateway, SNS/SQS).