Lead DevOps Engineer - SC Cleared or SC Eligible

Lead DevOps Engineer - SC Cleared or SC Eligible

Whitehall resources are looking for a Lead DevOps Engineer - SC Cleared or SC Eligible. This role Is hybrid working with time required primarily in Yorkshire, for an initial 6 month contract.

*This role requires you to hold or be eligible for SC Clearance.*

*Inside IR35*

Job Description:
As a Lead DevOps Engineer, you will drive cloud transformation, leading multiple high-performance DevOps teams to build secure, scalable, and cost-efficient cloud solutions. Your expertise in CI/CD, Infrastructure as Code (IaC), cloud security, and automation will shape mission-critical applications across various units and projects.

Collaborating with business stakeholders, solution architects, and security teams, you will align DevOps strategies with growth, digital transformation, and FinOps best practices for optimized cloud spending. You will establish governance frameworks to enhance security, compliance, and incident response.

This role provides access to cutting-edge cloud technologies, including AWS serverless computing, Kubernetes orchestration, AI-driven observability, and security automation, keeping you at the forefront of innovation.

Your responsibilities:
. Implement and manage highly available, scalable, and secure applications hosted on AWS Cloud, leveraging multi-region deployment strategies.
. Enforce AWS security best practices to safeguard data, applications, and systems, including IAM policy design, access management, encryption standards, and compliance audits.
. Design, implement, and manage various DevOps tools and technologies, including CI/CD platforms (Jenkins, GitLab CI), configuration management tools (Ansible, Puppet), and containerization technologies (Docker, ECS, Kubernetes).
. Monitor system performance, identify bottlenecks, and implement optimizations to improve reliability and efficiency.
. Develop and maintain Infrastructure as Code (IaC) using Terraform, Ansible, AWS CloudFormation, ensuring consistency, repeatability, and compliance.
. Identify and automate application deployment, scaling, and security processes, reducing manual effort and improving reliability.
. Work with cross-functional teams, ensuring seamless collaboration between DevOps, development, security, and operations teams.
. Troubleshoot complex system issues, analyze logs and performance metrics, and provide actionable recommendations.
. Document and refine DevOps practices, maintaining version control, release management workflows, and configuration documentation.

Essential skills and experience:
. AWS Security & Compliance Expertise: Deep understanding of AWS Security, Identity, and Compliance services, including IAM, AWS Organizations, SCPs, Secrets Manager, AWS Config, GuardDuty, Security Hub, CloudTrail, and AWS KMS for encryption, ensuring robust cloud security.
. Threat Detection & Compliance: Implementation of AWS security tools like Amazon Detective, AWS Shield, WAF, AWS Firewall Manager, enforcing security compliance standards such as ISO 27001, SOC2, GDPR, and NIST frameworks.
. Collaborate with Solution Architects: Work closely with solution architects to design scalable, secure, and cost-efficient cloud systems/applications, ensuring DevOps methodologies align with business objectives.
. Lead DevOps Team & Define Best Practices: Take ownership of designing and implementing DevOps frameworks, optimizing CI/CD pipelines, IaC standards, security policies, and guiding DevOps engineers in modern cloud strategies.
. Serverless Security & Architecture: Design and implement secure AWS Serverless solutions using ECS Fargate, Lambda, SNS, SQS, API Gateway, enforcing IAM execution roles, API authentication, encrypted messaging, and network isolation strategies.
. Networking & Cloud Security: Deep expertise in TCP/IP, DNS, Load Balancers, network Firewalls, SSL/TLS/mTLS, along with AWS Shield for DDoS protection, AWS WAF for web security, VPC segmentation, and automated vulnerability scanning.
. Container Security & Orchestration: Expertise in Docker, ECS, EKS, Kubernetes, implementing security best practices like image vulnerability scanning, Kubernetes RBAC, IAM Roles for Service Accounts (IRSA), Pod Security Policies, and automated compliance enforcement.
. Infrastructure Automation & Security: Strong experience in IaC tools (Terraform, CloudFormation, Ansible), applying least privilege IAM policies, role-based access controls (RBAC), automated compliance checks, and zero-trust security principles.
. Monitoring, Logging & Alerting: Expertise in building centralized logging solutions, integrating ELK Stack, Prometheus, Grafana, Splunk, and AWS-native security monitoring tools such as CloudWatch, Security Hub, SIEM integrations.
. CI/CD Security & Automation: Proficient in Jenkins, Git, GitHub Actions, ensuring secure CI/CD pipelines with artifact encryption, automated security scanning, and DevSecOps best practices.
. Cloud-Based Database Security: Experience managing Amazon RDS, DynamoDB, ElastiCache, enforcing database encryption (KMS), automated backups, fine-grained access controls, and data integrity monitoring.
. Cost Optimization & FinOps: Drive cloud cost optimization strategies using AWS Cost Explorer, Compute Savings Plans, Reserved Instances, AutoScaling efficiencies, and rightsizing workloads to maximize cost savings.
. Problem-solving & Leadership: Strong ability to troubleshoot security vulnerabilities, enforce DevSecOps methodologies, and lead teams to adopt best practices in AWS cloud optimization and governance.
. Associate is expected to either be SC Cleared or eligible for SC Clearance - Must have worked continuously in the UK for 5 years

Desirable skills/knowledge/experience:
. AWS Certifications (AWS Certified Security - Specialty, AWS Certified Solutions Architect, AWS DevOps Professional).
. Container orchestration and Security Knowledge
. IaC & Automation Tools (Terraform, Helm, Ansible, Kustomize etc).
. CI/CD & Security Automation
. Cloud Cost Optimization & FinOps (AWS Trusted Advisor, Compute Savings Plans, cost forecasting strategies).
. Threat Intelligence & Compliance (ISO 27001, SOC2, GDPR, NIST frameworks).
. AWS-native Security Services (Macie for sensitive data discovery, Inspector for vulnerability scanning, GuardDuty for threat detection).
. Programming & Scripting (Proficiency in Python and Shell Scripting for automation, cloud resource management, and infrastructure monitoring).
. AWS Database Expertise
. AWS Networking Expertise (Strong knowledge of VPC design, Subnetting, Route Tables, NAT Gateways, Transit Gateway, VPC Peering, Direct Connect, PrivateLink, ALB/NLB/CLB Load Balancers, AWS WAF & Shield, VPN connectivity, and network security group management).

All of our opportunities require that applicants are eligible to work in the specified country/location, unless otherwise stated in the job description.

Whitehall Resources are an equal opportunities employer who value a diverse and inclusive working environment. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, religion, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, pregnancy, disability, age, veteran status, or other characteristics.