Senior Devops Engineer

*Position Requirements: We are seeking candidates who are: 

• Based in the UK for full-time direct hire employment (GMT), or
• Long-term international contractors located in Austria, Spain, Poland, Ireland, Italy, or the Netherlands.

This ensures alignment with our team's needs and facilitates seamless collaboration across projects, coverage, and regional teams.

Summary  

We are seeking a Senior DevOps Engineer (IC3) to take a leading role in building, maintaining, and automating our cloud infrastructure, with a strong emphasis on transitioning to Kubernetes (K8s) and containerization. This role also requires solid expertise in core Linux systems and experience managing virtual machines (VMs), as our infrastructure will include a hybrid of both traditional VMs and containerized applications during this transition.

The successful candidate will excel at automating processes, navigating complex infrastructure challenges, and leading projects from inception to completion. They should be comfortable with managing both legacy and cutting-edge systems, ensuring a smooth and secure transition to our next-gen Kubernetes platform. Additionally, they must be skilled at communicating with both technical and non-technical stakeholders
To demonstrate your attention to detail, include the phrase “details matter” on the application form.

Our Stack 

• Applications: Ruby on Rails and Node.js
• Databases: PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Redis, Memcached, Opensearch
• Search/Indexing: Elasticsearch
• CI/CD: Spinnaker, Jenkins
• Infrastructure as Code: Terraform, Ansible
• Containerization: Kubernetes, Docker
• Cloud Providers: AWS and Google Cloud Platform
• Virtual Machines and k8s clusters using GKE and EKS

Responsibilities  

• Lead the design, implementation, and scaling of Kubernetes clusters to support our containerized platform, while also managing legacy VM-based infrastructure during the transition.
• Manage and maintain Linux-based VMs and server environments, ensuring secure and stable operations as we shift towards Kubernetes.
• Automate infrastructure management tasks across both VMs and Kubernetes environments using tools like Terraform, Ansible, and Helm.
• Troubleshoot and optimize both Linux VMs and Kubernetes environments, ensuring high availability, performance, and security.
• Collaborate with software engineers to ensure a smooth transition from VM-based infrastructure to containerized environments, improving development workflows along the way.
• Create and maintain CI/CD pipelines that support both traditional VM-based applications and Kubernetes deployments, automating testing and deployment processes.
• Monitor virtual infrastructure and be part of a 24x7 on-call rotation to respond to alerts.
• Document infrastructure, architecture decisions and processes.

Required Skills 

• 7+ years of experience working with infrastructure and operations, including Devops, SRE or Systems Engineer roles.
• Infrastructure as code (IaC) expertise with Terraform and Ansible, automating infrastructure setup, scaling, and maintenance.
• Strong experience with Kubernetes and Docker, including designing, deploying, and scaling containerized applications in production.
• Ability to troubleshoot and optimize Linux systems and containerized environments, ensuring performance and security across both.
• Deep understanding of Kubernetes concepts such as Pods, Services, Ingress, ConfigMaps, Secrets, and Namespaces.
• Excellent troubleshooting skills in containerized environments, with the ability to solve complex problems involving Kubernetes and cloud infrastructure.
• Experience in building and maintaining CI/CD pipelines that support both VM-based and Kubernetes-based applications.
• Experience with Helm for managing Kubernetes applications and deployments.
• Expertise in core Linux skills, including administration, networking, security, and troubleshooting.
• Familiarity with Kubernetes networking and security best practices, including RBAC, Network Policies, etc.
• Proficiency in cloud computing with AWS and/or GCP, including managing both VMs and Containerized workloads in cloud environments.
• Strong communication skills to effectively explain infrastructure changes to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.

Core/Behavioral Competencies

Leading Self: You take proactive ownership of complex goals, learn from failures, and consistently make sound decisions on complex issues with minimal assistance. You leverage your specific strengths within the team and proactively seek growth opportunities. You take responsibility for refining your skills and driving your professional development.

Leading Others: You are capable of leading larger projects, teams, or bodies of work related to infrastructure improvements. You guide and influence your peers and junior colleagues, helping them grow while raising overall team standards. You provide constructive feedback, challenge others in a positive way, and inspire both junior and senior team members. When managing a project, you set clear strategies and communicate expectations effectively. 

Bonus skills (not required) 

• Familiarity with the Ruby on Rails stack.
• Familiarity with NodeJS based stack.
• Experience with service mesh technologies like Istio or Linkerd.
• Familiarity with Prometheus.

Education 

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or related technical field