Automation Engineer

Sanderson Government & Defence; Farnborough; On-site; GBP 88,000 - 115,000; Full time

Job summary

Sanderson Government & Defence is seeking a hands-on Automation Engineer to design, build, and maintain automation tooling for on-premise infrastructures in a secure, air-gapped environment. You'll implement IaC with Terraform and craft robust Ansible playbooks and workflows, while scripting with Python, Bash, and PowerShell and aligning with CI/CD processes.

The role requires strong troubleshooting, the ability to work independently, and proven experience in secure environments.

Qualifications

• Hands-on automation engineer with strong infrastructure automation background.
• Excellent Ansible experience is the top priority.
• Terraform expertise is essential for modular infrastructure.
• Scripting in Python, Bash and/or PowerShell.
• Experience delivering automation in secure/restricted environments.
• Strong troubleshooting and independent work capability.

Responsibilities

• Design, build and maintain automation solutions for provisioning and configuration.
• Develop Infrastructure as Code using Terraform with reusable modules and state management.
• Create and maintain Ansible playbooks, roles and workflows.
• Develop automation tooling with Python, Bash and PowerShell.
• Integrate automation with CI/CD and version control processes.
• Improve deployment consistency and environment standardisation.
• Troubleshoot and optimise existing automation tooling and workflows.
• Produce technical documentation and contribute to continuous improvement.

Skills

Ansible

Terraform

Python

Bash

PowerShell

CI/CD

On-premise automation

Tools

Git

GitLab

Rundeck

Job description

£550/day Inside IR35 | Farnborough | 5 Days Onsite | Active SC Clearance Required

We're supporting a growing automation function delivering work within a highly secure, air-gapped environment. Due to increased demand across several programmes, we're looking for a hands-on Automation Engineer who enjoys solving infrastructure challenges through automation and scripting.

This is not a cloud-native DevOps role. We're looking for a practical infrastructure automation specialist who can build, improve and maintain automation tooling across complex on-premise environments.

The Role

You'll join a team responsible for designing and delivering automation solutions that improve infrastructure provisioning, configuration management and operational efficiency across secure environments.

Key responsibilities will include:

• Designing, building and maintaining automation solutions for infrastructure provisioning and configuration.
• Developing Infrastructure as Code using Terraform, including reusable modules, state management and best practice patterns.
• Creating and maintaining Ansible playbooks, roles and automation workflows.
• Developing automation tooling and scripts using Python, Bash and PowerShell.
• Integrating automation solutions with CI/CD and version control processes.
• Improving deployment consistency, operational efficiency and environment standardisation.
• Troubleshooting and optimising existing automation tooling and workflows.
• Producing technical documentation and contributing to continuous improvement initiatives.

Required Skills & Experience

• Strong infrastructure automation background.
• Excellent Ansible experience (this is the highest priority skill area).
• Terraform expertise.
• Scripting experience with Python, Bash and/or PowerShell.
• Experience delivering automation in secure or restricted environments.
• Strong troubleshooting and problem-solving skills.
• Ability to work independently and adapt to changing priorities.

Desirable Experience

• Git / version control experience.
• GitLab experience.
• Rundeck experience.
• Previous experience working within air-gapped or offline environments.

Additional Information

• Farnborough based.
• 5 days per week onsite required due to the nature of the environment.
• Active SC clearance required.
• Sole British Nationals only.
• Candidates must be comfortable working without AI-assisted tooling, as the project operates within a secure environment where AI tools cannot be used

Reasonable Adjustments:

Respect and equality are core values to us. We are proud of the diverse and inclusive community we have built, and we welcome applications from people of all backgrounds and perspectives. Our success is driven by our people, united by the spirit of partnership to deliver the best resourcing solutions for our clients.

If you need any help or adjustments during the recruitment process for any reason, please let us know when you apply or talk to the recruiters directly so we can support you.