Automation Engineer

Sopra Steria; Farnborough; On-site; GBP 70,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job summary

Sopra Steria is seeking an Automation Infrastructure Engineer to lead automation for a major project in Aerospace, Defence and Security. On-site in Farnborough, DV clearance eligibility for British Nationals is required.

The role focuses on Terraform IaC, Ansible playbooks, and CI/CD integration while providing technical leadership in automation strategy. The candidate will design, build and maintain automation solutions, work with Windows and Linux systems, and contribute to deployment

Qualifications

• Experience with Terraform for infrastructure provisioning.
• Create and maintain Ansible playbooks and roles.
• Develop automation pipelines and CI/CD integrations.
• Strong Windows and Linux system administration skills.

Responsibilities

• Design, build, and maintain automation solutions for infrastructure provisioning and configuration.
• Develop Infrastructure as Code using Terraform (modules, state management).
• Create and maintain Ansible playbooks, roles and automation pipelines.
• Build automation scripts with Python, Bash or PowerShell.
• Integrate automation with CI/CD pipelines and version control workflows.
• Improve deployment processes, environment consistency, and operational efficiency.

Skills

Terraform

Ansible

Python

PowerShell

Bash

VMware

CI/CD pipelines

GitLab

REST APIs

Windows admin

Linux admin

Networking

Databases

Tools

VMware Cloud Foundation

Job description

Are you an Automation Infrastructure Engineer with knowledge of Configuration Management and Infrastructure as Code?

Sopra Steria are currently recruiting for a Senior Infrastructure Engineer with a experienced focused around automation to support a large-scale project in our Aerospace, Defence and Security Sector. We need Engineers with a broad range of automation skills but ideally hands on experience using Terraform for Infrastructure as Code (IaC) and using Ansible to create and maintain playbooks, roles and automation pipelines. This is a fantastic opportunity for someone to not only be a hands‑on technical authority in automation but also to support with the wider automation strategy moving forward.

This role is based on site in our office in Farnborough.

Due to the nature of the project, we are only able to progress with British Nationals eligible for DV clearance.

What you’ll be doing:

• Design, build, and maintain automation solutions for infrastructure provisioning and configuration.
• Develop Infrastructure as Code using Terraform (modules, state management, reusable patterns).
• Create and maintain Ansible playbooks, roles, and automation pipelines.
• Build automation scripts and tooling using Python, Bash, or PowerShell.
• Integrate automation with CI/CD pipelines and version control workflows.
• Improve deployment processes, environment consistency, and operational efficiency.

What you’ll bring:

• Strong Windows and Linux sysadmin expertise
• Competent with multiple scripting languages such as PowerShell, Bash or SQL
• Background working with the core VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) stack. Including vSphere, vSAN, NSX and the Aria Automation suite
• Familiarity with Configuration Management and Infrastructure as Code (Iac). Including supporting tooling such as Terraform and Ansible
• Experience building Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) pipelines. Along with supporting tooling such as Gitlab
• Knowledge of system interoperability and application interfaces. E.g. RESTful, API, Swagger
• Networking and database administration know-how

It would be great if you had:

• Strong technical leadership skills
• Understanding of open source programming languages

Loved reading about this job and want to know more about us?

Sopra Steria’s Aerospace, Defence and Security business designs, develops and deploys digital solutions to Central Government clients. The work we do makes a real difference to the client’s goal of National Security, and we operate in a unique and privileged environment. We are given time for professional development activities, and we coach and mentor our colleagues, sharing knowledge and learning from each other. We foster a culture in which employees feel valued and supported and have pride in their work for the customer, delivering outstanding rates of customer satisfaction in the UK’s most complex safety- and security-critical markets.

We embrace difference as a source of creativity, innovation and competitive advantage and are striving to become a more diverse organisation. We welcome applications from people with a diverse variety of backgrounds and identities. We are committed to equality of opportunity for all and do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, colour, gender, age, disability, sexual orientation or marital status. We have partnered with Vercida, the UK's largest diversity and inclusion focused careers site, where all our vacancies are available in an accessible format.

If you require any adjustments to the recruitment process, to enable you to perform to the best of your ability, please let us know when completing your application.

We participate in the Disability Confident scheme and are committed to offering an interview to any candidate with a disability, who meets the minimum criteria for the role. If you believe this could apply to you, please let us know when completing your application.

Employment Type: Full-time, Permanent