AWS Senior Cloud Engineer

John Lewis Partnership; Bracknell; Hybrid; GBP 80,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job summary

John Lewis Partnership is seeking a Senior Platform Engineer to build and operate the Waitrose digital cloud platform on AWS. You’ll join a cross‑functional Agile team delivering scalable, secure, observable infrastructure.

This hybrid UK role (Bracknell) offers leadership and mentoring opportunities, collaborating with Product Engineering to accelerate delivery with reliability and performance.

Qualifications

• Extensive experience with AWS or another cloud provider.
• Infrastructure as code with a software engineering mindset.
• Python used to automate configuration and extend services.
• Designing systems for reliability and security.
• CI/CD practices with Jenkins, ArgoCD and GitLab CI.
• Agile development with willingness to pair program.
• Experience leading, coaching and mentoring teams.
• Experience with generative AI tools to boost productivity.

Responsibilities

• Develop and operate the digital cloud platform underpinning Waitrose on AWS in a cross-functional team.
• Shape platform evolution to meet business needs and improve reliability.
• Support project shaping and mentor less experienced developers.
• Collaborate with stakeholders across technical and non-technical domains.
• Possibility to move into people management for engineers.
• Deliver scalable, secure and performant cloud infrastructure.

Skills

AWS expertise

IaC mindset

Python automation

Reliability & security design

CI/CD tooling

Agile collaboration

Mentoring/leadership

Generative AI in development

Tools

Terraform

CloudFormation

Kubernetes

ArgoCD

GitLab CI

OpenTelemetry

Prometheus

Grafana

Kyverno

Karpenter

Job description

About the role

As the UK’s most successful omni-channel retailer, ecommerce is a key part of our business - we run two of the busiest websites in the UK, driving a significant proportion of our sales. Our engineering practice includes 80+ teams, working on everything from Cloud platforms to mobile apps, from e-commerce functionality to machine learning. Take a quick look at our Engineering best practices, hear our engineers talk about their experience and opportunities to learn and grow, and check out our Tech stack. Reach out if you have any questions. Visit - https://www.jlpjobs.com/engineering-jobs/

At a glance:

• Expected Salary: up to £100,000 (depending on experience)

• Contract type: Permanent

• Flexible Working: This is a hybrid working role; therefore, your time will primarily be split between working from home (in the UK) and our Bracknell Head Office. However, there will also be an expectation to visit other locations as the need arises. Our Engineering team currently works from the office roughly twice a week to connect and, on a more ad-hoc basis, to attend key meetings, but again the frequency is dependent on the business needs. Our offices are open five days a week for those who prefer to work from the office more regularly.

• On-call ROTA: One week a month.

Key Responsibilities

• This is an opportunity to work as a Senior Platform Engineer within a cross-functional Agile development team building the digital cloud platform that underpins https://www.waitrose.com on AWS. You will be working collaboratively with other highly skilled Engineers creating and improving this cloud-based platform that is used by Product Engineering teams building complex, mission-critical solutions.

• The vision for Waitrose Digital Platform is enabling Waitrose to deliver high-quality digital products faster, more securely and at scale while fostering a culture of collaboration, support and continuous improvement By providing a stable, reliable, and observable cloud platform with self-service tools and clear guidance to empower development teams.

• The team takes a “paved road” approach to provide features that benefit the many Engineers who utilise the platform, by evolving its capabilities and tailoring them to both Our Business and Engineering needs.

• As a Senior Engineer, you will have responsibility for the development approach and will strongly influence how the platform evolves to meet business needs. You will also use your knowledge of Engineering to support the shaping of new projects and support the professional development of less experienced developers. You will work with a diverse range of technical and non-technical stakeholders, which will require strong communication skills.

• There are opportunities to become a people manager for your fellow engineers if that is something that appeals to you.

• Ideal candidates will have excellent Software Engineering skills with a track record of working in teams delivering flexible cloud-based infrastructure solutions that are scalable, secure and performant. Successful candidates will have a passion for using technology to deliver outstanding and innovative solutions.

Internally, this role is known as Product Engineer (L6).

Essential skills/experience you’ll need

• Extensive experience working with Amazon Web Services or another major cloud provider.

• Managing infrastructure as code, - such as with AWS CloudFormation or Terraform - with a Software Engineering mindset.

• Use of languages such as Python to automate configuration and extend platform services.

• A solid grounding in designing and building systems for reliability and security.

• Well-versed in Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery practices and experienced with supporting tools that help it work effectively for many Engineers. Our current tools include Jenkins, ArgoCD and GitLab CI.

• Comfortable working within an Agile development team and open to pair programming.

• Extensive experience leading, coaching and mentoring individuals/teams.

• Experience with generative AI tools and techniques to enhance development and productivity.

Desirable skills/experience you may have

• Strong understanding of AWS networking, including VPCs, routing, security groups / NACLs, PrivateLink and DNS.

• Experience with AWS API Gateway, CloudFront and / or edge CDN technologies.

• Understanding of web application security, including WAF, DDoS protection, API security, TLS, HTTP security and traffic management.

• Amazon EKS / Kubernetes experience, including production cluster operations, workload scheduling, networking and security. We use technologies such as Karpenter, Cilium, Kyverno and KEDA.

• Capable of working with observability tools such as Elastic, Grafana, Prometheus and OpenTelemetry.

• An understanding of PCI DSS or other regulatory / security frameworks.

• Comfortable participating in an on-call rota one week a month and responding to and troubleshooting production incidents.

The partnership

We’re the largest employee owned business in the UK and home of our cherished brands, John Lewis and Waitrose. We’re not just employees, we’re Partners, driven by our purpose to build a happier world. As we look to our future, there’s never been a more exciting time to join us.

We’re ruthlessly focused on being brilliant at retail. We continue to innovate, adapt and diversify. Never Knowingly Undersold on price, quality and service in John Lewis and passionately serving food-lovers in Waitrose.

As Partners we all share the responsibility of ownership and in its rewards. We use our voices to contribute to our success, working together through the good and challenging times, holding true to our behaviours and treating everyone with kindness and respect.

We all own making the Partnership somewhere we belong. Embracing our differences and creating an environment where we’re free to be ourselves and can THRIVE. Growing ourselves individually, and as a collective.

As Partners, we make all the difference. And, we all own it.

Important points to note:

It’s important to note that some of our roles are subject to pre-employment vetting (which may include DBS checks for successful candidates). If required, you’ll be informed and provided with information about vetting during the recruitment process and we encourage you to complete any vetting documents quickly to avoid delays. Any DBS checks required will be carried out by a third‑party registered body and financial probity checks may also be required for some of our roles.

We occasionally close vacancies early in the event we receive a high volume of applications, and therefore, we recommend you apply early. If you require a reasonable adjustment due to a disability which means you may need longer to complete your application please contact us as soon as possible.

We want all of our Partners to have a good work-life balance and we support flexible working. This might mean flexible or compressed hours, job sharing or shorter hour contracts, where possible. Please discuss this further with the hiring manager during your interview.