DevOps Engineer

Alvar; City Of London; On-site; GBP 60,000 - 80,000; Full time

Job summary

A financial services firm in London is seeking an experienced Cloud Engineer to manage its cloud infrastructure and CI/CD pipelines. The ideal candidate will have a strong background in Linux-based systems, open-source tools, and automation. Key responsibilities include maintaining security best practices and overseeing database management. This full-time role emphasizes teamwork and innovation, making it essential for candidates to demonstrate strong problem-solving skills and effective communication.

Qualifications

• Strong understanding of Linux-based systems and cloud infrastructure.
• Experience in using open-source tools.
• Hands-on experience managing databases, ideally PostgreSQL.
• Knowledge of CI/CD pipelines and automated deployment tools.

Responsibilities

• Manage and maintain cloud infrastructure using OpenStack and Terraform.
• Implement security best practices for infrastructure and applications.
• Automate deployments and configurations with Ansible.
• Set up monitoring and alerting systems using Prometheus and Grafana.

Skills

Linux-based systems

Cloud infrastructure

Open-source tools

Configuration Management / IaC tools

Scripting or programming languages (Python, Golang, or Java)

Database management (PostgreSQL)

DevOps principles

CI/CD pipelines

Microservices architecture

Cloud-based platforms (OpenStack, AWS, or GCP)

Tools

OpenStack

Terraform

Ansible

Prometheus

Grafana

Jenkins

Nexus

Elasticsearch

OpenVPN

Bitbucket

Job description

Alvar Financial Services is a boutique firm offering a variety of investment and trading services through its business lines - Equity Markets for professional and institutional clients, Research Services, and Electronic Global Retail Platform for private clients. Our small community and flat structure empowers our people to grow and create unconstrained ideas within their field of expertise, driving innovation and mastery in their work. We all work together as one to achieve our vision of being a trusted partner to our clients, providing unrivalled insights and a collaborative high‑touch service.

Role

The candidate in this role will manage Alvar's cloud infrastructure, maintain its integration and continuous delivery/deployment pipelines, and ensure the reliability of our containerized services. This is a hands‑on role with a focus on automation, scalability, and continuous improvement. The company has a desire to move to Kubernetes to aid with scalability and ease of deployments. Experience in this area is essential.

• Maintain clear and concise documentation for automated workflows, deployment procedures, and other operational activities.
• Implement security best practices for the infrastructure deployments and applications, including vulnerability assessments, incident management, and on‑call management.
• Design, manage and maintain cloud infrastructure using OpenStack, Terraform, Ansible, and CI/CD pipelines.
• Ensure system security and performance, including implementing best practices and managing PostgreSQL / Elastic databases.
• Automate deployments and configurations with Ansible, integrating Dockerized applications across environments.
• Set up and maintain monitoring and alerting systems using Prometheus, Grafana, and Alertmanager.
• Oversee log management with Elasticsearch and ensure secure remote access via OpenVPN.
• Manage CI/CD workflows with Jenkins and Nexus and streamline repository integrations with Bitbucket.
• Apply SRE practices to improve scalability, reliability, and performance, including capacity planning and incident management.
• Manage secure remote access using OpenVPN and support deployments and troubleshooting through SSH.
• Any ad hoc duties that may be required from time to time.

Ideal Candidate

• Previous IT leadership experience within financial services (essential).
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Ability to work collaboratively as well as independently.
• Strong attention to detail.
• Effective communication with technical and non‑technical team members.
• Advanced problem‑solving skills.
• Proactive in approach.

Requirements and Preferences

• Strong understanding of Linux‑based systems and cloud infrastructure.
• Demonstrable practical experience in using open‑source tools.
• Understanding of Configuration Management / IaC tools (Ansible, SaltStack, Terraform, Puppet).
• Proficiency in scripting or programming languages (Python, Golang, or Java desirable).
• Hands‑on experience managing databases, ideally PostgreSQL, with knowledge of other databases (MySQL or Elastic desirable).
• Proven ability to analyse and resolve complex system and application issues effectively.
• A solid understanding of DevOps principles and Agile methodologies.
• Experience with CI/CD pipelines and automated deployment tools (essential).
• Familiarity with microservices architecture (essential).
• Understanding of cloud‑based platforms such as OpenStack, AWS, or GCP (preference).
• Experience with MySQL or NoSQL databases (e.g., MongoDB) preferable.
• Advanced experience with systems including but not limited to O365, MS Teams, OneDrive.

Commitment To Diversity

At Alvar Financial Services we believe that every voice matters. We strive to create a mindful and respectful environment where everyone can bring their authentic self to work and experience a culture that is free of harassment, racism, and discrimination. That’s why we are committed to diversity and inclusion in the workplace and are a proud equal‑opportunity employer. We prohibit discrimination and harassment of any kind based on race, colour, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, protected veteran status or any other characteristic protected by law. This policy applies to all employment practices within our organisation, including but not limited to hiring, recruiting, promotion, termination, layoff and leave of absence.

Alvar Financial Services is also committed to providing reasonable accommodations in our job application procedures for individuals with disabilities. Please inform our HR Team via email if you need any assistance completing any forms or otherwise participating in the application process.

Employment Type: Full‑Time