DevOps Lead Engineer

Sanderson Government & Defence; City Of London; On-site; GBP 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

Sanderson Government & Defence in London is seeking an experienced DevOps Lead Engineer to support a high-profile defence programme, delivering secure cloud infrastructure in a regulated environment. This hands-on leadership role requires deep Azure and AWS expertise, automation, and cloud security, plus the ability to engage with stakeholders across engineering, project and operations teams.

You will lead secure cloud solutions from design to handover, drive migrations and modernisation, design

Qualifications

• Active eSC clearance required for the role.
• Hands-on DevOps leadership in cloud environments.
• Experience delivering secure Azure and AWS solutions.
• Strong stakeholder management in regulated settings.

Responsibilities

• Lead the delivery of secure Azure and AWS cloud solutions from design through to operational handover.
• Drive cloud migration, transformation, and modernisation initiatives within Agile delivery teams.
• Design and implement secure networking architectures, including hybrid and hub-and-spoke environments.
• Develop Infrastructure as Code, automation, and CI/CD pipelines using modern DevOps tooling.
• Provide technical leadership, mentoring, and best-practice guidance across engineering teams.
• Work closely with security, architecture, delivery, and customer stakeholders to ensure successful project outcomes.

Skills

Azure AWS cloud

Terraform

Azure DevOps

GitLab

Python

CI/CD

Kubernetes

Azure Virtual Desktop

Cloud security

Identity management

Splunk

Azure Monitor

Stakeholder mgmt

Tools

AKS/EKS

Job description

DevOps Lead Engineer | Defence Sector | eSC Cleared | London

Location: St Paul's, London (90% Onsite)
Clearance: Active eSC

We are seeking an experienced DevOps Lead Engineer to support a high-profile defence programme, delivering secure cloud infrastructure and platform services within a highly regulated environment. This is a hands-on leadership role requiring strong technical expertise across Azure, AWS, automation, and cloud security, combined with the ability to engage effectively with stakeholders across engineering, project, and operational teams.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the delivery of secure Azure and AWS cloud solutions from design through to operational handover.
• Drive cloud migration, transformation, and modernisation initiatives within Agile delivery teams.
• Design and implement secure networking architectures, including hybrid and hub-and-spoke environments.
• Develop Infrastructure as Code, automation, and CI/CD pipelines using modern DevOps tooling.
• Provide technical leadership, mentoring, and best-practice guidance across engineering teams.
• Work closely with security, architecture, delivery, and customer stakeholders to ensure successful project outcomes.

Key Skills & Experience

• Strong Azure and AWS cloud engineering experience.
• Expertise in Terraform, Azure DevOps, GitLab, Python, and CI/CD automation.
• Experience with Kubernetes, AKS, EKS, Azure Virtual Desktop, and cloud-native platforms.
• Strong understanding of cloud security, identity management, and regulated environments.
• Experience with monitoring and observability tools such as Splunk and Azure Monitor.
• Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills.

This is an excellent opportunity to join a critical defence programme where you'll play a key role in delivering secure, resilient cloud services for a nationally important environment. Active security clearance and a willingness to work predominantly onsite in London are essential.

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.