DevOps Manager

Project People; Reading; Hybrid; GBP 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

Project People is seeking an experienced DevOps Lead to own a software engineering function, leading an Agile team while remaining hands-on in code. You will set technical direction, champion modern engineering practices, and drive excellence across cloud-based applications used by internal teams, customers and partners.

This role blends technical leadership with people management, including mentoring a multidisciplinary team, delivering CI/CD, security and resilience, and exploring AI-assisted

Qualifications

• Experience leading software development teams.
• Hands-on coding in cloud environments.
• Experience delivering cloud-based applications within Agile and DevOps.
• Knowledge of modern software architecture, APIs, databases, frontend and backend.
• Experience with Git, Azure DevOps, Jira and CI/CD tooling.

Responsibilities

• Lead, mentor and develop a multidisciplinary Agile software development team.
• Provide technical leadership across the full software development lifecycle.
• Remain hands-on with software development and codebase contributions.
• Define and own the engineering roadmap.
• Deliver cloud-based applications using Agile and DevOps best practices.
• Drive CI/CD, automation and engineering efficiency.
• Collaborate with stakeholders to prioritise work and communicate progress.
• Ensure monitoring, security and performance across the estate.
• Promote best practices in code quality and governance.
• Champion AI-assisted development tools to improve delivery.

Skills

Leadership

DevOps

Cloud platforms

CI/CD tooling

AI tooling

Stakeholder mgmt

Security & reliability

Hands-on coding

Tools

Git

Azure DevOps

Jira

Jenkins

Job description

We\'re looking for an experienced DevOps Lead to take ownership of a software engineering function, leading a talented Agile team while remaining actively involved in software development. This is an exciting opportunity for someone who enjoys balancing technical leadership with people management, driving engineering excellence whilst continuing to write high-quality code.

You\'ll lead the delivery of bespoke cloud-based applications used by internal teams, customers and partners, setting the technical direction, developing your team and championing modern engineering practices, including AI-assisted software development.

This role is working for one of our high profile clients who have a 3 day hybrid working policy each week in their offices.

What you\'ll be doing

• Lead, mentor and develop a multidisciplinary Agile software development team including Developers, Business Analysts and QA Engineers.
• Provide technical leadership across the full software development lifecycle.
• Remain hands-on with software development, contributing to the codebase and supporting complex technical delivery.
• Define and own the engineering roadmap, ensuring solutions are scalable, secure and aligned to enterprise architecture.
• Deliver cloud-based applications using Agile and DevOps best practices.
• Drive CI/CD, automation and engineering efficiency across the development lifecycle.
• Work closely with stakeholders across the business to prioritise work, manage dependencies and communicate progress.
• Ensure operational monitoring, resilience, security and performance across the application estate.
• Promote best practice in software engineering, code quality, testing and technical governance.
• Champion the adoption of AI-assisted development tools and modern engineering practices to improve productivity and delivery.

What we\'re looking for

We\'re looking for someone who combines strong technical expertise with proven leadership experience.

• Experience leading and managing software development teams, including coaching, mentoring and developing engineers.
• A strong technical background with the ability and desire to remain hands-on with software development.
• Experience delivering cloud-based applications within Agile and DevOps environments.
• Excellent knowledge of modern software architecture, APIs, databases, frontend and backend development.
• Experience with Git, Azure DevOps, Jira and CI/CD tooling such as Jenkins or similar.
• Experience working with public cloud platforms such as Azure, AWS or GCP.
• Strong stakeholder management skills with the ability to communicate technical concepts to non-technical audiences.
• Experience planning delivery, managing technical roadmaps and balancing multiple priorities.
• A good understanding of software security, scalability, resilience and engineering best practice.

You\'ll also have experience using modern AI-powered development tools and be passionate about how they can improve software delivery.

This includes experience with:

• AI-assisted coding tools such as GitHub Copilot, Cursor or similar.
• AI-generated code review and validation.
• Test automation and documentation generated using AI.
• Integrating AI tooling into development workflows and CI/CD pipelines.
• Promoting secure and responsible use of AI across engineering teams.
• Evaluating emerging AI technologies and embedding them into engineering practices where appropriate.