DV Cleared Software Engineer - Systems & Infrastructure (UK National Security Platforms)

Ikuto; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 90,000 - 105,000; Full time

Job summary

Ikuto is recruiting for a Systems & Infrastructure Software Engineer to own end‑to‑end reliability and deployment for UK National Security Platforms. The role is based in Central London with hybrid in‑office work required for classified facility operations.

You will write production code, manage Kubernetes‑based migrations, and build bespoke automation atop platform services while ensuring secure, compliant operations in high‑side environments.

Qualifications

• Active UK DV clearance held at application time.
• Sole British citizenship; no dual nationality.
• Hands-on production experience with containerised infrastructure.
• Reside within 30 minutes of Central London facility.
• 1–5 years of production experience in SRE/Platform Infra.
• Experience in high‑complexity engineering teams and cloud environments.
• Familiarity with IaC (Terraform/Ansible) and CI/CD pipelines.
• BSc or MSc in CS or Software Engineering.

Responsibilities

• Own end‑to‑end platform reliability and disaster recovery for UK sovereign environments.
• Build production software automation to reduce operational toil.
• Modernise infrastructure with container orchestration (Docker/Kubernetes).
• Participate in high‑autonomy incident response with on‑call rotations.

Skills

SRE experience

CI/CD automation

Infrastructure as Code

Production monitoring

On-call incident response

Education

BSc or MSc in Computer Science or Software Engineering

Tools

Docker

Kubernetes

Terraform

Ansible

Job description

Systems & Infrastructure Software Engineer (UK National Security Platforms)

Location:

Central London – Hybrid (In-office required for classified facility work)

Compensation:

£90,000 – £105,000 base salary + significant public market equity (liquid RSUs) + relocation package

Security Requirement:

Active UK Developed Vetting (DV) Clearance Required Prior to Appointment

About the Client & Culture

Our client is one of the world’s most influential software and data intelligence enterprises, trusted by allied governments, intelligence agencies, and vital national institutions to solve their most complex, critical problems.

Unlike traditional enterprise vendors or legacy defence contractors, they operate with a flat, engineering-first culture that eliminates bureaucratic friction. There are no endless change‑approval boards, bloated project management layers, or slow ticketing trees. Instead, engineers are treated like adults and given direct ownership over production systems. You will be building and deploying platform automation alongside some of the sharpest software minds in the world, directly impacting real‑world national security operations.

The Mandate

We are seeking an engineer to own the end‑to‑end reliability, deployment, and infrastructure evolution of mission‑critical platform deployments across the UK Government.

This role treats infrastructure strictly as a software engineering discipline. You won't be managing ticket queues or babysitting legacy kit for the sake of it. You will be writing production code daily, executing complex Kubernetes‑based migrations, building bespoke platform automation tooling on top of industry‑defining operational platforms, and diagnosing distributed systems performance under live high‑side conditions.

What You Will Do

• Own Platform Reliability: Lead production monitoring, configuration management, automated upgrades, and disaster recovery across dedicated UK sovereign environments.
• Build Software Automation: Write production‑quality software (Python, Go, or Java) to automate operational toil and scale continuous platform delivery.
• Modernise Infrastructure: Architect and execute migrations using containerised orchestration (Docker, Kubernetes) across complex, hybrid, and air‑gapped environments.
• High‑Autonomy Incident Response: Participate in an on‑call rotation (approximately 1 week in every 5 to 6 weeks) supporting live, critical production deployments with genuine decision‑making authority.

Must‑Have Requirements (Non‑Negotiable)

• National Security Clearance: Active, valid UK Developed Vetting (DV) clearance already held at the time of application. (Due to operational timelines, we cannot sponsor initial clearances or accept SC‑only status).
• Nationality: Sole British citizenship (no dual nationality) to comply with UK Government high‑side facility contractual access mandates.
• Containers & Orchestration: Proven hands‑on production experience operating containerised infrastructure (Docker, Kubernetes).
• Proximity / Commute: Residing in, or fully committed to relocating within, 30 minutes of the Central London facility to support physical high‑side incident response and operational rotations.
• 1–5 years of production experience in SRE, Systems Software, or Platform Infrastructure.
• Past experience inside high‑complexity engineering teams: national security divisions, defence technology, or major cloud infrastructure environments (e.g., AWS, Azure, GCP).
• Hands‑on familiarity with Infrastructure as Code (Terraform, Ansible) and CI/CD automation pipelines.
• BSc or MSc in Computer Science or Software Engineering from an accredited university.