Lead DevOps Engineer

TN United Kingdom; Leeds; On-site; GBP 70,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading company in the UK is seeking a Lead DevOps Engineer to spearhead cloud transformation initiatives. This role involves leading high-performance teams to develop secure, scalable cloud solutions while ensuring compliance and optimizing cloud spending. The ideal candidate will have extensive experience with AWS, CI/CD, and Infrastructure as Code, along with strong leadership skills. Join us to work with cutting-edge technologies and drive innovation in cloud services.

Qualifications

• 5 years continuous work in the UK required for SC Clearance.
• Deep understanding of AWS Security, Identity, and Compliance services.

Responsibilities

• Drive cloud transformation and lead DevOps teams for secure cloud solutions.
• Implement and manage scalable applications on AWS Cloud.

Skills

AWS Security

CI/CD

Infrastructure as Code

Cloud Security

Automation

Leadership

Troubleshooting

Education

AWS Certifications

Tools

Terraform

Ansible

Docker

Kubernetes

Jenkins

Git

Job description

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Role/Job Title:Lead DevOps Engineer SC Cleared or SC Eligible

Work Location: Leeds (2 to 3 days)

The Role

As a Lead DevOps Engineer, you will drive cloud transformation, leading multiple high-performance DevOps teams to build secure, scalable, and cost-efficient cloud solutions. Your expertise in CI/CD, Infrastructure as Code (IaC), cloud security, and automation will shape mission-critical applications across various units and projects.

Collaborating with business stakeholders, solution architects, and security teams, you will align DevOps strategies with growth, digital transformation, and FinOps best practices for optimized cloud spending. You will establish governance frameworks to enhance security, compliance, and incident response.

This role provides access to cutting-edge cloud technologies, including AWS serverless computing, Kubernetes orchestration, AI-driven observability, and security automation, keeping you at the forefront of innovation.

Your Responsibilities

Implement and manage highly available, scalable, and secure applications hosted on AWS Cloud, leveraging multi-region deployment strategies.

Enforce AWS security best practices to safeguard data, applications, and systems, including IAM policy design, access management, encryption standards, and compliance audits.

Design, implement, and manage various DevOps tools and technologies, including CI/CD platforms (Jenkins, GitLab CI), configuration management tools (Ansible, Puppet), and containerization technologies (Docker, ECS, Kubernetes).

Monitor system performance, identify bottlenecks, and implement optimizations to improve reliability and efficiency.

Develop and maintain Infrastructure as Code (IaC) using Terraform, Ansible, AWS CloudFormation, ensuring consistency, repeatability, and compliance.

Identify and automate application deployment, scaling, and security processes, reducing manual effort and improving reliability.

Work with cross-functional teams, ensuring seamless collaboration between DevOps, development, security, and operations teams.

Troubleshoot complex system issues, analyze logs and performance metrics, and provide actionable recommendations.

Document and refine DevOps practices, maintaining version control, release management workflows, and configuration documentation.

Your Profile

AWS Security & Compliance Expertise: Deep understanding of AWS Security, Identity, and Compliance services including IAM, AWS Organizations, SCPs, Secrets Manager, AWS Config, GuardDuty, Security Hub, CloudTrail, and KMS.

Threat Detection & Compliance: Implementation of AWS security tools such as Amazon Detective, AWS Shield, WAF, AWS Firewall Manager, and adherence to compliance standards like ISO 27001, SOC2, GDPR, and NIST.

Solution Architecture Collaboration: Work with solution architects to design scalable, secure, and cost-effective cloud systems aligned with business needs.

Team Leadership: Lead DevOps teams, define best practices, and drive adoption of CI/CD, IaC, security, and automation frameworks.

Serverless Architecture: Build secure serverless solutions with ECS Fargate, Lambda, SNS, SQS, API Gateway, enforcing best practices around IAM, encryption, and isolation.

Networking & Security: Strong command over TCP/IP, DNS, Load Balancers, firewalls, SSL/TLS, VPC segmentation, AWS Shield, and automated vulnerability scanning.

Container Security & Orchestration: Skilled in Docker, ECS, EKS, Kubernetes, with a focus on secure configurations like RBAC, IRSA, and pod security.

Infrastructure Automation: Proficient in Terraform, CloudFormation, Ansible, with a focus on least-privilege access, RBAC, and compliance automation.

Monitoring & Logging: Experience with centralized logging and monitoring using ELK Stack, Prometheus, Grafana, Splunk, and AWS-native tools.

CI/CD Security: Expertise in Jenkins, Git, GitHub Actions with secure artifact management, automated scanning, and DevSecOps integration.

Database Security: Hands-on with RDS, DynamoDB, ElastiCache, applying encryption, backups, access control, and data integrity protocols.

Cost Optimization: Apply FinOps practices to reduce cloud costs using AWS tools like Cost Explorer, Compute Savings Plans, and workload right-sizing.

Leadership & Troubleshooting: Proactively troubleshoot, secure, and optimize AWS environments and lead high-performing technical teams.

Security Clearance: Associate is expected to either be SC Cleared or eligible for SC Clearance must have worked continuously in the UK for 5 years.

AWS Certifications (e.g., Security Specialty, Solutions Architect, DevOps Professional)

Container orchestration and security knowledge

Proficiency with IaC tools (Terraform, Helm, Ansible, Kustomize)

CI/CD and security automation expertise

Cloud cost optimization and FinOps tools (Trusted Advisor, Compute Savings Plans)

Knowledge of threat intelligence and compliance standards (ISO 27001, SOC2, GDPR, NIST)

Use of AWS-native security services (Macie, Inspector, GuardDuty)

Programming and scripting in Python, Shell

AWS Database and Networking expertise (VPC, NAT Gateways, Transit Gateway, Direct Connect, Load Balancers, VPNs, WAF, Shield)