Gcp Devops Engineer

Sr2 Rec Ltd; United Kingdom; Remote; GBP 111,000 - 166,000; Full time

Job summary

Sr2 Rec Ltd is seeking a Senior Cloud Engineer to own and operate a distributed cloud platform for a major data initiative. The role is hands-on, focusing on GCP, Kubernetes, IaC, CI/CD and observability within secure environments.

You’ll work on edge and central clusters, use open-source tooling, and ensure robust security and connectivity across restricted networks. The ideal candidate has deep Kubernetes/GKE experience, strong IaC and CI/CD capabilities, and is eligible for UK security

Qualifications

• Senior cloud engineer with hands-on experience in Google Cloud Platform (GCP) and GKE.
• Designing, building and operating a distributed cloud platform spanning edge and central Kubernetes clusters.
• Infrastructure-as-code and automated deployment pipelines with CI/CD.
• Experience delivering in restricted, air-gapped and regulated environments.
• Strong networking, security posture and platform observability.
• SC clearance or eligible to obtain UK Security Clearance.
• Experience with multi-cluster Kubernetes architectures and open-source stacks.
• Experience with secret management and identity controls.

Responsibilities

• Designing and operating secure, resilient infrastructure within Google Cloud.
• Building and managing production Kubernetes clusters using GKE.
• Supporting distributed edge and central cluster architecture.
• Owning IaC and automated deployment processes.
• Developing and maintaining CI/CD pipelines.
• Implementing monitoring with Prometheus, Grafana and Loki.
• Hardening platforms with network policies and secret management.
• Supporting deployments into air-gapped environments.
• Working with open-source components and avoiding vendor lock-in.
• Collaborating in an autonomous engineering team.
• Providing strong DevOps/Platform Engineering leadership.

Skills

Cloud engineering

DevOps

Platform engineering

SRE

Kubernetes

Docker

CI/CD

Observability

Security

Air-gapped environments

SC clearance

Multi-cluster

Python/Bash/Go

Education

CKA/CKAD certification

Tools

GKE

Terraform

Ansible

GitLab CI

GitHub Actions

Jenkins

Prometheus

Grafana

Loki

Cilium

eBPF

Kubernetes network policies

Vault

Keycloak

PKI

Strimzi

Kafka

Terraform

Job description

We are looking for a Senior Cloud Engineer to take ownership of the cloud infrastructure supporting a major new data platform. This is a hands-on contract role focused on GCP, Kubernetes, infrastructure as code, CI/CD and observability within secure, highly regulated environments.

The Role

You will desiHqagn, build and operate a distributed cloud platform spanning edge and central Kubernetes clusters. The environment uses a predominantly open-source technology stack, placing particular emphasis on networking, inter-cluster connectivity, platform security and deployment into restricted environments.

You will work within an autonomous engineering team, establishing the infrastructure foundations that enable reliable and secure software delivery.

Key responsibilities will include:

• Designing and operating secure, resilient infrastructure within Google Cloud.
• Building and managing production Kubernetes clusters using GKE.
• Supporting a distributed edge and central cluster architecture, including replication between environments.
• Owning infrastructure-as-code and automated deployment processes.
• Developing and maintaining CI/CD pipelines.
• Implementing monitoring, alerting and observability using Prometheus, Grafana and Loki.
• Hardening platforms through network policies, secrets management and identity controls.
• Supporting deployments into restricted, disconnected and air-gapped environments.
• Managing open-source infrastructure components rather than relying solely on proprietary managed services.
• Strong commercial experience within Cloud Engineering, DevOps, Platform Engineering or SRE.
• Deep hands-on experience with Kubernetes, Docker and container orchestration.
• Strong Google Cloud Platform experience, particularly GKE.
• Infrastructure-as-code experience using Terraform, Ansible or similar.
• Experience building and maintaining CI/CD pipelines with GitLab CI, GitHub Actions, Jenkins or equivalent.
• Good understanding of cloud networking and Kubernetes connectivity.
• Experience designing secure, hardened platforms.
• Current SC clearance or eligibility to undergo UK Security Clearance.
• Experience delivering platforms into air-gapped, on-premise or restricted networks.
• Experience with multi-cluster or geographically distributed Kubernetes architectures.
• Scripting experience using Python, Bash or Go.
• Knowledge of Vault, Keycloak, PKI and secrets management.
• Experience with Cilium, eBPF or Kubernetes network-policy tooling.
• Kafka experience, ideally including Strimzi.
• Previous delivery within defence, government or another regulated environment.
• CKA or CKAD certification.
• Experience supporting large-scale data, streaming or machine-learning platforms.

The Details

Duration: 6 months

Location: Remote

Clearance: SC cleared or eligible to obtain SC clearance