Infrastructure Platform Engineer

NP Group; Greater London; Remote; GBP 74,000 - 78,000; Full time

Job summary

NP Group is seeking an Infrastructure Platform Engineer to manage self-hosted, dedicated and bare-metal infrastructure in the UK. The role prioritises on-prem and colocation setups over public cloud, with a strong emphasis on security, encryption, key management and certificate lifecycle.

The ideal candidate has 5+ years of hands-on Linux experience, plus expertise in routing, DNS, firewalls, VPNs and patching.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of hands-on infrastructure engineering experience.
• Strong Linux administration on Ubuntu in production.
• Experience with dedicated hosting providers (Hetzner/OVH) or colocation data centers.
• Solid knowledge of DNS, routing, firewalls and VPNs.
• Security: patching, access control and secret management.
• Experience with Ansible for configuration management.
• Ability to plan changes with minimal disruption.
• Collaborates effectively with development teams.

Responsibilities

• Manage Ubuntu Linux servers in production (systemd, logs, packages, processes, filesystems).
• Operate infrastructure with dedicated hosting providers or in colocation data centers.
• Configure and debug routing, DNS, firewalls and VPNs.
• Diagnose hardware failures on physical servers.
• Assess security implications and manage encryption, access control and secrets.
• Troubleshoot to identify root causes, not symptoms.
• Plan infrastructure changes to avoid production disruption.
• Use Ansible for configuration management.
• Monitor systems with metrics, dashboards, alerts and logs.
• Translate compliance requirements into practical changes.
• Collaborate with developers early in the process.

Skills

Ubuntu Linux

Systemd

DNS / Routing / VPNs

Hardware troubleshooting

Security best practices

Root cause analysis

Change planning

Ansible

Monitoring (metrics/logs)

Compliance & CLM

Scripting

Go code reading

KVM/QEMU virtualization

ZFS

WireGuard

Terraform

Kubernetes

Tools

Ansible

Terraform

Kubernetes

Job description

Position: Infrastructure Platform Engineer
Start Date: ASAP
Duration: 15 -Month Contract
Location: UK/Poland - Remote, Swedish time zone
Rate: £400- £425 per day inside of IR35
Reference: 20876

We are seeking an infrastructure engineer with strong hands-on engineering skills and an infrastructure focus, supporting self-managed, dedicated and bare-metal infrastructure. This role is centred on self-managed, dedicated and bare-metal infrastructure rather than public cloud, with security responsibilities layered across encryption, key management and certificate lifecycle management.

Tasks:

• Manage Ubuntu Linux servers in production, including systemd, logs, package management, processes and filesystems.
• Operate infrastructure with dedicated hosting providers such as Hetzner or OVH, or in colocation data centers such as Digital Realty/Interxion or Cyberlynk.
• Configure and debug routing, DNS, firewalls and VPNs.
• Work with physical servers, including diagnosing hardware failures.
• Assess the security implications of infrastructure changes, including patching vulnerabilities, enforcing access control and handling secrets.
• Troubleshoot issues with a focus on identifying root cause rather than symptoms.
• Plan infrastructure changes with an understanding of system interdependencies, avoiding disruption to production.
• Use scripting and configuration management tools such as Ansible.
• Use metrics, dashboards, alerts and logs to monitor and understand systems.
• Translate compliance requirements into practical infrastructure changes.
• Work closely with developers, raising questions early.

Skills & Attributes:

• 5+ years of experience, with strong hands-on engineering skills and an infrastructure focus.
• Hands-on experience managing Ubuntu Linux servers in production, including systemd, logs, package management, processes and filesystems.
• Experience operating infrastructure with dedicated hosting providers such as Hetzner or OVH, or in colocation data centers such as Digital Realty/Interxion or Cyberlynk.
• Strong understanding of routing, DNS, firewalls and VPNs, and how to debug them.
• Experience with physical servers, including diagnosing hardware failures.
• Understanding of the security implications of infrastructure changes, including patching vulnerabilities, enforcing access control and handling secrets.
• Strong troubleshooting skills, with a focus on identifying root cause rather than symptoms.
• Understanding of how systems depend on one another, and the ability to plan changes without disrupting production.
• Experience with scripting and configuration management tools such as Ansible.
• Experience using metrics, dashboards, alerts and logs to monitor and understand systems.
• Experience translating compliance requirements into practical infrastructure changes.
• Ability to work closely with developers and raise questions early.

Preferred Skills:

• Experience running a fleet of servers (hundreds of hosts).
• Experience with ZFS.
• Experience with WireGuard networks.
• Experience with KVM/QEMU virtualization.
• Experience with VictoriaMetrics, Grafana and ELK.
• Ability to read Go code.
• Experience with rootless containers such as Podman.
• Experience with CoreDNS and Cloudflare.
• Experience with Terraform and Kubernetes.
• Experience implementing encryption at rest and encryption in transit.
• Experience automating certificate renewal and rotation as part of certificate lifecycle management (CLM), including issuance and revocation.
• Experience with PKI (Public Key Infrastructure).
• Experience implementing security controls and applying security best practices to infrastructure.
• Experience with enterprise certificate lifecycle management (CLM) platforms.
• Experience with self-hosted key management tools, including key rotation.
• Experience with secrets management tools, such as SOPS, OpenBao/Vault or AWS Secrets Manager.
• Experience implementing encryption at rest on Linux hosts, including disk and filesystem encryption.
• Experience automating certificate renewal for services running on Linux hosts.
• Experience with security frameworks or audits, such as ISO 27001 or SOC 2.