Infrastructure Specialist - Defence

IBM Computing; London; On-site; GBP 55,000 - 75,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading technology firm in London is seeking an experienced Infrastructure Specialist - System Administrator for their AI Lab team. In this role, you will design and maintain their cloud-based platform, ensuring high availability and performance. The ideal candidate will have strong expertise in cloud computing and system administration, along with skills in infrastructure as code tools like Ansible and Terraform. This position offers diverse career growth opportunities as part of a supportive culture.

Benefits

Training opportunities

Promotion opportunities

Work-life balance support

Holidays and discounts

Industry recognized certifications

Qualifications

• Strong experience in system administration and cloud computing.
• Proficiency in infrastructure as code tools.
• Experience with DevOps practices and tools.
• Strong troubleshooting and problem-solving skills.
• Excellent communication and reporting skills.

Responsibilities

• Provide 24/7 technical support for cloud-based solutions.
• Design, build, and maintain infrastructure and configuration as code.
• Administer Dev, Test, and Production environments.
• Ensure security and integrity of systems.
• Troubleshoot technical issues involving APIs and infrastructure.
• Manage Application ID and provide cloud elasticity.

Skills

System administration

Cloud computing

Troubleshooting

Load balancing

Database administration

Tools

Ansible

Terraform

Docker

Kubernetes

Job description

Introduction

At IBM CIC, we deliver deep technical and industry expertise to a wide range of public and private sector clients in the UK.

A career in IBM CIC means you'll have the opportunity to work with visionaries across multiple industries to improve the hybrid cloud and AI journey for the most innovative and valuable companies in the world. Your ability to accelerate impact and make meaningful change for your clients is enabled by our strategic partner ecosystem and our robust technology platforms across the IBM portfolio.

Curiosity and a constant quest for knowledge serve as the foundation to success here. You'll be encouraged to challenge the norm, investigate ideas outside of your role, and come up with creative solutions which impact a wide network of clients, whom may be at their site or one of our CIC or IBM locations. Our culture of evolution centres on long-term career growth and development opportunities in an environment that embraces your unique skills and experience.

We offer:

• Many training opportunities from classroom to e-learning, mentoring and coaching programs and the chance to gain industry recognized certifications

• Regular and frequent promotion opportunities to ensure you can drive and develop your career with us

• Feedback and checkpoints throughout the year

• Diversity & Inclusion as an essential and authentic component of our culture through our policies and process as well as our Employee Champion teams and support networks

• A culture where your ideas for growth and innovation are always welcome

• Internal recognition programs for peer-to-peer appreciation as well as from manager to employees

• Tools and policies to support your work-life balance from flexible working approaches, sabbatical programs, paid paternity leave, maternity leave and an innovative maternity returners scheme

• More traditional benefits, such as 25 days holiday (in addition to public holidays), online shopping discounts, an Employee Assistance Program, a group personal pension plan of an additional 5% of your base salary paid by us monthly to save for your future.

Your role and responsibilities

We're seeking an experienced Infrastructure Specialist - System Administrator to join our AI Lab team. As a key member of our infrastructure team, you'll be responsible for designing, building, and maintaining our cloud-based platform to support the development and hosting of AI services. Your expertise will be crucial in ensuring the seamless operation of our applications, DevOps, middleware, security, and infrastructure components.

Key Responsibilities:

• Provide 24/7 technical support for cloud-based solutions, ensuring high availability and performance across various applications and infrastructure components.

• Design, build, and maintain infrastructure and configuration as code using tools like Ansible and Terraform.

• Administer Dev, Test, and Production environments hosted on Windows, Linux, and Unix servers.

• Ensure the security and integrity of our systems against cybersecurity threats.

• Troubleshoot and resolve technical issues involving APIs, application services, IaaS, PaaS, SaaS, microservices, containers, Kubernetes nodes, ICP management, middleware components, network, security, and infrastructure problems.

• Install and configure databases such as MYSQL, MSSQL, PostgreSQL, and others.

• Implement load balancing and CDN solutions using multiple cloud vendors (e.g., Azure Load Balancer and Application Gateway).

• Support the installation and maintenance of a logging cluster using Logstash, ElasticSearch, and Kibana.

• Perform initial analysis on incidents and escalate issues to the appropriate support level when necessary.

• Manage Application ID and provide cloud elasticity by auto-scaling resources based on business requirements.

• Ensure Disaster Recovery (DR) and manual redundancy failover capabilities.

• Provide regular service management reports to keep clients informed.

• Follow ITIL processes and Integrated Service Level Management best practices.

Required technical and professional expertise

• Strong experience in system administration, infrastructure management, and cloud computing.

*

• Proficiency in infrastructure as code tools like Ansible and Terraform.

*

• Experience with DevOps practices and tools.

*

• Strong knowledge of load balancing, CDN options, and cloud vendors (e.g., Azure).

*

• Experience with database administration (MYSQL, MSSQL, PostgreSQL, etc.).

*

• Familiarity with containerization (e.g., Docker) and orchestration (e.g., Kubernetes).

*

• Strong troubleshooting and problem-solving skills.

• Experience with ITIL processes and service management.

• Excellent communication and reporting skills.

As an equal opportunities’ employer, we welcome applications from individuals of all backgrounds. However, for you to be eligible for this role, you must have the valid right to work in the UK. Unfortunately, we do not offer visa sponsorship and have no future plans to do so. You must be a resident in the UK and have been living continuously in the UK for the last 10 years. You must be able to hold or gain a UK government security clearance.

Preferred technical and professional experience

• Experience with AI/ML workloads and infrastructure.

• Knowledge of cybersecurity best practices and threat mitigation.

• Familiarity with multiple cloud vendors (e.g., AWS, GCP, Azure).

IBM is committed to creating a diverse environment and is proud to be an equal-opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, caste, genetics, pregnancy, disability, neurodivergence, age, veteran status, or other characteristics. IBM is also committed to compliance with all fair employment practices regarding citizenship and immigration status.