Kubernetes Lead

Global Relay; City Of London; On-site; GBP 80,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading technology firm in the City of London is looking for a hands-on lead to enhance in-house Kubernetes capabilities. You will ensure the reliability of production and development environments and work closely with cross-functional teams. The ideal candidate has over 6 years of Kubernetes experience and 2 years in a team leadership role, with strong problem-solving skills and a focus on security best practices.

Benefits

Competitive salary

Diversity and inclusion initiatives

Mentoring and coaching opportunities

Qualifications

• Minimum of 6 years Kubernetes experience.
• At least 2 years as a team lead.
• Hands on experience in Python.
• Strong security awareness.

Responsibilities

• Build automation tools and frameworks.
• Monitor production, development, and test environments.
• Provide support and troubleshooting for system issues.
• Work with other teams to maximize Kubernetes benefits.
• Set strategic goals for Kubernetes platform.

Skills

Kubernetes experience

Team leadership

Python

Security awareness

Problem solving

Tools

Docker

Jenkins

Ansible

Grafana

VMware

Job description

Who we are:

For over 20 years, Global Relay has set the standard in enterprise information archiving with industry‑leading cloud archiving, surveillance, eDiscovery, and analytics solutions. We securely capture and preserve the communications data of the world’s most highly regulated firms, giving them greater visibility and control over their information and ensuring compliance with stringent regulations.

Though we offer competitive compensation and benefits and all the other perks one would expect from an established company, we are not your typical technology company. Global Relay is a career‑building company. A place for big ideas. New challenges. Groundbreaking innovation. It’s a place where you can genuinely make an impact – and be recognized for it.

We believe great businesses thrive on diversity, inclusion, and the contributions of all employees. To that end, we recruit candidates from different backgrounds and foster a work environment that encourages employees to collaborate and learn from each other, completely free of barriers.

Your Role:

On premise ('on‑prem') vanilla Kubernetes is the strategic hosting platform for Global Relay's micro services, as such we are looking for a strong and established hands‑on lead to continue to build our in‑house global Kubernetes capability. As part of this role you and your team will be responsible for the reliability and smooth operation of production, development, and test environments incorporating automation and best practices to improve reliability and efficiency. The role involves cross‑team collaboration and communication; you will be working closely with key stakeholders including our security team to ensure that cross functional requirements are met. This is an opportunity to influence the design and implementation of systems at scales that many do not get a chance to work at.

Your Responsibilities:

Given the varied nature of the role, your time will be split working across the following areas:

• Automation: Researching, innovating and developing tools & frameworks to enhance our Kubernetes clusters
• Operations: Monitor and ensure smooth operation of production, development and test environments by executing common sysadmin tasks and automating repetitive tasks, including onboarding of new applications. Ensuring underlying infrastructure whether its bare metal or virtualised is efficiently utilized while also driving capacity planning to ensure our platforms meet the demands of our growing capability
• Service reliability: Provide support and troubleshooting when required by reviewing dashboards and logs to ensure system issues are timely addressed
• Platform interoperability: Work with other platform teams to maximise the benefit of Kubernetes to facilitate highly scalable solutions
• Technical leadership: Setting the strategic goals of our in‑house Kubernetes platform, ensuring scaling, efficiency and security needs are met through the activities of you and your team. Advising others of K8s best current practices and guiding architectural design and security initiatives
• People management: Ensuring the team maintains high motivation, working on the highest value priorities while also conducting regular 1‑to‑1s, coaching, guidance and performance management activities to develop your staff and maximise their potential.

Some of the technologies that you will interact with include:

• Build & Deployment Automation such as Bitbucket, Jenkins, Ansible, ArgoCD
• Containerization/Virtualization (Docker/Podman, VMware)
• Instrumentation & Monitoring (Loki, Grafana, Mimir, Prometheus)
• Languages/Scripts: Python, Bash, Java

Where you have knowledge gaps, training and shadowing opportunities will be provided.

About You:

You have an automation‑first mindset. You enjoy sharing your knowledge and have a thirst for expanding your own technical horizons. You are able to work under pressure and you are a keen problem solver with a drive for finding efficient solutions to challenging problems.

• A minimum of 6 years Kubernetes experience - with understanding on the core components of Kubernetes and how it is installed from scratch
• A minimum of 2 years working as a team lead
• You are comfortable collaborating with cross functional areas
• Strong security awareness including security best practices surrounding Kubernetes
• Hands on experience in Python
• You are comfortable working in a cross geographic team.
• Understanding of computer science fundamentals like threading, OOP and more
• Understanding of software systems concepts such as networking, firewalls, protocols, databases and more
• Some understanding of software delivery practices such as Git branching models and configuration management
• Experience with:
  • Linux, Bash
  • CI/CD tools such as Jenkins or similar
  • Infrastructure as Code tools such as Ansible or Puppet
  • Containerisation/Virtualization technology such as Docker, Podman, VMware
  • Load balancing tools such as HA‑Proxy, Nginx or F5

Nice to haves:

• Completion of the Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA) exam
• Familiar with Kelsey High Tower's installation of Kubernetes 'the hard way'
• Experience in working in a highly regulated environment
• Experience in working within on‑premise infrastructure
• Understanding of software delivery practices such as feature toggling, no‐downtime deployment
• Experience with Java
• Well versed in using GitOps practices to deploy configuration changes to Kubernetes Clusters.

What you can expect:

At Global Relay, there’s no ceiling to what you can achieve. It’s the land of opportunity for the energetic, the intelligent, the driven. You’ll receive the mentoring, coaching, and support you need to reach your career goals. You’ll be part of a culture that breeds creativity and rewards perseverance and hard work. And you’ll be working alongside smart, talented individuals from diverse backgrounds, with complementary knowledge and skills.

Global Relay is an equal‑opportunity employer committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion.

We seek to ensure reasonable adjustments, accommodations, and personal time are tailored to meet the unique needs of every individual.

To learn more about our business, culture, and community involvement, visit www.globalrelay.com.