Lead DevOps Engineer

PA Consulting; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Private healthcare for you and family

25 days annual leave + Christmas Eve +

Generous pension scheme

Annual performance-based bonus

PA share ownership

Tax efficient benefits

Job summary

PA Consulting is seeking an experienced Senior DevOps Engineer to join our Digital & Data practice in the UK. You’ll help shape cloud architectures, implement CI/CD pipelines, and mentor teams across client projects.

The role blends design, delivery and client collaboration in a fast-paced environment. We offer hybrid working (2 days in the office per week), a culture of learning and growth, and opportunities to progress on a technical career track.

Qualifications

• 8-10 years+ in DevOps or related field.
• Strong problem-solving and analytical thinking.
• Experience collaborating with multiple stakeholders in fast-paced environments.
• Expertise in architecture and development processes across pods/teams.
• Ability to coach and mentor teams.
• Experience shaping bids and presenting to clients in competitive processes.
• Strong consulting and client engagement capabilities.

Responsibilities

• Lead DevOps architecture across multiple pods and client projects.
• Collaborate with product, design and engineering teams to deliver cloud solutions.
• Mentor and coach team members and promote best practices.
• Support bids, proposals, and client presentations when needed.
• Maintain regular client engagement and contribute to account success.

Skills

DevOps experience

Problem-solving

Stakeholder collaboration

Mentoring

Bid involvement

Consulting skills

Architectural leadership

Tools

Kubernetes

Docker

Terraform

CloudFormation

AWS

Azure

GCP

Job description

Company Description

We believe in the power of ingenuity to build a positive human future.

We believe in the power of ingenuity to build a positive human future.

As strategies, technologies, and innovation collide, we create opportunity from complexity.

Our teams of interdisciplinary experts combine innovative thinking and breakthrough technologies to progress further, faster. Our clients adapt and transform, and together we achieve enduring results.

We are over 4,000 strategists, innovators, designers, consultants, digital experts, scientists, engineers, and technologists. And we have deep expertise in consumer and manufacturing, defence and security, energy and utilities, financial services, government and public services, health and life sciences, and transport.

Our teams operate globally from offices across the UK, Ireland, US, Nordics, and Netherlands.

Job Description

We believe in the power of ingenuity to build a positive human future. We challenge where it matters and own the outcome. We combine strategic thinking, customer‑centric service design, and agile engineering practices to accelerate innovation in a tech‑driven world.

Why consider joining our Digital & Data community?

• Join our Digital & Data team working alongside product, design and a wide range of other experts and cross‑disciplinary teams to bring ideas to life through innovative software solutions.
• Grow a flexible and unique career within a trust‑based, inclusive environment that values excellence, innovation, and curiosity. You have the option to progress with us on a technical career track. No need to go onto the Partner career track if this doesn’t align with what you want to do.
• Hybrid working – our approach is to be in the office or on client site a minimum of 2 days per week.
• Work on a broad variety of projects and tech stacks for clients across seven sectors – no project is ever the same
• Join other experts within our supportive and collaborative tech community through knowledge‑sharing and peer‑level support, coaching and mentoring
• Deepen your expertise through our culture of learning and growth – you’ll have budget to take courses (technical and non‑technical training), plus gain certifications

Our tech stack

• Experience with AWS, Azure or GCP
• Building and implementing CI/CD Pipelines, experience working with repos, build automation tools, build orchestration and environment automation is very interesting E.g. Jenkins, GIT, SVN, CVS, Cloud‑Formation, Terraform, Chef, Ansible, Puppet, Code Pipeline, Azure Stack
• Implementing microservices and containers E.g. Kubernetes, Docker, OpenShift
• Implementing tools for logging, monitoring and alerting. E.g. TICK Stack, ELK Stack, Splunk, CloudWatch
• Creating and automating virtual machines in the cloud deployed on compute instances
• Implementing other cloud infrastructure and networking required to host a digital service, including storage, firewall and network configuration
• High availability, business continuity and disaster recovery solutions in the cloud
• Deploying serverless functions E.g. AWS Lambda, GCP Cloud Functions, Azure Cloud Functions

What You Can Expect

• Work to agile best practices and cross‑functionally with multiple teams and stakeholders. You’ll be using your technical skills to problem solve with our clients, as well as working on internal projects
• Live in‑person whiteboarding sessions to problem solve as a team, alongside asynchronous communication on Teams
• Hybrid working with the team on client site or in our office a minimum of two days per week. However, the actual time you spend and where you spend it will vary by role or assignment, including up to 5 days per week on a client site.
• An environment that deeply cares about its values Values | PA Consulting

Qualifications

Essential requirements

• 8-10 years + of experience in DevOps
• You thrive in problem‑solving and analytical thinking
• You enjoy collaborating with multiple stakeholders in a fast‑paced environment
• Expertise in architecture
• Knowledge of the development process, perhaps being responsible for the overall process across a pod, or multiple pods, creating strong values and putting robust methods and patterns in place
• Maintaining communication with the client regularly, being one of the key points of engagement between the client and the project
• Coaching and mentoring the team
• Help shaping and contributing to bids, working with a bid team on the approach or proposal and perhaps even presenting to clients in a formal selection process
• Playing a role in account management and strong consulting skills

• Please be aware that some of our UK roles at PA Consulting require a UK security clearance.
• All PA people are required to undergo background checks and to achieve the Baseline Personnel Security Standard however, some UK roles also require higher levels of National Security Vetting, where applicants must have at least 5 years of continuous residency in the UK.
• We therefore ask that you only apply if you meet the residency requirements (i.e. you are a British citizen or have been resident in the UK for the past 5 years), as this is the prerequisite for a security clearance. If you're unsure about your eligibility, we encourage you to review the UK Government’s guidance on security vetting before applying.

Additional Information

Assessment process

Please note that the interview stages may be subject to change based on the specific requirements of the role.

• Quick call with one of our Tech Recruiters – to discuss your application, the role and PA
• Round 1: Either a competency or technical interview (60 mins)
• Round 2: Either a competency or technical interview, whichever you didn’t do at first round (60 mins)
• Final round: Meeting with a PA leader - a mini case study and discussion around your client‑centricity (60 mins)

Life At PA encompasses our peoples' experience at PA. It's about how we enrich peoples’ working lives by giving them access to unique people and growth opportunities and purpose led meaningful work.

Our purpose guides how we work with our clients and our teams, and support our communities, to deliver insight and impact, solving the world’s most complex challenges. We're focused on building a workplace that values human difference and diverse mindsets, and a culture of inclusion and equality that unlocks the potential in our people so everyone can be their best self.

Find out more about Life at PA here.

We are dedicated to supporting the physical, emotional, social and financial well‑being of our people. Check out some of our extensive benefits:

• Health and lifestyle perks accompanying private healthcare for you and your family
• 25 days annual leave (plus a bonus half day on Christmas Eve) with the opportunity to buy 5 additional days
• Generous company pension scheme
• Opportunity to get involved with community and charity-based initiatives
• Annual performance‑based bonus
• PA share ownership
• Tax efficient benefits (cycle to work, give as you earn)

We’re committed to advancing equality. We recruit, retain, reward and develop our people based solely on their abilities and contributions and without reference to their age, background, disability, genetic information, parental or family status, religion or belief, race, ethnicity, nationality, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity (or expression), political belief, veteran status, any other range of human difference brought about by identity and experience. We welcome applications from underrepresented groups.

Adjustments or accommodations - Should you need any adjustments or accommodations to the recruitment process, at either application or interview, please contact us on [e-mail]