Lead DevOps Engineer (Azure)

Digital Waffle; Nottingham; On-site; GBP 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

Digital Waffle is seeking a hands-on Senior DevOps/Platform Engineer to shape cloud infrastructure and engineering standards. You will work across development, infrastructure and security to drive best practices and deliver scalable Azure environments.

You will own production Kubernetes/AKS, GitOps, and CI/CD pipelines, while mentoring engineers and contributing to platform roadmaps. Strong Azure, IaC, and security expertise are essential for success.

Qualifications

• Strong Azure experience in production environments.
• Extensive Terraform and IaC expertise.
• Strong production Kubernetes (AKS) experience.
• Solid understanding of cloud networking and architecture.
• Experience building and maintaining CI/CD pipelines.
• Experience with GitOps (ArgoCD preferred).
• Knowledge of Docker and containerised environments.
• Experience with Helm and Kubernetes deployments.
• Strong security practices for IAM, RBAC and CI/CD.
• Proficient in Python/Bash or similar scripting languages.

Responsibilities

• Design, build and maintain scalable Azure infrastructure using Terraform and IaC.
• Develop and manage production Kubernetes/AKS environments and upgrades.
• Establish and improve GitOps and CI/CD practices with GitHub Actions, Azure DevOps and ArgoCD.
• Create reusable Terraform modules and deployment templates.
• Design Azure networking (VNets, hub‑and‑spoke, DNS, NSGs, firewall).
• Implement cloud security across identity and container infrastructure.
• Develop Helm charts and standard deployment processes.
• Improve monitoring and observability via Grafana, Loki, OpenTelemetry.
• Automate repetitive tasks with scripting languages.
• Contribute to platform roadmaps and architectural decisions.
• Mentor engineers and provide senior technical guidance.

Skills

Azure

CI/CD

Linux

Communication

Architectural decisions

Tools

Terraform

Kubernetes (AKS)

GitHub Actions

Azure DevOps

ArgoCD

Docker

Helm

Istio

Cilium

KEDA

Karpenter

Falco

Kyverno

Entra ID

PIM

Grafana

Loki

OpenTelemetry

Job description

This is a hands-on senior engineering position with plenty of scope to influence technical direction, improve engineering standards and help shape the way cloud infrastructure is designed and delivered. You'll work closely with development, infrastructure and security teams, acting as a technical escalation point and helping drive best practice across the wider engineering function.

What You'll Be Doing

• Design, build and maintain scalable Azure infrastructure using Terraform and Infrastructure as Code.
• Develop and manage production Kubernetes/AKS environments, including upgrades, security, networking and optimisation.
• Establish and improve GitOps and CI/CD practices, using tools such as GitHub Actions, Azure DevOps and ArgoCD.
• Build reusable Terraform modules, deployment templates and automation to improve consistency across environments.
• Design and maintain Azure networking, including VNets, hub-and-spoke architectures, DNS, NSGs and firewall solutions.
• Implement cloud security practices across identity, access management, container security and infrastructure.
• Develop and maintain Helm charts and standardised deployment processes for application teams.
• Introduce and improve monitoring, logging, tracing and platform observability.
• Automate repetitive processes using Python, Bash or similar scripting languages.
• Contribute to technical designs, architecture decisions and platform roadmaps.
• Help improve developer experience through tooling, documentation and self-service capabilities.
• Act as a senior technical escalation point and provide mentoring and guidance to other engineers.
• Support the continued evolution of the platform, including container orchestration, autoscaling, progressive delivery and platform security.

What We're Looking For:

You’ll be an experienced DevOps/Platform Engineer with a strong background in cloud infrastructure and automation. We’re looking for someone who can operate independently, get hands‑on with complex technical challenges and confidently contribute to architectural discussions.

Key experience:

• Strong commercial experience with Microsoft Azure.
• Extensive experience with Terraform and Infrastructure as Code.
• Strong production experience with Kubernetes, ideally AKS.
• Good understanding of Azure networking and cloud architecture.
• Experience building and maintaining CI/CD pipelines.
• Experience with GitOps, ideally using ArgoCD or a similar platform.
• Strong knowledge of Docker and containerised environments.
• Experience with Helm and Kubernetes application deployment.
• Good understanding of cloud security, IAM, RBAC and secure CI/CD practices.
• Strong Linux administration and troubleshooting skills.
• Proficiency with Python, Bash or similar scripting languages.
• Experience contributing to technical architecture, design documentation and engineering standards.
• Comfortable communicating technical concepts to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Experience mentoring engineers or acting as a senior technical point of contact.
• Istio or Cilium
• KEDA or Karpenter
• Falco or Kyverno
• Entra ID and PIM
• Observability platforms such as Grafana, Loki or OpenTelemetry
• Experience working within regulated or compliance-focused environments