Lead DevOps Engineer – SC Cleared or SC Eligible

TN United Kingdom; Leeds; On-site; GBP 60,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job summary

An established industry player is seeking a Lead DevOps Engineer to spearhead cloud transformation initiatives. This role involves leading high-performance teams to develop secure, scalable, and cost-effective cloud solutions. You will leverage cutting-edge technologies like AWS serverless computing and Kubernetes to enhance operational efficiency and security. Your expertise in CI/CD, Infrastructure as Code, and cloud security will drive mission-critical applications across various projects. Join this innovative firm and play a pivotal role in shaping the future of cloud technology while ensuring compliance and governance within a dynamic environment.

Benefits

Access to cutting-edge cloud technologies

Professional development opportunities

Flexible working hours

Health and wellness programs

Team-building activities

Remote work options

Performance bonuses

Employee discounts

Pension scheme

Annual leave

Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience in AWS cloud security and DevOps practices.
• Strong understanding of CI/CD pipelines and Infrastructure as Code (IaC).
• Proven ability to implement security best practices in cloud environments.

Responsibilities

• Lead the implementation of scalable and secure applications on AWS Cloud.
• Design and manage CI/CD pipelines using Jenkins and GitLab CI.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to optimize cloud strategies.

Skills

AWS Security

CI/CD

Infrastructure as Code (IaC)

Cloud Security

Automation

TCP/IP

Docker

Kubernetes

Terraform

Security Compliance

Education

AWS Certifications

Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science

Tools

Jenkins

GitLab CI

Ansible

Docker

Kubernetes

AWS CloudFormation

ELK Stack

Prometheus

Grafana

Splunk

Job description

The Role:

As a Lead DevOps Engineer, you will drive cloud transformation, leading multiple high-performance DevOps teams to build secure, scalable, and cost-efficient cloud solutions.

Your expertise in CI/CD, Infrastructure as Code (IaC), cloud security, and automation will shape mission-critical applications across various units and projects.

Collaborating with business stakeholders, solution architects, and security teams, you will align DevOps strategies with growth, digital transformation, and FinOps best practices for optimized cloud spending.

You will establish governance frameworks to enhance security, compliance, and incident response.

This role provides access to cutting-edge cloud technologies, including AWS serverless computing, Kubernetes orchestration, AI-driven observability, and security automation, keeping you at the forefront of innovation.

Your responsibilities:

1. Implement and manage highly available, scalable, and secure applications hosted on AWS Cloud, leveraging multi-region deployment strategies.
2. Enforce AWS security best practices to safeguard data, applications, and systems, including IAM policy design, access management, encryption standards, and compliance audits.
3. Design, implement, and manage various DevOps tools and technologies, including CI/CD platforms (Jenkins, GitLab CI), configuration management tools (Ansible, Puppet), and containerization technologies (Docker, ECS, Kubernetes).
4. Monitor system performance, identify bottlenecks, and implement optimizations to improve reliability and efficiency.
5. Develop and maintain Infrastructure as Code (IaC) using Terraform, Ansible, AWS CloudFormation, ensuring consistency, repeatability, and compliance.
6. Identify and automate application deployment, scaling, and security processes, reducing manual effort and improving reliability.
7. Work with cross-functional teams, ensuring seamless collaboration between DevOps, development, security, and operations teams.
8. Troubleshoot complex system issues, analyze logs and performance metrics, and provide actionable recommendations.
9. Document and refine DevOps practices, maintaining version control, release management workflows, and configuration documentation.

Essential skills/knowledge/experience:

• Deep understanding of AWS Security, Identity, and Compliance services, including IAM, AWS Organizations, SCPs, Secrets Manager, AWS Config, GuardDuty, Security Hub, CloudTrail, and AWS KMS for encryption, ensuring robust cloud security.
• Implementation of AWS security tools like Amazon Detective, AWS Shield, WAF, AWS Firewall Manager, enforcing security compliance standards such as ISO 27001, SOC2, GDPR, and NIST frameworks.
• Work closely with solution architects to design scalable, secure, and cost-efficient cloud systems/applications, ensuring DevOps methodologies align with business objectives.
• Take ownership of designing and implementing DevOps frameworks, optimizing CI/CD pipelines, IaC standards, security policies, and guiding DevOps engineers in modern cloud strategies.
• Design and implement secure AWS Serverless solutions using ECS Fargate, Lambda, SNS, SQS, API Gateway, enforcing IAM execution roles, API authentication, encrypted messaging, and network isolation strategies.
• Deep expertise in TCP/IP, DNS, Load Balancers, network firewalls, SSL/TLS/mTLS, along with AWS Shield for DDoS protection, AWS WAF for web security, VPC segmentation, and automated vulnerability scanning.
• Implement security best practices for Docker, ECS, EKS, Kubernetes, including image vulnerability scanning, RBAC, IRSA, Pod Security Policies, and automated compliance enforcement.
• Strong experience in IaC tools (Terraform, CloudFormation, Ansible), applying least privilege IAM policies, role-based access controls (RBAC), automated compliance checks, and zero-trust security principles.
• Proficiency in building centralized logging solutions, integrating ELK Stack, Prometheus, Grafana, Splunk, and AWS-native security monitoring tools such as CloudWatch, Security Hub, SIEM.
• Ensure secure CI/CD pipelines with Jenkins, Git, GitHub Actions, artifact encryption, automated security scanning, and DevSecOps best practices.
• Experience managing Amazon RDS, DynamoDB, ElastiCache, with encryption, automated backups, access controls, and data integrity monitoring.
• Drive cloud cost optimization strategies using AWS Cost Explorer, Compute Savings Plans, Reserved Instances, AutoScaling, and workload rightsizing.
• Strong troubleshooting, security vulnerability management, and leadership skills to guide teams in AWS cloud optimization and governance.
• Must be SC Cleared or eligible, with at least 5 years of continuous work in the UK.
• AWS Certifications such as AWS Certified Security – Specialty, Solutions Architect, and DevOps Professional are required.