Lead DevOps / SRE Engineer

Zen Internet; Slough; On-site; GBP 60,000 - 80,000; Full time

Job summary

Zen Internet is seeking a DevOps/SRE Manager to lead a small team in optimizing development and operational functions. The role involves managing practices using SRE principles to enhance service delivery and ensure a supportive team environment. This position offers opportunities for professional growth in a collaborative atmosphere.

Benefits

Free Zen broadband

25 days annual leave

Private medical healthcare

Discretionary bonus

Financial protection schemes

Team engagement funds

Free parking

Electric Car Charging Points

Pension contributions

Retail Discounts

Qualifications

• SRE Engineering experience with potential for team leadership.
• Experience with complex networking and firewall environments.
• Strong troubleshooting and problem-solving skills.

Responsibilities

• Manage a small team of DevOps/SRE Engineers.
• Oversee the development and operational processes.
• Implement Infrastructure as Code for continuous improvement.

Skills

Problem Solving

Automation

SRE Concepts

Interpersonal Skills

Education

Experience in DevOps or SRE

Tools

Azure DevOps

Git

Puppet

Ansible

CI/CD Tools

Job description

This is a Permanent , Full Time vacancy that will close in 9 days at 23:59 BST .

The Vacancy

We’re building an inclusive work environment

Here at Zen your gender, race, ethnicity, neurodiversity, disability, sexuality, sub culture, size, introversion, extraversion, family background and everything else that shapes you does matter to us. Because they matter to you and are part of who you are.

We’re interested in you as an individual and here you’ll find opportunities to develop, be recognised and hopefully enjoy yourself along the way. So don’t hold back, there is a warm welcome for everyone at Zen and we look forward to meeting you.

We are always happy for you to enquire about part-time, flexible working or reasonable adjustments, and we will support wherever possible. So please feel free to discuss your preferences as part of the recruitment process.

The hiring manager for this role is Jon L. We appreciate that sometimes it’s helpful to talk about the role with someone that works at Zen so if you wish to find out more or discuss any details you’re not sure about, feel free to get in touch by calling 01706 902 275 or if you prefer to send an email – you can to [e-mail] and we will get back to you as soon as possible.

FAO Recruitment agencies & organisations:Please note that we do not need agency support to fill this role. We have a small, but great, pool of agencies on our PSL and will contact one of those if we need to.

About the role

You will be responsible for managing a small team of experienced DevOps/SRE Engineers, to support, maintain, and consistently improve the development estate so the development teams can focus and innovate constantly to drive Zen’s business and the teams’ priorities.

Reporting to the engineering manager, you must have an excellent track record in a DevOps or better SRE role and have a genuine interest in developing your Line Management experience. Zen are committed to investing in and developing you – we believe that leaders have a huge impact on our people and play a vital part in our success.

As a service provider we operate many technologies, so you’ll have the capability to keep learning and challenging the status quo. You’ll have the skills and opportunity to work with exceptional experienced Lead DevOps engineers and developers using frameworks, standards, and defined operational process to make the unfamiliar comfortable and familiar. Over time we’ll increasingly leverage SRE principles to further optimize and enhance capabilities – it’s a great opportunity to get in at the start and shape this journey.

You’ll own the relationship with the operations centre, ensuring that incidents are run smoothly and ensure that operational knowledge is available at the right time. You will be a point of escalation for the DevOps team, demonstrating problem solving skills, the ability to learn quickly and adapt your skills and knowledge.

Objectives

Build an effective DevOps/SRE team capable of supporting Zen’s development function

• Comfortable leading to drive measurable improvement using SRE techniques and practices
• Build quality practices and frameworks to allow developers to focus
• Provide coaching and mentoring to Software and DevOps Engineer peers, their success is your success
• Be a technical escalation point and eventually be part of a 24/7 escalation rota
• Document as you go – to support colleaguesfollow what’s been done and why
• Drive tasks forward with energy and enthusiasm
• Create proactive monitoring solutions using standard tooling
• Conduct RCA (Root Cause Analysis) for incidents
• Develop and maintain self-managing infrastructure services and dashboards
• Define the metrics of success and report on progress
• Implement Infrastructure as Code for continuous service improvement
• Identify cost-saving opportunities

Key Responsibilities

• Management experience is preferred but not essential for a strong SRE Engineer with aspirations to step into team leadership
• Several years of DevOps experience ideally in an ISP, Telco or other Managed Services environment or able to demonstrate experience in a complex heterogeneous environment
• Comfortable working with automation tools (Puppet, Azure DevOps, Git)
• Worked in complex networking and firewall environments
• Demonstratable experience in dealing with technical debt effectively
• Comfortable leading conversions to drive measurable improvement
• Very strong problem-solving skills are essential – has deep understanding devops and SRE concepts and being able to apply them to unfamiliar problems
• Patient & friendly with excellent interpersonal skills - demonstrate a natural aptitude for dealing with people
• Comfortable working with automation tools (Puppet, Ansible, Git), pipelines (Azure DevOps) and test automation
• Experience with CI/CD tooling (Azure DevOps)
• Comfortable with Elasticsearch log standardisation, Kibana dashboard creation and data analysis skills
• AWS hands on – Cloud formation, Route53, S3, DynamoDB, Cloud-watch, Lambda, Security, and troubleshooting, Azure experience also useful
• Certificate management and automation
• Strong troubleshooting and diagnosis skills
• Able to write documentation that covers what your peers and operations need to know
• Knowledge of Database systems and models
• Windows Server, SQL Server, IIS

Interpersonal Skills

We value interpersonal skills and responsible teamwork. You should be able to:

• Influence and lead.
• Support teammates.
• Take and give feedback to tune future actions and behaviours.
• Embrace and demonstrate Zen values and our happiness objectives.
• Be kind, understanding, and listen to others.
• Be organised.
• Have strong attention to detail.

About Zen

At Zen, we’re proud to do things differently. As the largest independently owned, and B Corp accredited, telecommunications and technology service provider in the UK, we’re not shackled by shareholders or short-term thinking, instead we strive for long-term goals that are aligned to our happiness objectives and driven by our desire to have a positive impact on our people, our customers, our partners, and the planet.

Grown from a pioneering ISP into a company that provides the full range of data, voice, hosting and cloud services to homes and businesses across the UK, we believe that good business is an ethical business, and we have two and a half decades of continuous growth to prove it.

Through our award-winning customer and technical support service we provide our customers with the capabilities they need to communicate, collaborate, and thrive in a highly connected world - supported by a highly robust and resilient independent network. Proud to be named the only Which? recommended provider for Broadband, winners of 18 consecutive PC Pro Best Broadband awards, a UK IT Industry Award for Services Company of the Year, and the UK Customer Experience Silver award for Technology & Telecoms.

We believe that business should be a force for good and we’re committed to improving the lives of our people, creating a better future through our community, charity and D&I work, and to make sure we look after our environment. Perhaps that is why we’re a certified Great Place to Work TM and B Corp Certified!

Free Zen broadband

Award winning broadband for free

Your Birthday off

Let’s celebrate!

Salary reviews

every 6 months

Over 13,000 courses available across all areas

Discretionary bonus

Charitable
Days

Two paid days a year for volunteering

25 days annual leave

(with option to buy/sell up to 5 days)

Pension

5% of salary paid by Zen, minimum of 3% paid by employee

20% Discount on local nursery (Rochdale office only)

10% off all plans with Honest Mobile

Private medical healthcare

with Benenden (Cash Plan also available)

Spread the cost of travel

People Friendly Policies

From enhanced maternity to menopause

Flexible Critical Illness

Financial protection if the worst were to happen

Car Salary Sacrifice

Hybrid & electric cars from Tusker

Life
Assurance

X2 as standard with the option to flex up

Retail
Discounts

100s of discounts from top brands

Electric Car Charging Points

Six electric car charging points onsite at Rochdale

Payroll
Giving

Tax free donations to charity through your salary

Save on cycling

Free Drinks

Free tea and coffee from our office kitchenettes

Free
Parking

Available at our Rochdale office

Team Engagement

For everyone per year towards team social events