Mainframe Ansible Engineer/Senior Devops

eTeam Workforce Limited; Sheffield; Hybrid; GBP 70,000 - 110,000; Full time

Job summary

Global Recruitment specialist in Sheffield seeks a Senior Mainframe Ansible Engineer to drive automation across IBM Z and distributed platforms. Three days onsite per week, 30/04/2027 duration, focusing on production-grade automation, CI/CD integration, and governance.

You'll work with Python, YAML, Ansible, Jenkins, GitHub, Nexus, Grafana and Vault to build scalable automation and observable pipelines across a global estate.

Qualifications

• Production-grade automation design across IBM Z and distributed platforms.
• Experience with CI/CD pipelines and automation tooling.
• Strong scripting in Python and YAML for orchestration.

Responsibilities

• Design and build robust automation using Python and YAML.
• Develop and maintain Ansible playbooks for production orchestration.
• Ensure idempotent, restartable automation patterns across IBM Z and distributed platforms.
• Integrate automation with CI/CD pipelines and observability tooling.
• Implement security and secrets management within automation workflows.

Skills

Python

PostgreSQL

YAML

Git

Jenkins

Ansible

Grafana

Nexus

HashiCorp Vault

IAM/Secrets

Tools

AAP

GitHub

Jenkins

Grafana

Nexus

Vault

Job description

We are a Global Recruitment specialist that provides support to the clients across EMEA, APAC, US and Canada. We have an excellent job opportunity for you.

Role Title: Mainframe Ansible Engineer/Senior DevOps/Automation Engineer (IBM Z & Hybrid Platform)
Location: Sheffield- 3 days onsite/week
Duration: 30/04/2027

Role Description

• We are delivering a strategic automation and DevOps modernisation programme across IBM Z and distributed platforms. This role will design and engineer production grade automation, CI/CD integration, compliance verification, observability pipelines, and secure orchestration capabilities across a global estate.
• You will work across Python, PostgreSQL, Git based workflows, Jenkins pipelines, Ansible orchestration, secrets management, artefact management, and observability tooling to build resilient, auditable and scalable automation services.

Key Responsibilities

Automation Engineering & Orchestration

• Design and build robust automation using Python and YAML.
• Develop and maintain Ansible playbooks in Ansible Automation Platform (AAP) for production orchestration.
• Ensure idempotent, restartable and state-aware automation patterns.
• Integrate automation across distributed and IBM Z platforms (including z/OS job execution patterns where relevant).
• Implement failure handling, retry logic and operational guardrails.

CI/CD & DevOps Toolchain Integration

• Build and maintain pipelines in GitHub and Jenkins (including Groovy-based pipeline development).
• Embed automated compliance checks and quality gates.
• Integrate artefact management via Nexus Repository.
• Support Git based workflow design (branching strategy, pull requests, code reviews, tagging and release patterns).

Observability & Monitoring

• Design dashboards and telemetry pipelines using Grafana.
• Integrate logging/metrics with enterprise observability platforms (eg Splunk).
• Build automated compliance and drift dashboards.
• Create structured reporting for audit and operational governance.

Data & Persistence

• Design schemas and automation state handling in PostgreSQL.
• Implement run state tracking, job history retention, and audit evidence capture.
• Optimise queries and data handling for operational reliability.

Security & Secrets Management

• Implement secure secret handling using HashiCorp Vault.
• Integrate Vault with CI/CD and AAP workflows.
• Apply least privilege principles and secure credential life cycle management.
• Contribute to enterprise standards for secrets, tokens and service accounts.

Governance, Standards & Compliance

• Embed compliance verification into pipelines (automated controls, evidence capture).
• Contribute to standards for GitHub, Jenkins, AAP and workflow governance.
• Support configuration drift detection and remediation automation.
• Ensure documentation suitable for internal risk, audit and regulatory stakeholders.

Required Technical Skills

• Strong Python development (production quality code, modular design, error handling, logging, testing).
• PostgreSQL (schema design, performance tuning, operational usage).
• YAML (clean, structured automation definitions).
• Git and Git based CI/CD practices.
• Jenkins pipeline development (Groovy).
• Experience with enterprise scale Ansible via AAP.
• Grafana dashboard development and metrics interpretation.
• Nexus or equivalent artefact repository management.
• HashiCorp Vault integration and secrets automation.

Engineering Expectations

• Design automation as resilient systems, not scripts.
• Build restartable and observable workflows.
• Engineer for failure scenarios (network issues, partial job completion, region specific failure cases).
• Balance simplicity with production robustness.
• Document patterns reusable across global regions.
• Think in terms of architecture, not just tooling.

Behavioural & Leadership Attributes

• Structured, systems level thinker.
• Comfortable operating in a complex enterprise estate.
• Able to collaborate across distributed, Mainframe and infrastructure teams.
• Pragmatic but disciplined in standards enforcement.
• Comfortable engaging with risk, audit and governance functions.
• Drives automation by design rather than manual workaroun