Operations Engineer

GradBay; Wallingford; On-site; GBP 45,000 - 65,000; Full time

Job summary

GradBay is recruiting an experienced Operations Engineer to join a growing technology team focused on reliability, performance and security of critical digital platforms.

The role covers database administration, infrastructure support, monitoring, backups and operational improvements across on‑premises and AWS environments. Expect hands‑on work with MySQL, MSSQL, PostgreSQL, Linux, Windows, VMware and cloud services.

Qualifications

• Experience administering MySQL, MSSQL and PostgreSQL databases.
• Strong Linux and Windows server familiarity with on‑premises and cloud environments.
• Hands‑on experience with AWS services and infrastructure automation.

Responsibilities

• Administer, monitor and optimise databases (MySQL, MSSQL, PostgreSQL) and related infrastructure.
• Support reliability, performance, backups and disaster recovery.
• Maintain Linux/Windows and VMware infrastructure across on‑premises and cloud.
• Monitor systems, respond to incidents and improve alerting and dashboards.
• Automate routine tasks using scripting and IaC tools; document changes.

Skills

MySQL

Microsoft SQL Server

PostgreSQL

Linux

Windows

VMware

Monitoring tools

Backups

AWS

Scripting (Bash or Python)

Tools

AWS

Terraform

CloudFormation

Puppet

Prometheus

Grafana

Loki

CheckMK

GitLab

VMware

pfSense / Cisco Meraki

Job description

• Location: Wallingford, Oxfordshire, England.
• Contract: Permanent, full-time
• Hours: 37.5 hours per week, Monday to Friday

We are recruiting an experienced Operations Engineer to join a growing technology team responsible for the reliability, performance and security of business-critical digital platforms.

This is a hands‑on role covering database administration, infrastructure support, monitoring, backups, cloud services and operational improvements across both on-premises and AWS environments.

The role would suit someone with strong experience across MySQL, Microsoft SQL Server, PostgreSQL, Linux, Windows, VMware, monitoring tools and backup management, who enjoys keeping complex systems stable, secure and performing well.

The role

As Operations Engineer, you will help manage and improve the infrastructure, databases and operational systems that support a busy digital platform estate.

Your initial focus will be the administration, optimisation and reliability of the database environment, including MySQL, MSSQL and PostgreSQL, alongside broader operational responsibilities across Linux servers, Windows systems, VMware virtualisation, cloud backups, monitoring, networking and AWS services.

You will take ownership of operational tasks, respond to incidents, support patching and maintenance, improve monitoring coverage and help automate routine processes.

This role includes occasional out‑of‑hours work for critical incidents, updates and patching where required.

About you

You will be methodical, dependable and comfortable taking ownership of technical systems. You will enjoy solving problems, improving reliability and working across a broad range of infrastructure, database and cloud technologies.

You do not need to be an AWS expert, but you should have a genuine interest in learning cloud services and modern infrastructure practices.

This is a strong opportunity for an Operations Engineer, Infrastructure Engineer, Systems Administrator, Database Administrator or Platform Support Engineer who wants a varied role across databases, infrastructure, monitoring, backups, cloud and automation.

Key responsibilities

• Administer, monitor and optimise MySQL, Microsoft SQL Server and PostgreSQL databases
• Support database reliability, performance, backups and disaster recovery
• Maintain Linux, Windows and VMware infrastructure across on‑premises and cloud environments
• Monitor systems, investigate incidents and improve alerting, dashboards and reporting
• Support patching, updates, security and operational maintenance
• Work with AWS services, with training provided where needed
• Automate routine tasks using scripting or infrastructure tools
• Maintain clear operational documentation and support change‑management processes
• Work closely with engineering and product teams to improve platform reliability
• Hands‑on database administration experience with MySQL, MSSQL and/or PostgreSQL
• Experience with Windows servers and VMware virtualisation
• Experience with monitoring tools, alerting and incident response
• Understanding of backups, recovery processes and disaster recovery
• Working knowledge of networking concepts, including DNS, routing and firewalls
• Comfortable troubleshooting infrastructure, database and platform issues
• Strong attention to detail and a proactive approach to reliability and improvement
• Clustered database environments
• AWS services such as RDS, Aurora, S3, Lambda, CloudFront, Route 53, ALB/NLB or DMS
• Bash or Python scripting
• Terraform, CloudFormation, Puppet or other infrastructure‑as‑code tools
• Prometheus, Grafana, Loki, CheckMK or similar monitoring tools
• GitLab
• Cisco Meraki, pfSense or similar networking technologies

Ubuntu Linux, MySQL, Microsoft SQL Server, PostgreSQL, Bash, Python, VMware, AWS, Terraform, CloudFormation, Puppet, Prometheus, Grafana, Loki, CheckMK, GitLab, Microsoft Entra ID / Active Directory, Cisco Meraki, pfSense and Dell hardware.