Principal DevOps Engineer (Azure)

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

Job summary

Digital Waffle in Nottingham is seeking a hands-on Senior DevOps/Platform Engineer to shape cloud infrastructure and automation. You will work with dev, infra and security teams, acting as a technical escalation point and guiding best practices across the engineering function.

You’ll design and maintain Azure infrastructure with Terraform, manage AKS production environments, implement GitOps with ArgoCD and CI/CD pipelines, and drive platform observability and security across the stack.

Qualifications

• Strong Azure expertise required for enterprise scale.
• Proven Terraform/IaC background across environments.
• Production Kubernetes (AKS) experience essential.
• CI/CD pipelines design and implementation experience.
• GitOps experience with ArgoCD or equivalents.
• Docker/containerised environments knowledge.
• Helm-based deployment expertise.
• Scripting in Python/Bash for automation.
• Cloud security, IAM/RBAC, secure CI/CD practices.
• Strong Linux admin and troubleshooting skills.
• Architecture, design docs and engineering standards contribution.
• Ability to communicate technical concepts to varied stakeholders.
• Mentoring engineers or senior technical point of contact.
• Experience in regulated/compliance-focused contexts.

Responsibilities

• Design, build and maintain scalable Azure infra using IaC.
• Manage production Kubernetes/AKS environments, upgrades and security.
• Establish GitOps and CI/CD practices with GitHub Actions, Azure DevOps, ArgoCD.
• Create reusable Terraform modules and deployment templates.
• Design Azure networking and security controls (VNets, firewalls).
• Implement cloud security practices across IAM, container security.
• Develop Helm charts and standardised deployment processes.
• Improve observability with monitoring/logging/tracing tools.
• Automate repetitive tasks with Python/Bash.
• Contribute to architectural designs and platform roadmaps.
• Enhance developer experience with tooling and self-service.
• Provide senior technical guidance and mentoring.
• Support platform evolution, including autoscaling and progressive delivery.

Skills

Azure

Terraform

Kubernetes

GitOps

CI/CD

Docker

Helm

Python

Bash

Scripting

Security

RBAC

Linux

Observability

Tools

GitHub Actions

Azure DevOps

ArgoCD

AKS

Grafana

Loki

OpenTelemetry

Entra ID

PIM

Istio

Cilium

KEDA

Karpenter

Falco

Kyverno

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