Principal EngineerSoftware Engineering (Specialist Softwa

Morson Group; Frimley; Hybrid; GBP 70,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

Morson Group is seeking an experienced DevOps Engineer in Frimley for a 12‑month initial contract with hybrid working (2–3 days on site). You will shape containerised workloads within a core CI environment, leading architecture decisions for Kubernetes‑based CI capabilities and mentoring engineers.

This architecture‑led role focuses on secure, scalable platforms and long‑term technical leadership across delivery programmes, balancing governance, cost, and developer experience.

Qualifications

• Five years’ experience designing, building and maintaining on‑prem Kubernetes clusters.
• Experience developing and deploying applications on Kubernetes.
• Deep understanding of Kubernetes platform architecture beyond cluster operations.
• Experience integrating Kubernetes with CI/CD and DevSecOps tooling.
• Knowledge of container supply chain security and Linux OS.

Responsibilities

• Define workload isolation, networking, artefact flows, autoscaling for Kubernetes CI workloads.
• Lead on‑premises Kubernetes deployment, maintenance, experimentation and analysis.
• Assess impact of external services on CI designs.
• Produce technical findings, design recommendations and change specifications.
• Mentor less‑experienced engineers and provide technical guidance.
• Set standards and influence design decisions for multiple teams.

Skills

Kubernetes design

CI/CD

DevSecOps

Ansible

Infrastructure as Code

Linux

Networking

Leadership

Tools

Kubernetes

Argo CD

Flux

BuildKit

Kaniko

Ansible

Job description

12-month initial contract Frimley Hybrid working (2–3 days on site per week)

The Opportunity

We are seeking an experienced DevOps Engineer to shape the introduction of containerised workloads into a core continuous integration environment. This is an architecture-led, hands‑on role focused on establishing a secure, scalable and maintainable platform rather than simply deploying or administering clusters.

You will work closely with engineering leadership to define the architectural approach, engineering standards and adoption roadmap for Kubernetes-based CI capabilities. The role combines immediate integration, experimentation and analysis with longer‑term technical leadership across multiple delivery programmes, balancing delivery needs, cost efficiency, governance and developer experience.

• Define the end-to-end architecture for CI workloads running on Kubernetes.
• Lead hands‑on work in an on-premises Kubernetes environment, including deployment, maintenance, experimentation and analysis.
• Assess the impact of integrating external infrastructure services into existing CI designs.
• Produce technical findings, design recommendations and change specifications.
• Provide technical guidance and mentor less‑experienced engineers.

Key Responsibilities

• Target architecture: Define workload isolation, networking, artefact flows, autoscaling and resource‑management approaches for Kubernetes-based CI workloads.
• Secure container supply chain: Design image build, scanning and promotion processes, registry architecture, environment separation, policy enforcement and secrets‑management integration.
• Observability and operations: Establish logging, metrics, monitoring, platform‑level visibility and alerting.
• Migration strategy: Identify candidate workloads and create a phased adoption plan with clear risk controls and rollback strategies.
• Technical delivery: Deploy and maintain on‑premises clusters and lead implementation experiments, testing and impact analysis.
• Engineering leadership: Set standards, influence design decisions, communicate findings and support the technical development of team members.

Essential Experience and Skills

• Strong experience designing, building and maintaining on‑premises Kubernetes clusters; around five years’ relevant experience is preferred.
• Proven experience developing and deploying applications hosted on Kubernetes.
• Deep understanding of Kubernetes platform architecture, not only cluster operations.
• Experience integrating Kubernetes with CI/CD and DevSecOps tooling.
• Knowledge of container supply chain security.
• Experience with Ansible and Infrastructure as Code.
• Knowledge of IP‑based network design and Linux operating systems.
• Ability to operate at engineering leadership and architecture level.
• Experience designing platforms and governance models for multiple engineering teams.

Desirable Experience

• GitOps tools such as Argo CD or Flux.
• Cloud‑native build tooling such as BuildKit or Kaniko.
• Experience in complex, enterprise‑scale engineering environments.