Senior Cloud Engineer

NEXT plc; Leicester; Hybrid; GBP 65,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

Next plc in Leicester is seeking a Cloud Engineer or Senior Cloud Engineer to design and deploy scalable, reliable platforms on Microsoft Azure and GCP, focusing on automation and modern engineering standards.

You will drive IaC with Terraform, automate provisioning of PaaS resources, enforce governance via Azure Policy, and implement proactive monitoring. At senior level, you’ll mentor juniors, run technical workshops, and translate complex business needs into high-level architecture.

Qualifications

• Proven experience with Azure governance and scaffolding.
• Strong networking architecture and identity management knowledge.
• Hands-on with Azure DevOps, CI/CD pipelines, Ansible, and PowerShell.
• Familiar with Azure SQL, AKS, and observability tools Log Analytics and App Insights.
• Ability to scope and translate complex requirements into architectures.

Responsibilities

• Develop IaC solutions using Terraform.
• Automate provisioning of PaaS tools and resources.
• Uphold infrastructure governance with Azure Policy.
• Implement monitoring and reliability measures; participate in incident response.
• Collaborate across technology teams for seamless IT integration.
• Senior level: mentor juniors, lead workshops, translate needs into architecture.

Skills

Azure Foundations

GCP knowledge

Networking architecture

Identity management

Azure DevOps

CI/CD pipelines

Ansible

PowerShell

Azure SQL

AKS

Observability (Log Analytics)

Observability (App Insights)

Tools

Terraform

Azure Policy

Log Analytics

App Insights

AKS

Job description

The Role

As a Cloud Engineer or Senior Cloud Engineer, you will be a vital contributor to the creation and enhancement of our technology landscape, ensuring our systems are scalable, reliable, and secure. You will collaborate closely with architects and key stakeholders to design and deploy robust platforms across both Microsoft Azure and GCP. Whether you are joining us at an engineer or senior level, you will play a transformative role in shaping our infrastructure through automation and modern engineering standards.

What You’ll Take On:

In this role, your day-to-day focus will be on driving technical excellence and platform stability through the following activities:

• Developing IaC Solutions: Leading the creation and maintenance of Infrastructure-as-Code solutions and centralised modules using Terraform.
• Automating Provisioning: Streamlining the management of platform resources and ensuring consistent deployment of PaaS-based tools like serverless functions, databases, and containers.
• Infrastructure Governance: Utilising Azure Policy and internal standards to maintain high levels of configuration integrity and security.
• Monitoring & Reliability: Implementing proactive alerting and monitoring to resolve issues early, while participating in incident response and disaster recovery.
• Cross-Team Collaboration: Working with wider technology teams to ensure seamless integration across our IT infrastructure.
• Senior Leadership (for Senior level): Coaching junior team members through code reviews, leading technical workshops, and translating complex business needs into high-level architectural designs.

What You’ll Bring:

We are looking for a proactive engineer who combines deep technical knowledge with the ability to communicate effectively with stakeholders. To succeed in this role, you should offer:

• Proven experience with Azure Foundations (governance and scaffolding) and a working knowledge of GCP.
• A strong understanding of networking architecture (Express Route, Virtual Networks, Firewalls) and identity management via EntraID and RBAC.
• Hands-on experience with Azure DevOps, CI/CD pipelines, Ansible, and PowerShell.
• Familiarity with Azure SQL, AKS, and observability tools like Log Analytics and App Insights.
• The confidence to scope and plan complex projects, translating requirements into pragmatic solutions.
• Act as a natural mentor, coaching junior team members through code reviews and technical guidance to foster professional growth.
• Lead technical workshops, develop engineering standards, and endorse cloud best practices across the organisation.
• Take the lead in translating complex business requirements into high-level architectural designs, ensuring long-term scalability and alignment with the broader IT strategy.
• Serve as a crucial point of escalation and take a lead role in coordinating the resolution of major technical issues and incidents.

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