Senior Devops / Automation Engineer

Experis (Austria); United Kingdom; Remote; GBP 92,000 - 105,000; Full time

Job summary

Experis is seeking a Senior DevOps/Automation Engineer for a remote, 6-month contract. You will design and deliver automation across IBM Z and distributed platforms, embracing Python, Ansible, and observability tooling to create scalable, auditable automation services.

You will work with a broad stack including Python, PostgreSQL, Jenkins, GitHub, and Vault for secure credential management, delivering production-grade automation with strong governance and compliance patterns.

Qualifications

• Strong Python development and production code quality.
• Experience with PostgreSQL schemas and query tuning.
• YAML-based automation definitions and Git-based CI/CD practices.
• Jenkins pipeline development (Groovy) and Ansible Automation Platform (AAP).
• Grafana dashboards and observability tooling; Vault integration for secrets.

Responsibilities

• Design and build robust automation using Python and YAML.
• Develop and maintain Ansible playbooks for production orchestration.
• Implement CI/CD pipelines in GitHub and Jenkins; manage branches and PRs.
• Design dashboards and telemetry pipelines with Grafana and Splunk integration.
• Ensure secure secrets handling with HashiCorp Vault.

Skills

Python

PostgreSQL

YAML

CI/CD

GitHub/Jenkins

Ansible

Grafana

Vault

z/OS

Automation

Tools

Nexus

Splunk

Job description

Senior DevOps / Automation Engineer

Location: Remote

Contract Length: 6 months

Rate: £500 - £570

Role Purpose

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).
• CI/CD & DevOps Toolchain Integration: Build and maintain pipelines in GitHub and Jenkins (including Groovy-based pipeline development). 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 (e.g. Splunk). Build automated compliance and drift dashboards.
• 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 lifecycle 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.

Required Technical Skills

Core

• 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.
• IBM Z familiarity (z/OS concepts, JCL, batch scheduling). z/OS workflow tooling such as IBM z/OSMF and/or Zowe CLI. Experience with enterprise schedulers (e.g., IWS patterns). Configuration drift management frameworks. API integration design. Infrastructure-as-Code governance models. Observability exporters and metrics pipelines. Experience in regulated financial environments.