Senior DevOps Engineer

SMG

Greater London

Hybrid

GBP 80,000 - 110,000

Full time

41 hours ago

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Benefits offered by this job

10% discretionary bonus

£1,800 yearly wellbeing fund (on top –

Free Headspace subscription

£500 yearly Uni Fund for learning

4 extra Wellbeing Days off per year

Summer & Winter conferences + year‑old

4pm finishes every Friday

Flexible and hybrid working

Job summary

SMG is seeking a Senior DevOps Engineer to join our Engineering Team. You’ll design, build and operate the platform powering our products, embedding into cross-functional squads with Azure as the primary cloud and AWS as a secondary environment.

You’ll lead Azure platform setup, implement IaC with Terraform, design CI/CD pipelines using Azure DevOps and Bitbucket Pipelines, and manage observability with Datadog while embedding security and cost governance.

Qualifications

Proven DevOps/SRE experience supporting cloud-based SaaS platforms.
Working knowledge of AWS with Azure as the primary focus.
CI/CD pipeline authoring: Azure DevOps, Bitbucket Pipelines and/or GitHub Actions.
Observability tooling: Datadog - metrics, tracing, logging, and SLI/SLO definition.
Incident management: comfortable running on-call and leading blameless postmortems.
Strong scripting and automation skills: Python, Bash, or PowerShell.
Strong written communication - clear runbooks, playbooks and documentation.
Comfortable working across multiple squads with shifting context and priorities.

Responsibilities

Own and evolve Azure cloud foundations: subscriptions, management groups, policies, landing zones, networking (VNETs, peering, hybrid connectivity), and identity (Azure AD / Entra ID)
Manage day-to-day Azure operations and be the go-to Azure expert across engineering.
Support and maintain live AWS infrastructure alongside the existing DevOps Engineers. AWS remains an active secondary environment.
Write and maintain IaC using Terraform for Azure-native resources. Build automation, GitOps patterns, and self-service platform tooling.
Design, build and maintain CI/CD pipelines using Azure DevOps as the primary tool, alongside BitBucket Pipelines where in use.
Operate our observability stack (Datadog) across all environments. Define and maintain SLOs, SLI dashboards, incident response runbooks and playbooks.
Embed security best practices into platform and pipeline design. Participate in audit remediation, manage cloud cost optimisation, and enforce tagging and governance standards across Azure and AWS environments.
Mentor engineering teams on DevOps and SRE practices. Author clear, actionable, version-controlled runbooks and onboarding guides that enable self-service.

Skills

DevOps

SRE

Azure

AWS

CI/CD

Terraform

Datadog

Python

Bash

PowerShell

On-call

Documentation

Tools

Azure DevOps

Bitbucket Pipelines

GitHub Actions

Terraform

Datadog

Job description

Location: Mainly remote - with minimum once a month travel to our London office

Who are we?

We’re the original pioneers in connected commerce marketing. Since 2008, we’ve been partnering with major retailers, powering global brands, and building meaningful connections with shoppers.

We simplify the mind-boggling complexity of today’s retail media landscape. We deliver impactful campaigns that connect with people where it matters. We create seamless and personalised shopping experiences. Above all, we deliver amazing results for our partners, driven by our unshakeable desire for growth. Time after time, we change the game. SMG is home to a world-class suite of commerce advertising capabilities powered by data and cutting-edge technology. We constantly push ourselves, our tech and our industry to discover innovative new ways to connect, sell and grow.

About the role

We are looking for a Senior DevOps Engineer to join our Engineering Team.

As a Senior DevOps Engineer you will design, build and operate the platform that powers SMG products and will work as part of a cross-cutting DevOps function that embeds directly into product engineering squads. Azure is our primary cloud and the core focus of this role.

You will lead Azure platform setup, cloud foundations, and day-to-day operations, while also supporting and integrating with live AWS infrastructure, which remains in active use as a secondary environment, as well as partnering with engineering teams to deliver a reliable, observable, secure, and cost-effective platform that enables safe, repeatable delivery across all cloud environments.

What you’ll do

Own and evolve Azure cloud foundations: subscriptions, management groups, policies, landing zones, networking (VNETs, peering, hybrid connectivity), and identity (Azure AD / Entra ID)
Manage day-to-day Azure operations and be the go-to Azure expert across engineering.
Support and maintain live AWS infrastructure alongside the existing DevOps Engineers. AWS remains an active secondary environment. You will need to be comfortable operating in it even though Azure is your primary focus.
Write and maintain IaC using Terraform for Azure-native resources. Build automation, GitOps patterns, and self-service platform tooling that enables development teams to provision and operate infrastructure reliably.
Design, build and maintain CI/CD pipelines using Azure DevOps as the primary tool, alongside BitBucket Pipelines where in use.
Operate our observability stack (Datadog) across all environments. Define and maintain SLOs, SLI dashboards, incident response runbooks and playbooks. Lead blameless postmortems and on-call processes.
Embed security best practices into platform and pipeline design. Participate in audit remediation, manage cloud cost optimisation, and enforce tagging and governance standards across Azure and AWS environments.
Mentor engineering teams on DevOps and SRE practices. Author clear, actionable, version-controlled runbooks and onboarding guides that enable self-service. Bring DevOps thinking into the squads you embed with.

What we’re looking for

Proven DevOps/SRE experience supporting cloud-based SaaS platforms.
Working knowledge of AWS and comfort operating in it as a secondary live environment
CI/CD pipeline authoring: Azure DevOps, BitBucket Pipelines and/or GitHub Actions.
Observability tooling: Datadog - metrics, tracing, logging, and SLI/SLO definition.
Incident management: comfortable running on-call and leading blameless postmortems.
Strong scripting and automation skills: Python, Bash, or PowerShell.
Strong written communication - clear runbooks, playbooks and documentation.
Comfortable working across multiple squads with shifting context and priorities.

Nice to have

Azure certifications (AZ-104, AZ-400 or equivalent).
AWS certifications.
Experience with chaos engineering and capacity planning.

We're looking for people who enjoy the buzz of change, the satisfaction of building something better, and the joy of working with a close-knit, values-driven team. If you love variety, thrive in a fast-paced environment, and embrace change with energy, this could be your right role.

Don’t meet every single requirement? We still want to hear from you. If you believe you’d thrive in this role, your unique perspective might be just what we’re looking for.

Why SMG?

At SMG, we hire for the future, which is fast-moving and changing shape. Do you have the potential to help shape our business? We’re looking for brilliant, diverse talent who want to grow with us - people who are curious, ambitious, and eager to learn, whether as specialists or across teams.

We value those who take ownership of their growth and bring fresh perspectives. That’s why we’re committed to equity, inclusion, and building a place where everyone feels empowered to grow. At SMG, it’s not just about filling a role but building the future together.