Senior DevOps Engineer

Parkside; Watford; On-site; GBP 43,350 - 58,650; Full time

Job summary

Parkside in Watford is seeking a Senior DevOps Engineer to support development, delivery and transformation of DevOps services, cloud platforms and business applications. This is a senior technical role requiring leadership and hands-on expertise in Azure, CI/CD and data management.

You will mentor engineers, collaborate with IT Operations and vendors, and help drive secure, scalable, and reliable platforms while aligning with the organisation's digital strategy.

Qualifications

• Experience with Microsoft Azure and Azure DevOps.
• Ability to design and maintain CI/CD pipelines.
• Experience with SQL Server, MySQL, PostgreSQL.
• Knowledge of ETL and data warehousing concepts.

Responsibilities

• Support DevOps and cloud engineering initiatives.
• Design and maintain CI/CD pipelines and automation.
• Maintain documentation for repositories and infra.
• Collaborate with infra teams to ensure security and resilience.
• Lead ETL processes and data warehousing activities.
• Provide application support for core systems.
• Mentor DevOps engineers and promote best practices.
• Participate in major incidents and change control.

Skills

Microsoft Azure

Azure DevOps

CI/CD pipelines

Enterprise apps

SQL databases

ETL processes

Data warehousing

Infrastructure as Code

Scripting

Agile DevOps

Tools

Terraform

Kubernetes

PowerShell

Azure Data Factory

Azure SQL

Job description

Senior DevOps Engineer Location: Watford

Working Pattern: Primarily office-based

Salary: £51,000 per annum

Hours: Monday to Thursday 08:30 - 17:00, Friday 08:30 - 16:30

Reporting To IT Project Manager

About the Role

We are seeking an experienced Senior DevOps Engineer to support the development, delivery, and continuous improvement of DevOps services, cloud platforms, business applications, and technology projects. This is a senior technical role that combines DevOps engineering, application support, database management, cloud infrastructure, data warehousing, and technical leadership. You will work closely with IT Operations, Project Management, business stakeholders, and third-party suppliers to ensure critical systems remain secure, reliable, scalable, and performant. The successful candidate will also provide mentoring and technical guidance to DevOps Engineers while supporting the organisation's digital transformation strategy.

Key Responsibilities DevOps & Cloud Engineering

• Support the implementation and continual improvement of the DevOps function, including Microsoft Azure DevOps.
• Design, build and maintain CI/CD pipelines and deployment automation processes.
• Maintain documented code repositories, configurations and infrastructure standards.
• Work closely with infrastructure teams to ensure platforms are secure, resilient and optimised.
• Identify opportunities to automate processes and reduce manual operational effort.

Applications & Platform Support

• Act as technical architect and subject matter expert for business-critical applications.
• Support application integration, upgrades, patching, optimisation and release management.
• Provide application support for core and non-core business systems.
• Collaborate with business owners and third-party vendors on troubleshooting and enhancements.
• Ensure applications are monitored, documented and maintained to minimise technical debt.

Data & Database Management

• Support the design, implementation and enhancement of enterprise data warehouse solutions.
• Lead Extract, Transform and Load (ETL) processes and activities.
• Create, configure, maintain and support databases and database services.
• Optimise database performance, security and reliability.
• Support data integrations and reporting platforms.

Infrastructure & Systems Support

• Provide platform support for applications and operating systems.
• Support system builds, upgrades, releases, patching and fault resolution.
• Maintain and optimise environments including:
  • SQL Server
  • MySQL
  • PostgreSQL
  • Microsoft Dynamics 365
  • Learning Management Systems
  • Student Information Systems
  • Business Information Systems

Incident, Change & Service Management

• Act as part of the DevOps resolver team, resolving incidents and service requests within agreed service levels.
• Provide third-line technical support and escalation assistance.
• Participate in major incident management and root cause analysis.
• Maintain accurate records within the IT Service Management (ITSM) platform.
• Act as a permanent member of the Technical Change Board.
• Provide occasional out-of-hours support for critical incidents and upgrades.

Project Delivery

• Support the delivery of strategic technology projects and programmes.
• Lead technical workstreams and project activities where required.
• Produce and maintain project documentation.
• Ensure solutions align with technical standards and organisational objectives.

Leadership & Mentoring

• Mentor and support DevOps Engineers and technical team members.
• Contribute to technical skills development and knowledge sharing.
• Assist in maintaining technical skills matrices and training plans.
• Promote best practices across DevOps, cloud engineering and application support.
• Deputise for senior technical leadership when required.

Key Skills & Experience Essential

• Strong experience with Microsoft Azure and Azure DevOps.
• Experience building and maintaining CI/CD pipelines.
• Experience supporting enterprise applications and business systems.
• Strong database administration and support experience.
• Experience with SQL Server, MySQL and PostgreSQL.
• Knowledge of ETL processes and data warehousing concepts.
• Experience with cloud infrastructure, automation and Infrastructure as Code.
• Strong troubleshooting and third-line support experience.
• Experience with monitoring, logging and application performance management.
• Scripting and automation skills.
• Experience working within Agile and DevOps environments.

Desirable

• Microsoft Dynamics 365
• Data Warehouse technologies
• Learning Management Systems
• Terraform
• Kubernetes
• PowerShell
• Azure Data Factory
• Azure SQL
• Microsoft Fabric
• Cloud security and governance experience

General Responsibilities

• Participate in training, development and continuous professional development activities.
• Maintain awareness of current technologies, industry trends and best practices.
• Promote equality, diversity and inclusion.
• Comply with all health, safety, safeguarding and security requirements.
• Deliver a consistently high standard of customer service.
• Undertake additional duties as reasonably required by management.

Benefits & Additional Information

• Salary of £51,000 per annum
• Primarily office-based role in Watford
• Working hours 08:30 - 17:00 Monday to Thursday
• Early finish of 16:30 on Fridays
• Opportunity to work on cloud transformation, data warehouse development, DevOps automation, and enterprise applications within a broad technology environment.

Please note: The responsibilities outlined above are not exhaustive and may be amended from time to time to meet business requirements. They do not form part of any contract of employment.