Senior DevOps Engineer - Kafka - real time, event driven, secure at Scale!

ZipRecruiter; London; Hybrid; GBP 75,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job summary

A pioneering UK tech company seeks a Senior DevOps Engineer to enhance their next-gen platform. You'll design and deploy scalable infrastructure using technologies like Kubernetes and Kafka while collaborating with multi-disciplinary teams to ensure performance and security. This role offers flexible working arrangements and direct access to architectural decisions. Ideal candidates are experienced in DevOps with a strong focus on system security and automation.

Benefits

Flexible working in a high-trust culture

Direct access to the CTO

Chance to shape a modern platform

Qualifications

• 5+ years in DevOps, SRE, or infrastructure engineering.
• Hands-on experience with Kubernetes, Helm, and Terraform in production.
• Proven Kafka experience in real-time, event-driven architectures at scale.
• Experience working in security-conscious environments.

Responsibilities

• Designing and deploying Kubernetes infrastructure using Helm and Terraform.
• Building and managing secure, automated CI/CD pipelines.
• Automating provisioning and scaling for Redis, Kafka, and PostgreSQL.
• Implementing observability and monitoring.

Skills

Kubernetes

Helm

Terraform

Kafka

CI/CD pipelines

Linux

Go

Bash

Job description

Job Description

️ Senior DevOps Engineer – Kafka - real time, event driven, secure at Scale!

We are partnering with a pioneering UK tech company who are building their next-gen platform, blending rock-solid reliability with real-time data and secure collaboration at scale. They’re looking for a Senior DevOps Engineer to join their engineering team and play a key role in scaling and securing infrastructure across these high-impact, real-world use cases.

What the Senior DevOps Engineer will be doing:

Designing and deploying Kubernetes- infrastructure using Helm and Terraform

Building and managing secure, automated CI/CD pipelines (GitHub Actions, ArgoCD)

Automating provisioning and scaling for Redis, Kafka, and PostgreSQL

Implementing observability and monitoring (Prometheus, Grafana, Loki, etc.)

Managing and access control frameworks (Keycloak or similar)

Championing infrastructure security best practices: RBAC, secrets management, hardening

Collaborating with backend and AI engineers to ensure performance and reliability

Supporting cloud and on-premise deployments in secure and civilian domains

Maintaining existing legacy systems during the transition to a new platform

What they’re looking for in a Senior DevOps Engineer:

• 5+ years in DevOps, SRE, or infrastructure engineering
• Hands-on Kubernetes, Helm, and Terraform experience in production
• Proven Kafka experience in real-time, event-driven architectures at scale
• Experience with modern CI/CD pipelines
• Solid Linux knowledge (networking, secure operations)
• Scripting in Go or Bash
• Experience working in security-conscious environments
• Eligible for UK SC (Security Check) clearance – they’ll support clearance for the right person!

️ Bonus experience:

• Redis clustering, PostgreSQL tuning, or similar database expertise
• Exposure to zero-trust architectures or compliance frameworks
• Familiarity with Vault or WireGuard

Location & Flexibility:

The company is remote-friendly across the UK, with a well-equipped office in central London you’re welcome to use as much as you like. Ideally, they’re looking for someone in or near London/South East to join occasional meetups or workshops (always with notice).

Why you’ll love it:

• Real-world impact in civilian, public sector, and secure environments
• Flexible working in a high-trust, engineering-focused culture
• Competitive salary and equity
• Direct access to the CTO and architecture decisions
• Chance to shape a modern platform from the ground up, while ensuring stability during the transition

Security Clearance details:

To be eligible, you’ll need to have lived in the UK for the past 5 years, with no major criminal or financial issues and verifiable references. Already cleared? Even better.

Sound like your next DevOps challenge? Let’s chat!

Drop me your CV if you’d like to learn more about this role and the pioneering UK tech company behind it.