Team Lead DevOps Engineer

Sopra Steria Limited; Cheltenham; On-site; GBP 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

Sopra Steria Limited is seeking a hands-on Team Lead to guide a multi-supplier delivery team within our Aerospace, Defence and Security account. You will shape technical direction, own architectural decisions, and ensure secure, reliable delivery across complex systems.

You will balance stakeholder expectations with risk management, lead incident and change triage, and mentor engineers to deliver robust solutions in a highly secure environment.

Qualifications

• Proven experience leading DevOps teams in complex, security‑critical environments.
• Strong technical leadership and architectural decision‑making.
• Ability to balance delivery deadlines with risk and security requirements.

Responsibilities

• Lead the DevOps delivery and guide the multi-supplier team.
• Set technical direction and priorities.
• Maintain documentation of system configurations and interfaces.
• Support the Service Delivery Manager to ensure timely service delivery.
• Oversee incident, change, and work item triage.
• Foster relationships with customers and partners to influence decisions.
• Promote adoption of secure, zero-trust principles where applicable.

Skills

Team leadership

DevOps leadership

CI/CD pipelines

Linux/Unix knowledge

Cloud platforms

System architecture

Incident management

Stakeholder management

Education

Bachelor's degree in a technical field

Tools

Terraform

Ansible

Kubernetes

Job description

Are you a hands-on technical leader who enjoys guiding teams through complex, mission-critical environments while still shaping the technical direction? Do you want your work to directly support national security outcomes? As a Team Lead, you'll play a key specialist role within our Aerospace, Defence and Security account. This role blends functional team leadership with technical architecture responsibilities, sitting at the heart of our DevOps delivery. You'll lead a skilled, multi-supplier delivery team, providing technical direction, prioritisation and support to ensure outcomes are delivered effectively and in line with customer methodologies. You'll act as a bridge between internal teams, customers and third-party partners, helping to balance risk, improve service quality and maintain system stability in a highly secure environment. This is a role for someone who enjoys influencing decisions, driving continuous improvement and working closely with stakeholders to improve user experience across complex systems. What you'll be doing:

• Leading DevOps delivery and associated project work across the delivery team.
• Guiding and supporting the team by prioritising work and providing expert technical direction.
• Owning and maintaining low-level technical understanding and documentation of system configurations and interfaces.
• Supporting the Service Delivery Manager to ensure timely and cost-effective service delivery.
• Managing investigation, triage and resolution of incidents, changes and stories.
• Building strong relationships with customers and partners to influence decision-making and prioritisation.
• Experience leading technical teams and inspiring people to deliver strong business outcomes.
• Strong understanding of system and application architectures across complex environments.
• Hands-on experience with DevOps, CI/CD pipelines and modern delivery practices.
• Experience working with on-premise infrastructure, Linux/Unix and cloud platforms.
• Knowledge of containerisation, microservices and automation technologies such as Terraform or Ansible.
• Ability to analyse user requirements and advise on scope and technical options.

It would be great if you had:

• Scripting experience.
• Knowledge of Zero Trust networking and secure-by-design principles.
• Experience integrating with existing systems and networks.
• Understanding of perimeter defences, anti-malware and IDPS concepts.

Sopra Steria's Aerospace, Defence and Security business designs, develops and deploys digital solutions to Central Government clients. The work we do makes a real difference to the client's goal of National Security, and we operate in a unique and privileged environment. We are given time for professional development activities, and we coach and mentor our colleagues, sharing knowledge and learning from each other. We foster a culture in which employees feel valued and supported and have pride in their work for the customer, delivering outstanding rates of customer satisfaction in the UK's most complex safety- and security-critical markets.