TechOps Architect

Octopus Energy Ltd; Ambleside; On-site; GBP 70,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading energy solutions provider in the UK is seeking a TechOps Architect to define strategies, tackle technical issues, and mentor a lean team. The successful candidate will lead architectural decisions impacting user experience across the company. You will work collaboratively with various teams and manage projects involving Identity & Access Management and automation, ensuring optimal user support and experience. This is an opportunity to shape a modern TechOps environment focused on scalable solutions.

Qualifications

• Experience with automated error-prone task automation.
• Strong opinions on best practices in TechOps.
• Capacity to manage ambiguity across multiple projects.

Responsibilities

• Define processes for a small TechOps team.
• Tackle technical issues as the company scales.
• Collaborate with the Security team on best practices.
• Manage complex technical projects with multiple stakeholders.

Skills

Scripting

APIs Automation

Identity & Access Management

Technical Mentoring

Tools

Okta

Microsoft Entra

JumpCloud

PingIdentity

macOS deployment (Munki, AutoPkg)

Windows deployment (Chocolatey, PowerShell)

Job description

We’re looking for a knowledgeable and experienced TechOps Architect to help shape how we support people across the business - someone who can lead with clarity, build with empathy, and bring a mix of technical depth and sound judgment. There's loads to get stuck into, from identity management and scripting to device management and scalable tooling, areas where most of our work sits and where we need thoughtful, sustainable solutions. You’ll play an important role in shaping how we work: setting direction without overcomplicating things, supporting the team with care, and balancing technical curiosity with a down‑to‑earth mindset. We’re after someone who can spot where things could be better, help others grow, and make improvements that stick. If you’re excited about solving meaningful problems and shaping how TechOps supports a growing, people‑first business - we’d love to chat. What is TechOps? A more modern, more lean version of a traditional enterprise IT team. We cover everything from what most people would call “1st line support” all the way up to high‑level strategic planning, and everything in between. We focus on advising rather than enforcing, and give people the autonomy to work with technology to solve their problems in the way that works best for them. We’re an autonomous team who look after a wide range of technology across the business. We empower teams to do the best work they can whilst keeping things running efficiently in the background. We tackle big problems and the breadth of work is huge. Dealing with ambiguity is a key part of working in TechOps, and every day will be a new and exciting one, working on varying challenges across the company. We have a cloud‑first approach to everything we do. This allows us to scale quickly and focus on things where we can add the most value. No on‑prem AD here!

About the role

As a TechOps Architect, you will be responsible for high‑level strategic and architectural technical decisions around the business. We also strongly believe that no matter what role you have within TechOps, it's still important to keep your ear to the ground and see, first hand, the problems our users are facing, and the impact that decisions you make have on everyone at Octopus. This means you’ll spend some of your time helping out with day‑to‑day “1st, 2nd and 3rd line” support. You’ll have a wide breadth of knowledge and experience across all areas of IT, but also an immensely deep understanding of many of those areas too. You’ll likely be an acknowledged expert among your peers in Identity and Access Management, and have a passion for hacking and building. You will have interest and/or experience in related areas like software engineering, security, platform architecture, UI/UX design etc. Roles that you might currently be in: IAM Engineer, Tech Lead, Lead/Senior Support Engineer, Site Reliability Engineer, Systems Architect, Systems Designer, Senior Systems Engineer, Workplace Technology Architect, Solutions Architect.

What you’ll do

• Define what good looks like for a small and lean TechOps team.
• Tackle some of the toughest technical issues as we scale to tens of thousands of people.
• Make wide‑scale strategic technical decisions across the whole Octopus Energy Group, globally.
• Design, build and continually improve processes, automations and systems that will improve user experience, remove inefficiencies, allow us to scale quickly and keep our team small.
• Mentor the wider TechOps team, providing support and guidance for any technical project they may be working on. (This role will not involve directly managing people).
• Support the rest of the team in providing delightful day‑to‑day technical support to all areas of the business, to ensure our incredible employees are able to do their job as efficiently as possible. Their problems are our problems.
• Collaborate closely with our Security team to ensure we strike the right balance between security, productivity and user experience.
• Managing supplier relationships and the procurement process for SaaS and hardware.
• Lead and manage complex technical projects with multiple stakeholders from around the business.

Examples of some TechOps projects include

• Rollout of, and migration to, a new identity provider mac OS and Windows MDM migration
• Rollout of a new device trust and posture compliance solution
• The replacement of insecure factors like SMS with phishing‑resistant factors
• Office fit‑outs, including tech like network infrastructure, AV and access control SaaS migrations for acquisitions, including Microsoft 365 to Google Workspace

Experience leading on a range of technical projects across various technologies and platforms.

Required Experience

• Experience with scripting, using APIs and automating mundane, error‑prone repetitive tasks.
• To be comfortable with a huge amount of ambiguity and spinning a lot of plates all at the same time.
• Experience working with multiple teams and managing multiple stakeholders.
• Experience supporting, managing and deploying applications to macOS, Windows, iOS and Android devices.
• Understanding at the API level of Mobile Device Management systems and principles.
• Experience with modern Identity & Access Management systems, including Okta, Microsoft Entra, JumpCloud, PingIdentity.
• Experience administering and troubleshooting Single Sign‑On (SSO) technologies such as OAuth, OIDC and SAML and Identity provisioning technologies such as SCIM.
• Understanding at a protocol level of Single Sign‑On (SSO) and identity provisioning technologies such as OAuth, OIDC, SAML and SCIM.
• Ability to explain technical concepts to non‑technical, senior stakeholders.
• Experience mentoring less experienced team members.
• A conscientious approach to everything you do and a passion for doing the right thing rather than the easy thing.
• Strong opinions on best practice and you challenge traditional norms, advocating for more modern, novel approaches.

Should have

• Experience with email gateway administration and email routing.
• Understanding of email security protocols and standards e.g. SPF, DKIM, DMARC etc.
• Experience using git and GitHub for code changes and CI/CD.
• Experience with Munki and AutoPkg for macOS software deployment
• Experience with Chocolatey and PowerShell for Windows software deployment
• A foundational understanding of programming and software engineering.
• Experience integrating different identity providers

Nice to have

• Familiarity with frontend and backend engineering, including languages such as TypeScript and Python, and frameworks such as React, Remix and Django.
• Familiarity with our security tooling - CrowdStrike EDR, Kolide, osquery, Zscaler

Don't think you check off all of the above? We love hiring passionate people with a drive to learn so get in touch and let us know which areas you don't currently have confidence and/or experience with, we'd love to hear from you!