We are actively looking for a Principal DevOps Consultant to join our dynamic engineering team. In this crucial role, you will oversee and mentor a team of up to five DevOps engineers while leading and development projects. Your responsibilities might include defining and implementing DevOps strategies and best practices to optimise our clients processes and systems, leading and managing diverse DevOps and development projects, contributing to writing, reviewing code and a proven track record in managing large-scale data environments and expertise in Kafka and Kubernetes.
The ideal candidate will have substantial experience handling Kafka setups with billions of messages and thousands of topics, demonstrating a deep understanding of its architecture and optimization techniques. Additionally, expertise in Kubernetes is required, with the ability to manage and scale clusters efficiently, involving large numbers of pods, and a strong command of Docker and other containerization technologies.
You will need to be able to build rapport with clients, provide expert advice, design and develop solutions as well as manage or implement cloud infrastructure and data platforms ensuring scalability and reliability. Additionally, you must show experience with the development and implementation of Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) processes to streamline development processes.
Key responsibilities in this role include:
* Define and implement DevOps strategies and best practices to optimise processes and systems
* Perform line management duties to a team of up to 5 engineers
* Be involved in setting DevOps department standards and technical direction, creating training materials and running “brown bag” training sessions for the wider team
* Support and Train junior colleagues under your line management, within your projects, and the wider DevOps department
* Lead and manage diverse DevOps and development projects, ensuring timely and successful delivery
* Build and maintain Infrastructure as Code technical solutions (as an example, via kube/helm & terraform)
* Contribute to writing and reviewing code according to project needs and designs
* Apply DevOps best practices of automation, TDD and tooling to CI/CD pipelines
* Design, Develop and manage cloud infrastructure and data platforms to ensure scalability and reliability
* Work as in a cross-discipline agile development team (managed via Scrum Agile processes)
We are looking for experience in the following skills:
* Software development as part of a cross-disciplined team (Java)
* Scrum master qualifications or experience, help project management by running standups and other agile ceremonies
* Proven experience in Senior DevOps roles, with a track record of managing teams and projects
* Experience line managing Engineers, and the associated mentoring and train of up and coming Engineers
* Working knowledge of cloud infrastructure, preferably AWS
* Working experience in developing CI/CD pipelines, preferably using Drone or similar tooling
* Knowledge of (IaC) Infrastructure as Code Systems, preferably Kubernetes, Helm, and Terraform
* Strong coding skills in languages such as Python, Bash, Ruby or Go
* Experience working in an Agile Delivery Team (preferability experience of Scrum/Kanban methodologies)
* Excellent communication and interpersonal skills
* Ability to build and maintain client relationships
* Working knowledge in Kafka cluster (preferably on MSK AWS platform), Docker and Kubernetes (EKS)
Set Yourself Apart:
* Experience developing software with at least one common programming language (preferably Java and/or Python)
* Knowledge of foundational Software Engineering technologies such as TDD (Cucumber), Unit Testing (JUnit), Linting, and Software Frameworks (Spring)
Please Note: Any offer of employment is subject to satisfactory BPSS and SC security clearance which requires 5 years continuous UK address history (typically including no periods of 30 consecutive days or more spent outside of the UK)