Lead DevOps Engineer in London

Lead DevOps Engineer in London

London Full-Time 48000 - 72000 £ / year (est.) No home office possible
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At a Glance

  • Tasks: Lead and mentor the DevOps team while enhancing cloud infrastructure security and reliability.
  • Company: David Zwirner, a leading contemporary art gallery with a global presence.
  • Benefits: Competitive salary, dynamic work environment, and opportunities for professional growth.
  • Why this job: Join a creative team and make a significant impact on innovative art exhibitions.
  • Qualifications: Proven experience in DevOps leadership and expert-level skills in AWS and Terraform.
  • Other info: Collaborative culture with a focus on operational excellence and continuous improvement.

The predicted salary is between 48000 - 72000 £ per year.

At David Zwirner, we look to be an industry leader in our field, with our artists at the center of what we do. Our global exhibition program expands beyond our locations in New York, London, Los Angeles, Hong Kong, and Paris, representing seventy artists and estates. Home to innovative, singular, and pioneering exhibitions across a variety of media and genres. Active in both the primary and secondary markets, David Zwirner has helped foster the careers of some of the most influential artists today.

About the Opportunity

David Zwirner seeks an experienced and strategic Lead DevOps Engineer to guide the maturation of our infrastructure and provide coverage across European time zones (UTC to UTC +3). This role emphasizes technical leadership, strategic planning, and team mentorship. You will be responsible for enhancing the security, reliability, and resilience of our cloud footprint: primarily AWS, with additional environments including Azure, GCP, Alibaba Cloud, Databricks, and Vercel.

As the leader of the DevOps function, you will define and execute the strategic roadmap while remaining hands‐on with your team. We are seeking a pragmatic leader who will take full ownership of our infrastructure, systematically address technical debt, and champion a culture of operational excellence and security. Candidates must be diligent, extremely organized, and possess excellent prioritization and communication skills. The core engineering team operates on New York hours, so this position will play a key leadership and coverage role for EMEA.

What you’ll do:

  • Leadership: Lead direction and mentor for the DevOps team; set technical direction for infrastructure and security; foster a culture of ownership, reliability, and continuous improvement.
  • Roadmap Ownership & Strategy: Define, own, and drive the Infrastructure & Security Roadmap, prioritizing infrastructure ownership, profound monitoring, disaster recovery, developer experience, and security hardening.
  • Infrastructure as Code (IaC): Inventory and capture unmanaged resources in Terraform (and CDK/SST where required); create reusable modules and guardrails; institute code reviews and change management.
  • Platform Operations (AWS-first): Design and operate services built on ECS (Fargate), ECR, RDS, ElastiCache, S3, ALB/CloudFront, WAF, Lambda, EventBridge, CloudWatch; improve networking, IAM, and resilience.
  • Resilience & Reliability: Modernize critical workloads; design and run disaster recovery drills; automate backups/restore; codify RPO/RTO targets and runbooks; lead incident response and postmortems.
  • Observability & On-Call: Standardize monitoring/alerting with Datadog, CloudWatch, Sentry, PagerDuty; implement SLOs and noise-reduction baselines; maintain a humane on-call rotation.
  • Security Hardening: Mature the configuration and rollout of tools like Jit and CrowdStrike; improve firewall/WAF rules; enforce secrets management and least‐privilege access; champion threat modeling and automated scrolling.
  • Collaboration & Governance: Serve as a key technical voice on the Architecture Review Board; partner with Product and Engineering to align solutions with operational standards and business goals.

What you need to have:

  • Legal authorization to work in the UK.
  • Track record in a senior/lead DevOps, SRE, or Platform role, including mentorship of engineers.
  • Expert-level Terraform (including importing existing resources and taming legacy estates).
  • Deep, hands-on experience with AWS (ECS, RDS, ElastiCache, Lambda, ALB, WAF, S3, CloudFront, EventBridge, CloudWatch) and production networking/IAM.
  • Proven design and maintenance of CI/CD pipelines (GitHub Actions) and container workflows (Docker, ECS Fargate or Kubernetes).
  • Proficiency with modern observability/monitoring (Datadog, CloudWatch, Sentry, PagerDuty), incident response, and incident retrospectives.
  • Strong background in cloud security principles and practical hardening.
  • Ability to define and execute a technical roadmap and communicate with both technical and non‐technical stakeholders.

What we would like you to have:

  • Experience with GCP, Azure, Alibaba Cloud, and managed platforms (Databricks, Vercel).
  • Familiarity with SST/CDK, Next.js/Vercel delivery flows, and performance considerations for web platforms.
  • VPN/zero-trust networking (e.g., Tailscale); perimeter hardening and WAF tuning.

Please submit a resume and cover letter, and be prepared to provide three (3) professional references upon request.

Lead DevOps Engineer in London employer: David Zwirner

At David Zwirner, we pride ourselves on being an exceptional employer that champions creativity and innovation within a collaborative work environment. Our commitment to employee growth is evident through mentorship opportunities and strategic leadership roles, particularly in our Lead DevOps Engineer position, which plays a crucial part in shaping our infrastructure across multiple global locations. With a focus on operational excellence and security, we offer a dynamic workplace that values both individual contributions and team success, making it an ideal setting for those seeking meaningful and rewarding careers.
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Contact Detail:

David Zwirner Recruiting Team

StudySmarter Expert Advice 🤫

We think this is how you could land Lead DevOps Engineer in London

✨Tip Number 1

Network like a pro! Reach out to your connections in the industry, attend meetups, and engage with online communities. You never know who might have the inside scoop on job openings or can put in a good word for you.

✨Tip Number 2

Prepare for interviews by practising common DevOps scenarios and technical questions. We recommend setting up mock interviews with friends or using platforms that offer interview prep. The more comfortable you are, the better you'll perform!

✨Tip Number 3

Showcase your skills through personal projects or contributions to open-source. This not only demonstrates your expertise but also gives you something tangible to discuss during interviews. Plus, it’s a great way to keep your skills sharp!

✨Tip Number 4

Don’t forget to apply through our website! It’s the best way to ensure your application gets seen by the right people. Plus, we love seeing candidates who take the initiative to connect directly with us.

We think you need these skills to ace Lead DevOps Engineer in London

Leadership
Mentorship
Infrastructure as Code (IaC)
Terraform
AWS
ECS
RDS
ElastiCache
Lambda
CloudFront
CI/CD Pipelines
GitHub Actions
Docker
Observability
Cloud Security Principles

Some tips for your application 🫔

Tailor Your CV: Make sure your CV is tailored to the Lead DevOps Engineer role. Highlight your experience with AWS, Terraform, and any relevant projects that showcase your leadership skills. We want to see how you can bring value to our team!

Craft a Compelling Cover Letter: Your cover letter is your chance to shine! Use it to explain why you're passionate about this role and how your background aligns with our mission at David Zwirner. Let us know what excites you about the opportunity!

Showcase Your Technical Skills: Be sure to include specific examples of your technical expertise, especially in areas like cloud security and CI/CD pipelines. We love seeing hands-on experience, so don’t hold back on the details!

Apply Through Our Website: We encourage you to apply directly through our website. It’s the best way for us to receive your application and ensures you’re considered for the role. Plus, it’s super easy – just follow the prompts!

How to prepare for a job interview at David Zwirner

✨Know Your Tech Inside Out

Make sure you’re well-versed in the technologies mentioned in the job description, especially AWS and Terraform. Brush up on your hands-on experience with ECS, RDS, and other services, as you might be asked to discuss specific scenarios or challenges you've faced.

✨Showcase Your Leadership Skills

Since this role involves mentoring and leading a team, prepare examples of how you've successfully guided others in previous positions. Think about times when you fostered a culture of ownership and reliability within your team.

✨Prepare for Scenario-Based Questions

Expect questions that assess your problem-solving skills, particularly around disaster recovery and incident response. Be ready to walk through your thought process on how you would handle specific situations related to infrastructure resilience and security hardening.

✨Communicate Clearly with Non-Techies

You’ll need to liaise with both technical and non-technical stakeholders, so practice explaining complex concepts in simple terms. This will demonstrate your ability to bridge the gap between tech and business needs, which is crucial for this role.

Lead DevOps Engineer in London
David Zwirner
Location: London
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  • Lead DevOps Engineer in London

    London
    Full-Time
    48000 - 72000 £ / year (est.)
  • D

    David Zwirner

    50-100
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