Cloud and DevOps Engineer in Sunderland

My Financial Sector client is undertaking an exciting modernisation and technology transformation programme. A fantastic opportunity has arisen in their Technology Engineering Team to join them as a Cloud Platform Engineer. As part of their transformational journey, people are firmly at the forefront of the plans. My client knows what they want from strong candidates for the role; this is not just about your Azure technical skills, it is all about your inquisitive nature, your versatility or your ability to work as part of a highly collaborative team. How you work and your professional attitude is just as important as your technical knowledge.

Are you passionate about all things cloud especially Azure? Do you read and research the latest and greatest bloggers? Can you work in evolving cloud architectures? You may be part of the discovery. Does your knowledge go outside the strict boundaries of Azure? Knowing how Azure works with networking is essential to a full view of successful delivery. Are you good with Automation? Hands-on and doing things is very important in this role. If you want to work for a team integral in helping to drive cultural change, a team where you can bring your whole self to work bringing your energy and creativity to make a positive difference, then this is the job for you.

What will I be doing?

• Working across both the BAU and Projects teams, the role brings a wide and varied balance of tasks.
• The role is to provide automation, tooling, and cloud infrastructure capabilities for technology and delivery/project teams.
• This is a hands-on role which carries out a wide range of activities such as:
• Maintaining, monitoring, and supporting Azure-based Cloud infrastructure using a combination of Azure IaaS, PaaS and SaaS service components.
• Creating automation tools, streamlining deployment, monitoring, and maintenance processes (with a focus on reducing manual intervention).
• Ensuring deployed infrastructure performs optimally, identifying bottlenecks to improve performance.
• Implementing security controls to protect the Cloud Infrastructure and the Clients Azure platform from vulnerabilities and ensure compliance policy and standards.
• Maintaining monitoring and alerting systems used to track health and performance business applications and infrastructure services, troubleshooting as necessary.
• Assist the development and improvement of Cloud Engineering standards and patterns.
• Actively contribute towards the Cloud Community of Practice and wider technology function sharing knowledge and experience.
• Develop and provide oversight to junior Cloud Engineers.
• Actively contribute to feedback forums and ceremonies, such as stand-ups, retrospectives, show and tells etc.
• Build, maintain and support CBS Azure cloud infrastructure and services for high-volume, high-performance, high-availability applications and platforms.
• Ensure CBS technical standards and best practices in terms of data privacy and information security are maintained.
• Build and maintain pipelines that promote safe and repeatable deployments.
• To understand and be aware of applicable risk and controls and adhere to processes, procedures and policies.
• Act as an advocate/champion for the CBS Azure Cloud Platform, ensuring it is consumed appropriately and calling out any non-adherence.
• Drive continuous improvement in the performance and resilience of our live services.
• May be required to provide 24/7 on call technical support (as part of a rota).
• Demonstrate a commitment to a supportive and collaborative culture which promotes strong working relationships across CITO teams and the wider business.

What will make me a strong candidate for the role?

We’re looking for expertise and a minimum of 4 years experience working with:

• Azure cloud-based infrastructure.
• Monitoring and alerting tools and technologies.
• CI/CD tooling and practices (Azure DevOps Pipelines, GitHub Actions).
• Agile and waterfall delivery teams.

Expert level knowledge (and a preference to work Cloud Native i.e. with Infrastructure as Code) of:

• Microsoft’s well-architected framework.
• Azure networking; TCP/IP, DNS, Routing, HTTP/S, Peering, Vnets, NSGs, VPNs, load balancers, and boundary security appliances.
• Azure security best practices (Zero Trust, RBAC, Defender for Cloud etc).
• Azure Policy.
• Landing Zones, Management Groups, Subscriptions and Resource Groups.
• Scripting languages such as PowerShell or Bash.

We’d also like to see that you are comfortable working in agile and waterfall delivery-type teams and are familiar with Confluence & Jira as well as experience in a financial services or other highly regulated environment.

Key skills, abilities, and behaviours we’d like to see include:

• Leadership: Able to articulate and communicate a sense of direction and commitment to people.
• Building relationships: Continually uses the combined and cooperative efforts of others. Develops credibility with all stakeholders and influences through democracy.
• Operational Excellence: Understand how strong operational delivery supports the vision and strategic plan and can lead large and complex programmes to delivery.
• Strategic Vision: Able to step back from day-to-day activities to view the business from a different perspective; to see the bigger picture, distil information, trends, and needs, to build credible strategies to achieve the desired vision and commercial outcomes.
• Commercial / Member Focus: Balances business acumen with a passion for the member; focuses on maximising competitive position and member loyalty, without compromising financial stability.
• Achievement Driven: Displays desire and drive for success, projecting enthusiasm and having impact on others, models drive and resilience and leads by example.
• Risk Aware: Possesses a deep understanding of the regulatory environment.

What is in it for me?

Being part of a strong team where you can thrive should never be underestimated. This team is led by strong technical leaders who believe in a collaborative approach from inquisitive and passionate team players. My client prides themselves on being a great place to work. The work-life balance is something they guard as part of their core principles. They have a happy team with very low turnover. This is a mid-level role within the team, therefore opportunities for promotion will be available for professionals who know how to shine as a Cloud Platform Engineer.

The Benefits:

• Mainly Remote Working whilst your office base will be in Cumbria, it is expected that you will only be required to be in the office 1-2 days per month, if at all.
• Salary - up to £62.5k depending on skills and experience.
• Death in Service (non-contractual) 4 x Salary.
• Bonus (non-contractual) Up to 5% of earnings based on performance appraisal grade.
• Pension strong contributory pension starting at 12% and rising to 19% with length of service.
• Holidays - 25 days holiday plus public holidays and the opportunity to buy and sell up to 3 days. Holiday entitlement rises with length of service to a maximum of 29 days + BH.
• Learning and Development opportunities - We want you to grow in your role. We’ll work together to support your personal and professional development.
• Health and Wellbeing - a calendar of events and activities throughout the year, Mental Health & Wellbeing champions, and Cycle to Work scheme.
• Community Day - We offer our people an extra paid day off every year to help local charities and community organisations.