At a Glance
- Tasks: Join our team to enhance and automate a large-scale hybrid server estate.
- Company: Dynamic tech company in Sheffield with a collaborative culture.
- Benefits: Competitive daily rate, hybrid work model, and opportunities for professional growth.
- Why this job: Make a real impact by working with cutting-edge Kubernetes technology.
- Qualifications: Hands-on experience with Kubernetes and strong automation skills required.
- Other info: Flexible work environment with shared responsibilities and excellent career advancement potential.
The predicted salary is between 42000 - 60000 £ per year.
Location: Sheffield
Job Type: Contract
Industry: Cloud & Infrastructure
Job reference: BBBH
Posted: about 8 hours ago
Duration: contract to run until 30/11/2026
Location: Sheffield, Hybrid 3 days per week onsite
Rate: up to £552 p/d Umbrella inside IR35
Role purpose / summary
The IKP Engineering Team is responsible for the end to end operation, automation and enhancement of a large scale hybrid server estate supporting business critical workloads. This is a mixed engineering role, where team members contribute across fulfilment, implementation, platform maintenance, automation, and continuous improvement activities. The engineer will work across a broad technical landscape including 9,000+ virtual machines, 3,000+ physical servers, and large Kubernetes based environments requiring strong hands on skills and the ability to operate cloud native platforms at scale.
Key Responsibilities:
- Deliver engineering, fulfilment and operational tasks across the IKP platform - no dedicated silos; all engineers support the full lifecycle.
- Operate and maintain large scale Kubernetes (K8s) environments, ensuring reliability, performance and proactive platform hygiene.
- Perform hands on implementation and configuration changes, including production changes during weekends when required.
- Automate operational and fulfilment tasks to drive efficiency and reduce manual effort using: Python, Ansible, GitHub, Jira, Jenkins, Supporting DevOps / CI CD tooling.
- Contribute to troubleshooting, incident resolution, root cause analysis and continuous improvement of platform stability.
- Drive adoption of automation-first practices across engineering activities, ensuring consistent and repeatable deployments.
- Work collaboratively with cross functional teams (cloud, network, OS, DevOps, SRE, and application teams) to support end-to-end delivery.
- Ensure all changes and deployments follow governance, standards and compliance processes.
Required Skills & Experience
Core Technical Skills:
- Strong, real hands-on Kubernetes skills (not managed/cloud K8s services).
- Ability to operate, configure, maintain and troubleshoot clusters deployed on physical/VM infrastructure.
- Solid experience supporting cloud-native environments using on-prem or hybrid deployment models.
- Strong automation experience using: Ansible, Python, GitHub / Git CI/CD tools (Jenkins or similar).
- Good understanding of Linux system engineering, networking fundamentals and container ecosystem tools.
Engineering & Operational Skills:
- Ability to work across fulfilment and engineering tasks - flexible to take on any required technical activity.
- Experience implementing production changes, ideally in large enterprise environments.
- Strong troubleshooting and debugging skills across infrastructure, platform and automation layers.
- Ability to document, improve and standardise engineering procedures and automated workflows.
Preferred / Good-to-Have:
- Experience operating large, mixed server estates (e.g., 9K VM + 3K physical).
- Exposure to hybrid cloud, infrastructure migration or modernisation programmes.
- Familiarity with enterprise change management and regulated environment delivery.
Ways of Working
"Everyone does everything" culture - shared responsibility across fulfilment, automation, engineering and operations. Flexible to support weekend changes and critical production deployments. Proactive mindset, strong ownership and readiness to uplift automation maturity.
All profiles will be reviewed against the required skills and experience. Due to the high number of applications we will only be able to respond to successful applicants in the first instance. We thank you for your interest and the time taken to apply!
IKP Platform Engineer in Sheffield employer: Experis
Contact Detail:
Experis Recruiting Team
StudySmarter Expert Advice 🤫
We think this is how you could land IKP Platform Engineer in Sheffield
✨Tip Number 1
Network like a pro! Reach out to folks in the industry, especially those already working at companies you're eyeing. A friendly chat can open doors and give you insider info that could help you stand out.
✨Tip Number 2
Nail that interview prep! Research the company and its tech stack, especially around Kubernetes and cloud-native environments. Practise common interview questions and be ready to showcase your hands-on skills with real examples.
✨Tip Number 3
Show off your automation chops! Be prepared to discuss how you've used tools like Ansible and Python to streamline processes. Highlight any projects where you’ve driven efficiency—this is music to an employer's ears!
✨Tip Number 4
Apply through our website! It’s the best way to ensure your application gets seen. Plus, we love seeing candidates who take the initiative to connect directly with us. Don’t miss out on this opportunity!
We think you need these skills to ace IKP Platform Engineer in Sheffield
Some tips for your application 🫡
Tailor Your CV: Make sure your CV is tailored to the IKP Platform Engineer role. Highlight your hands-on Kubernetes experience and any cloud-native projects you've worked on. We want to see how your skills match up with what we're looking for!
Show Off Your Automation Skills: Since automation is key for this role, don’t forget to showcase your experience with tools like Ansible and Python. Give us examples of how you've automated tasks in previous roles – we love a good success story!
Be Clear and Concise: When writing your application, keep it clear and to the point. Use bullet points where possible to make it easy for us to read through your experience and skills. We appreciate a well-structured application!
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 to do!
How to prepare for a job interview at Experis
✨Know Your Kubernetes Inside Out
Make sure you brush up on your hands-on Kubernetes skills. Be ready to discuss your experience with operating, configuring, and troubleshooting clusters, especially in a hybrid environment. Prepare examples of how you've tackled challenges in large-scale deployments.
✨Show Off Your Automation Skills
Since automation is key for this role, be prepared to talk about your experience with tools like Ansible and Python. Have specific examples ready where you've automated tasks to improve efficiency. This will show that you understand the importance of an automation-first mindset.
✨Demonstrate Your Troubleshooting Prowess
Expect questions around incident resolution and root cause analysis. Think of scenarios where you successfully diagnosed and resolved issues across infrastructure and platform layers. Highlight your debugging skills and how they contributed to platform stability.
✨Emphasise Collaboration and Flexibility
This role requires working closely with cross-functional teams, so be ready to discuss your collaborative experiences. Share examples of how you've worked with different teams to support end-to-end delivery and how you've adapted to changing priorities or weekend changes.