CNI Automation Lead Engineer in England

About us

At National Grid, we keep people connected and society moving. But it’s so much more than that. National Grid supplies us with the environment to make it happen. As we generate momentum in the energy transition for all, we don’t plan on leaving any of our customers in the dark. So, join us as a CNI Automation Lead Engineer, and find your superpower.

About The Role

Join National Grid’s CNI Infrastructure Support Team as a CNI Automation Lead Engineer. In this role, you’ll be responsible for designing, implementing, and governing automated solutions across IT infrastructure operations to drive efficiency, scalability, and reliability. You’ll lead the automation strategy for operational processes, reducing manual effort, minimizing human error, and accelerating service delivery across data centre, network, and platform environments. You’ll take ownership of project lifecycles from concept to production, developing automation strategies that enhance quality and productivity while supporting the resilience of our critical systems. If you’re able to innovate and thrive in a fast‑paced environment, this is your chance to make a real impact.

What You’ll Do

• Lead Automation Strategy – Define and own the infrastructure automation roadmap, championing an automation‑first mindset across operations.
• Design & Deliver Solutions – Build and maintain scalable automation frameworks for provisioning, configuration, patching, and decommissioning.
• Drive Operational Excellence – Automate high‑volume, error‑prone tasks to boost efficiency and reliability, integrating monitoring tools for proactive issue detection.
• Set Standards & Governance – Establish best practices for tooling, security, coding standards, and CI/CD, ensuring compliance with regulatory and organisational requirements.
• Collaborate & Influence – Work closely with engineering, operations, and service teams to embed automation into everyday processes.
• Optimize & Innovate – Continuously identify opportunities to improve processes, measure impact, and enhance resilience through automated recovery strategies.

About You

• Strong knowledge of enterprise IT infrastructure (compute, storage, backup, OS: Windows/Linux/Unix, middleware) and virtualization technologies.
• Expertise in Infrastructure as Code (IaC) principles, lifecycle management, and automation frameworks.
• Hands‑on experience with scripting and automation languages, run‑book automation, and orchestration tools.
• Solid understanding of DevOps, Site Reliability Engineering (SRE), and CI/CD pipelines for infrastructure automation.
• Knowledge of security‑by‑design principles, resilience, disaster recovery, and business continuity in automated environments.
• Excellent troubleshooting and root cause analysis skills across complex automated systems.

What You’ll Get

• Competitive Salary: circa £55,000 – £65,000 per annum (based on capability and experience).
• A competitive contributory pension scheme where we will double match your contribution up to a maximum company contribution of 12% of salary.
• You will receive a bonus based on personal and company performance.
• Flexible benefits such as a cycle scheme, share incentive plan, and technology schemes.
• Access to apps such as a digital GP service for round‑the‑clock access to GP video consultations and NHS repeat prescriptions, and a wellbeing app to support your health and fitness.
• Access to Work + Family Space, providing support and resources for work and family life, including paid emergency childcare and eldercare.

This role is offered on a full‑time basis. This role will require National Security Vetting (NSV) checks. We are also offering hybrid/flexible working where travel to the office will be as per business need – 1 day per week on average. Base location for this role will be NG House, Warwick. The closing date for applications is 26th January, but we strongly encourage candidates to submit their application as early as possible.

Please note that in most cases, National Grid is unable to offer sponsorship for employment under the UK points‑based immigration system. As such, applicants must have the legal right to work in the UK without requiring sponsorship now or in the future under the UK points‑based immigration system. However, in exceptional circumstances where there is a clear and demonstrable need for specialist skills that cannot be sourced from the local labour market, National Grid may consider offering sponsorship. All applications are welcome from candidates who meet these requirements, regardless of race, nationality, or ethnic origin.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

National Grid is an equal opportunity employer that values a broad diversity of talent, knowledge, experience and expertise. We foster a culture of inclusion that drives employee engagement to deliver superior performance to the communities we serve. National Grid is proud to be an affirmative action employer. We encourage minorities, women, individuals with disabilities and protected veterans to join the National Grid team.