Founding Senior DevOps Engineer

Founding Senior DevOps Engineer

Full-Time 84150 - 102850 £ / year (est.) No working from home possible
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At a Glance

  • Tasks: Build and run cutting-edge infrastructure for AI-driven drug discovery.
  • Company: Join a pioneering tech company transforming pharma with AI.
  • Benefits: Competitive salary, growth opportunities, and a dynamic work environment.
  • Other info: Fast-paced, high-stakes role with ownership and growth potential.
  • Why this job: Make a real impact on human health through innovative technology.
  • Qualifications: 5+ years in DevOps with deep Kubernetes experience required.

The predicted salary is between 84150 - 102850 £ per year.

The highest calling for AI is improving human health.

At Perceptic, we're building the AI operating system that powers drug discovery: a unified intelligence layer that connects evidence, reasoning, and action across the entire drug lifecycle.

We were built by operators from Palantir who spent years deploying production AI in the world's most demanding enterprise environments.

We know what it takes to make ambitious technology hold up under real pressure.

Now we're applying that to pharma, and we're hiring engineers who've operated at the same standard.

A single drug can take more than a decade and billions of dollars to reach a patient, and the systems we build are meant to compress that timeline.

They run inside some of the most security-conscious, compliance-bound enterprises in the world, where the infrastructure underneath has to be as trustworthy as the science on top of it.

We're hiring a Senior Dev Ops Engineer to build and run that infrastructure with us.

You'll take real ownership from day one across our own platform and the isolated customer environments where the bar for trust is absolute, and you'll grow into owning the whole function.

The path to Lead

This role is designed to become our Lead Dev Ops Engineer.

Over your first 9–12 months you'll take on progressively more of the infrastructure end to end: deployment, operations, security, and scale.

Demonstrate the ownership, judgement, and technical depth the role demands, and you'll step into the Lead title, with the scope to shape the infrastructure roadmap and build out the team around you.

We'll be explicit about what "ready" looks like, and we'll review progress with you along the way.

What you'll do

  • Build and run our Git Ops deployment backbone on Argo CD, so a small team can ship continuously and safely across many clusters
  • Operate Kubernetes on AWS (EKS) across our fleet of production environments
  • Own infrastructure-as-code in Terraform/Open Tofu and Terragrunt, the source of truth for everything we run
  • Deliver multi-tenant, per-customer isolation: standing up a fully isolated, compliant environment for each pharma customer, with its own cluster and data plane, and deploying to it with confidence.

This is the hardest and most important part of the job.

  • Strengthen our security and compliance posture: secrets management, access controls, infrastructure hardening, and the SOC2-and-beyond controls that customers will audit us on
  • Build observability that keeps a complex distributed system legible: telemetry, metrics, logging, tracing, dashboards, and alerting
  • Drive reliability, incident response, and the operational runbooks that protect customer trust
  • Keep our shipping cadence high through CI/CD and release automation
  • Improve developer experience, making it fast and painless for engineers to deploy and debug

What we're looking for

  • Must have
  • Deep, hands-on production experience with Kubernetes.

You've run it at scale, debugged it under pressure, and understand it well beyond deploying manifests.

This is non-negotiable.

  • At least 5 years in Dev Ops, platform engineering, SRE, or infrastructure
  • You've owned production systems rather than only contributing to them, including multi-tenant or customer-specific environments, and you understand the complexity that comes with them
  • Strong fluency with a major cloud (AWS preferred), Git Ops, and infrastructure-as-code, plus the judgement to know when not to add another layer
  • What good looks like
  • You come from somewhere that held a high bar, and you expect engineering excellence from yourself and the systems around you
  • You're hands-on and have no interest in a purely architectural role. You explain complex tradeoffs simply and you don't over-engineer.
  • You treat speed, security, cost, and reliability as constraints that all apply at once, and you've struck that balance before
  • You want to lead. Not necessarily to manage a large team tomorrow, but to own outcomes, set standards, and be the person others come to when infrastructure decisions matter.
  • Bonus
  • You've operated under formal security or compliance regimes (SOC2, HIPAA, Gx P, or similar) and know how to make controls a strength rather than a tax
  • Experience with Argo CD, EKS, or Terragrunt specifically
  • What it's like here

This is a high-intensity, high-stakes role.

We move quickly and give direct feedback, the responsibility you carry will likely outrun your title, and you'll go wherever the company needs you most, which sometimes means unglamorous work that matters more than anything else that week.

The people who do well here find that kind of ownership and growth exciting, and they weren't looking for a nine-to-five.

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Founding Senior DevOps Engineer employer: Perceptic

At Perceptic, we pride ourselves on fostering a collaborative and innovative work culture that empowers our employees to take ownership of their projects. As a Senior UX Engineer, you will have the unique opportunity to shape the user experience for scientists in the critical field of drug discovery, while benefiting from continuous professional development and a supportive environment that values creativity and technical mastery. Located in a vibrant tech hub, we offer competitive benefits and a commitment to work-life balance, making us an excellent employer for those seeking meaningful and impactful work.

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Contact Details:

Perceptic Recruitment Team

StudySmarter Expert Advice🤫

We think this is how you could land Founding Senior DevOps Engineer

Join Local Tech Meetups

Get out there and mingle with fellow developers by joining local tech meetups. It’s a fantastic way to meet people who might be working at Perceptic or know someone who does. Plus, you can pick up some trendy tech skills and trends while you're at it!

Contribute to Open Source Projects

Show off your coding chops by jumping into open-source projects. Not only does this give you practical experience, but it also gets you noticed in the dev community. You'll create a killer portfolio that speaks volumes about your skills to Perceptic.

Tap into Online Developer Communities

Don’t underestimate the power of online developer communities like GitHub, Stack Overflow, and even Reddit. Participate in discussions, share your projects, and build your visibility. We can often find opportunities through these channels that can lead to a full-time gig at companies like Perceptic.

Explore Job Boards Specifically for Tech Roles

Keep your eyes peeled on job boards that focus on tech roles. Sites like TechCareers or Stack Overflow Jobs can often have listings for companies like Perceptic that might not show up on broader job sites. Make it a habit to check these regularly, and don’t hesitate to apply directly through our website!

We think you need these skills to ace Founding Senior DevOps Engineer

Kubernetes
GitOps
Infrastructure-as-Code
Terraform
Argo CD
AWS (EKS)
Security and Compliance Management

Some tips for your application 🫡

Show off your coding skills:When applying for a software engineering role, it's super important to showcase your coding skills. Make sure your CV includes your tech stack, any relevant programming languages you’re comfortable with, and examples of projects you've worked on. If you have a GitHub profile, link it up! We love to see code in action.

Tailor your portfolio:For a full-time role, we’d expect to see some solid examples of your work in your portfolio. Make sure to include at least two or three projects that highlight your problem-solving skills and your ability to work with different technologies. Focus on the projects that are most relevant to the position at Perceptic.

Craft a killer cover letter:Your cover letter is your chance to stand out—make it personal! Explain why you want to work at Perceptic and how your skills align with the role. Show us your passion for software development. We dig enthusiastic candidates who understand the value of collaboration and continuous learning!

Be clear and concise:When it comes to writing your CV and cover letter, clarity is key. Avoid jargon that could confuse us and stick to simple, direct language. Highlight your achievements with quantifiable results where possible, and keep everything easy to read. A well-organised application goes a long way!

How to prepare for a job interview at Perceptic

Brush Up on Your Coding Skills

For a full-time software engineering role, it's crucial that we stay sharp with our coding abilities. Expect technical questions that might involve solving problems on the spot or discussing algorithms. Practise on platforms like LeetCode or HackerRank to get comfortable with the types of questions that often come up.

Know Your Tools and Frameworks

Make sure we’re well-acquainted with the tools and technologies listed in the job description. Familiarise ourselves with any specific frameworks or programming languages mentioned. If Perceptic uses React or Node.js, for instance, be ready to discuss how we’ve used them in previous projects or coursework.

Showcase Your Projects

Bring along a portfolio that highlights our best work. This could be code samples, GitHub repositories, or any side projects we’ve built. Make sure we can talk through our thought process for each project, especially the challenges we faced and how we solved them—this shows our problem-solving skills in action.

Prepare for Behavioural Questions

While technical skills are key, full-time positions also require cultural fit. Be ready to discuss our previous experiences and how we handle teamwork, conflict, and deadlines. Brush up on the STAR method—Situation, Task, Action, Result—to clearly articulate our past experiences when discussing how we've contributed to a team.