DevOps Apprentice in Chilton

Overview

As a DevOps Apprentice in our Scientific Computing Department, you\’ll dive into the heart of large‑scale scientific computing, learning how to manage and maintain critical infrastructure and vast storage systems that underpin everything from particle physics to climate modelling. Become a vital contributor to the UK\’s scientific mission.

Responsibilities

• Assist in improving monitoring infrastructure for our storage systems
• Contribute to the development and enhancement of storage orchestration layers
• Support daily operational tasks across our storage services
• Gain hands‑on experience with automation, diagnostics, and system optimisation
• Collaborate with experienced engineers to maintain reliable and scalable storage platforms
• Respond to alerts from monitoring systems
• Collaborate on requests from the other groups we support
• Build new enterprise‑grade virtual machines
• Monitor, support and maintain the multi‑terabit networks that underpin Scientific Computing
• Monitor operational issues and respond to automated alerts
• Propose and develop improved monitoring of our complex services
• Identify root cause of issues and work with team members and other groups to resolve them
• Test service improvements and collaborate on deployment
• Understand facilities requirements and communicate credibly with technical and non‑technical stakeholders
• Translate user needs into clear, concise user stories
• Initiate and facilitate knowledge sharing and technical collaboration
• Deploy immutable infrastructure
• Install, manage and troubleshoot monitoring tools
• Navigate and troubleshoot stateful distributed systems to locate issues across the end‑to‑end service
• Work in agile, multi‑disciplinary delivery teams with a flexible, collaborative approach
• Apply cloud security tools and techniques, including threat modelling, vulnerability scanning, and dependency checking, and incorporate them into the automated pipeline
• Assess identified and potential security threats and take appropriate action based on likelihood and impact
• Use a systematic approach to solving problems by applying logic and experimentation
• Automate tasks where it introduces improvements to business process efficiency and reduces waste
• Engage in productive pair/mob programming and write tests, following Test‑Driven Development discipline
• Release automation and orchestration as part of a Continuous Integration workflow and Continuous Delivery pipeline, automating the delivery of code from source control to end users
• Invest in continuous learning, keeping up with cutting‑edge technologies and ensuring learning activities align with changing job requirements
• Code in a general purpose programming language and specify cloud infrastructure in an infrastructure‑as‑code domain‑specific language
• Interpret logs and metrics data to identify issues and make informed decisions
• Write code in a way that facilitates merging and branching by using feature toggling
• Apply lightweight modelling techniques, such as whiteboarding, to gain consensus and evolve architecture
• Perform incremental refactoring by applying small behaviour‑preserving code changes

Qualifications

• GCSE English (grade 4 or above)
• GCSE Maths (grade 4 or above)
• Other subjects (at least 2 if A‑levels, grade A–C, Merit at Distinction)
• Communication skills
• IT skills
• Attention to detail
• Problem solving skills
• Logical thinking
• Team working
• Initiative
• Share any other relevant qualifications and industry experience

Benefits

• 30 days annual leave, plus Bank Holidays and Christmas shutdown
• Cycle to Work Scheme
• Employee Discount Scheme