Forward Deployed Infrastructure Engineer in Bristol

Forward Deployed Infrastructure Engineer in Bristol

Bristol Full-Time 60000 - 80000 £ / year (est.) No working from home possible
Sierra

At a Glance

  • Tasks: Lead customer deployments and manage Sierra's AI platform infrastructure.
  • Company: Join Sierra, a cutting-edge AI company transforming customer experiences.
  • Benefits: Enjoy flexible time off, health benefits, and a supportive work culture.
  • Other info: Dynamic team with opportunities for growth and innovation.
  • Why this job: Be at the forefront of AI deployment and make a real impact.
  • Qualifications: 4+ years in infrastructure or DevOps with customer-facing experience.

The predicted salary is between 60000 - 80000 £ per year.

hackajob is collaborating with Sierra to connect them with exceptional professionals for this role.

About us

At Sierra, we're creating a platform to help businesses build better, more human customer experiences with AI. We are primarily an in-person company based in San Francisco, with growing offices in Atlanta, New York, London, Paris, Madrid, Munich, Singapore, Japan, and Sydney. We are guided by a set of values that are at the core of our actions and define our culture: Trust, Customer Obsession, Craftsmanship, Intensity, and Family. These values are the foundation of our work, and we are committed to upholding them in everything we do.

What you'll do

As a Forward Deployed Infrastructure Engineer at Sierra, and a founding member of this function, you will own the end-to-end lifecycle of customer deployments, while helping define how Sierra's AI platform is deployed and operated across enterprise environments. You'll work directly with enterprise customers to architect, deploy, upgrade, and manage Sierra's AI platform infrastructure — ensuring every deployment meets their security, compliance, and operational requirements. In addition, you'll establish the standards, tooling, and processes that make deployments scalable and repeatable, and partner cross-functionally with Engineering, Product, Sales, and Customer Success. This role will define how Sierra scales some of its most complex customer engagements.

  • Own deployment architecture conversations and execution — designing and implementing deployment strategies across customer environments, including VPC configuration, permissioning, networking, and infrastructure provisioning.
  • Manage the full infrastructure lifecycle for some of Sierra's most critical customers: initial deployment, ongoing upgrades, scaling, and incident support.
  • Develop and maintain deployment runbooks, upgrade procedures, and automation tooling to make operations repeatable and reliable.
  • Partner with engineering teams to ensure Sierra's platform is deployable and operable across diverse customer requirements.
  • Work with customers' platform engineering, security, and DevOps teams to navigate their infrastructure constraints and compliance requirements.
  • Collaborate with Sales and Customer Success to scope infrastructure requirements during pre-sales and onboarding, translating customer needs into concrete deployment plans.

What you'll bring

  • 4+ years of experience in infrastructure, DevOps, platform engineering, or solutions architecture roles — with significant time spent on customer-facing deployment work.
  • Deep experience with AWS services, Terraform, container orchestration, and cloud networking (VPCs, IAM, DNS, load balancing).
  • Track record of managing deployments in customer-owned cloud environments, including navigating security reviews, compliance requirements, and change management processes.
  • Ability to navigate ambiguity with enterprise stakeholders — from platform engineers to CISOs — and turn infrastructure conversations into actionable deployment plans.
  • Strong operational instincts: you think about upgrades, rollbacks, monitoring, and failure modes from the start, not as an afterthought.
  • Comfortable working in a fast-moving environment and collaborating across engineering, product, and go-to-market teams.
  • Degree in Computer Science or a related field, or equivalent professional experience.

Even better...

  • Hands-on experience with Go services, GraphQL APIs, or LLM infrastructure in production environments.
  • Past experience at an early-stage company where you built deployment operations, playbooks, and tooling.
  • Familiarity with observability and incident management in distributed systems (Prometheus, Grafana, Datadog, or similar).
  • Experience with CI/CD pipeline design, deployment automation, or infrastructure self-service tooling for enterprise customers.

Our values

  • Trust: We build trust with our customers with our accountability, empathy, quality, and responsiveness.
  • Customer Obsession: We deeply understand our customers' business goals and relentlessly focus on driving outcomes, not just technical milestones.
  • Craftsmanship: We get the details right, from the words on the page to the system architecture.
  • Intensity: We know we don't have the luxury of patience. We play to win.
  • Family: We know that balance and intensity are compatible, and we model it in our actions and processes.

What we offer

  • Flexible (unlimited) paid time off
  • Medical, dental, and vision benefits for you and your family
  • Life insurance and disability benefits
  • Retirement plan dependent on country of employment
  • Parental leave
  • Fertility and family building benefits through Carrot
  • Lunch, as well as delicious snacks and coffee to keep you energized
  • Discretionary benefit stipend giving people the ability to spend where it matters most
  • Free alphorn lessons

Be you, with us

We're working to bring the transformative power of AI to every organization in the world. To do so, it is important to us that the diversity of our employees represents the diversity of our customers. We believe that our work and culture are better when we encourage, support, and respect different skills and experiences represented within our team. We encourage you to apply even if your experience doesn't precisely match the job description.

Sierra

Contact Details:

Sierra Recruitment Team

StudySmarter Expert Advice🤫

We think this is how you could land Forward Deployed Infrastructure Engineer in Bristol

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 Sierra 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 Sierra.

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 Sierra.

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 Sierra 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 Forward Deployed Infrastructure Engineer in Bristol

Infrastructure Management
DevOps
Platform Engineering
Solutions Architecture
Customer-Facing Deployment
AWS Services
Terraform

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 Sierra.

Craft a killer cover letter:Your cover letter is your chance to stand out—make it personal! Explain why you want to work at Sierra 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 Sierra

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 Sierra 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.