At a Glance
- Tasks: Lead the evolution of DevOps practices and architect cutting-edge Kubernetes environments.
- Company: Join a leading blockchain analytics firm with a focus on innovation.
- Benefits: Enjoy a competitive salary, private health insurance, and generous leave policies.
- Other info: Collaborative culture with high expectations and opportunities for professional growth.
- Why this job: Be at the forefront of autonomous systems and make a real impact in tech.
- Qualifications: Strong Kubernetes expertise and experience in leading engineering teams.
The predicted salary is between 120000 - 150000 £ per year.
Overview
A leading blockchain analytics business is hiring a Lead Dev Ops Engineer based in London on a hybrid basis.
The role is permanent and full-time, with a salary of £120,000 to £150,000 base.
Benefits include private health insurance, 25 days annual leave plus bank holidays and a birthday day off, enhanced parental leave of 16 weeks fully paid, a £500 remote working budget, a $1,000 learning and development budget, mental health support, life assurance at four times salary, and a cycle to work scheme.
You can also work from almost anywhere for up to 90 days per year.
This role exists because the business is ready to move its Dev Ops practice from AI-assisted to genuinely autonomous, and it needs someone who has already done that in production to lead the way.
The team is technically strong and already uses AI across Terraform, Helm, PR reviews, runbooks, and alert triage.
The next step is a fully agent-driven routine infra path: an engineer describes a change, an agent writes the code, tests it, opens the PR, and promotes through canary without a human touching it unless a policy gate or error budget trips.
Scaling, cert rotation, drift correction, and known alert patterns follow the same path.
The human line stays deliberate, drawn around blast radius decisions, and this hire's job is to build the guardrails that let the team move it with confidence.
You will arrive as the centre of gravity on agentic systems, contribute significantly to the design of that capability, and bring the team up to production-level fluency alongside you.
This is a high-expectation environment where decisions are defended on evidence in front of peers who will push back, and that is precisely what makes it a genuinely interesting place to do this work.
Key Responsibilities
- Own the Dev Ops and platform roadmap, including Kubernetes platform evolution, application packaging, migration to EKS, and enabling engineering teams to ship reliably to production
- Lead by doing: engineer, review, and enhance Kubernetes and CNCF-aligned infrastructure, setting technical standards for the team
- Architect multi-cluster, multi-region environments using Istio or Linkerd, Cluster API, and Kyverno
- Build progressive delivery frameworks with Flux and Flagger for Git Ops-driven, canary, and automated releases
- Implement modern provisioning with controllers such as Crossplane and ACK for Kubernetes-native cloud integration
- Define and enforce Zero Trust architecture with Vault, Boundary, service identity, and m TLS-secured meshes
- Engineer policy-driven automation and compliance using OPA, Kyverno, and secure supply chain configurations
- Establish Ia C and Git Ops standards with automated testing on every infrastructure change
- Prototype agentic infrastructure components, including deployment and observability platforms in service meshes
- Contribute to the Kong AI Gateway, including Dataplane deployments, ACM/SSL integration, and observability via Data Dog
- Champion Dev Sec Ops maturity by embedding SAST/DAST, chaos engineering, and error budget monitoring
- Collaborate with Security, Data, and AI teams to shape Dev Ops and AI platform architectures with regulatory compliance in mind
- Stay ahead of CNCF and AI ecosystem developments, from e BPF observability to agent-aware orchestration
Requirements
- Must-haves
- Experience leading or mentoring engineering teams, setting direction hands-on
- Strong Kubernetes knowledge: cluster lifecycle, API extensions, Operators, Helm, CNCF ecosystem (Cilium, External DNS, Kyverno, Gatekeeper)
- Multi-cluster, multi-region Kubernetes platform design with Istio, Consul, or Linkerd
- Infrastructure-as-Code with Terraform on AWS or GCP, modular design, Git Ops integration, automated testing
- Git Ops pipelines with Argo CD or Flux CD for progressive delivery and drift correction
- Containerised, serverless, or event-driven systems with strong observability (Data Dog, Splunk, or Open Telemetry)
- Vault-based secret management, least privilege access, compliance automation
- CI/CD workflows including SAST, DAST, policy enforcement, and performance telemetry
- Reliability and resilience through SLOs, error budgets, and chaos engineering
- Working knowledge of LLM-based services and AI infrastructure: deploying, securing, and operating AI Gateways and services
- Already built repeatable autonomous systems in production infrastructure settings, with a defined rule for what happens when they go wrong
- Taken a team through the shift to agentic or automated workflows and got it to stick
- Nice-to-haves
- Platform modernisation or reliability initiatives in scale-up or regulated environments
- Operator development, CRD automation, e BPF, or Cilium for observability
- Policy-as-code using OPA or Kyverno within secure supply chain or CSPM frameworks
- Familiarity with MCP and A2A orchestration patterns in Kubernetes service mesh environments
- Agent Gateways and Registries connecting microservices and AI agents
- Secure containers, sandboxing, or confidential computing for regulated workloads
- Data-intensive systems such as Spark, Databricks, or Data Mesh
- Programming experience in Go, Python, or Type Script
- Open-source or CNCF community contributions
- What Success Looks Like
- A fully autonomous routine infra path is in production: agent writes the code, tests it, opens the PR, promotes through canary, and closes the loop without a human unless a policy gate or error budget trips
- Scaling, cert rotation, drift correction, and known alert patterns run without manual intervention
- The team's capability density around production agentic systems has measurably increased, with engineers able to build and operate autonomous workflows, not just use AI as a writing aid
- Guardrails are in place that define clearly where the autonomous line sits and what triggers human review, making it safe to move that line further over time
- Deployment velocity has increased without introducing regressions, drift, or policy violations
- Team and Culture
- A technically strong team that already works at a high level, with high expectations of one another and no appetite for trial and error
- Opinions are expected to be backed by evidence and defended in front of peers who will push back, that is the normal mode of discourse, not an exception
- AI is already embedded in daily work across the team, and the direction is toward more autonomy, not less
- The culture rewards people who arrive with conviction and raise the bar, not those who wait to see which way the wind blows
- Challenges
- The technical bar is already high, and this hire needs to arrive as the centre of gravity on agentic systems rather than growing into that position over time
- The environment does not tolerate a long runway of experimentation: decisions about where to move the autonomous line carry real consequences, and the reasoning behind them needs to hold up
- Building the guardrails that make production autonomy safe is as demanding as building the autonomy itself, and both need to happen in parallel
- The team needs to be brought up to production-level fluency on agentic workflows, which means carrying people through a genuine shift in how they work, not just introducing new tooling
- #J-18808-Ljbffr
Lead DevOps Engineer employer: Speak to Kit
At Kit, we pride ourselves on being an exceptional employer in the North West, offering a dynamic work culture that fosters collaboration and innovation. Our commitment to employee growth is evident through tailored development programmes and performance-based incentives, ensuring that our Managing Director not only leads but thrives in a supportive environment. With a focus on meaningful results and a flexible work arrangement, we empower our team to achieve their best while enjoying a rewarding career in specialist recruitment.
StudySmarter Expert Advice🤫
We think this is how you could land Lead 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 Speak to Kit 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 Speak to Kit.
✨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 Speak to Kit.
✨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 Speak to Kit 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 Lead DevOps Engineer
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 Speak to Kit.
Craft a killer cover letter:Your cover letter is your chance to stand out—make it personal! Explain why you want to work at Speak to Kit 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 Speak to Kit
✨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 Speak to Kit 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.
