Team Lead DevOps Engineer

Are you a hands-on technical leader who enjoys guiding teams through complex, mission-critical environments while still shaping the technical direction? Do you want your work to directly support national security outcomes? As a Team Lead, you’ll play a key specialist role within our Aerospace, Defence and Security account. This role blends functional team leadership with technical architecture responsibilities, sitting at the heart of our DevOps delivery.

You’ll lead a skilled, multi-supplier delivery team, providing technical direction, prioritisation and support to ensure outcomes are delivered effectively and in line with customer methodologies. You’ll act as a bridge between internal teams, customers and third-party partners, helping to balance risk, improve service quality and maintain system stability in a highly secure environment. This is a role for someone who enjoys influencing decisions, driving continuous improvement and working closely with stakeholders to improve user experience across complex systems.

What you’ll be doing:

• Leading DevOps delivery and associated project work across the delivery team.
• Guiding and supporting the team by prioritising work and providing expert technical direction.
• Owning and maintaining low-level technical understanding and documentation of system configurations and interfaces.
• Supporting the Service Delivery Manager to ensure timely and cost-effective service delivery.
• Managing investigation, triage and resolution of incidents, changes and stories.
• Building strong relationships with customers and partners to influence decision-making and prioritisation.

What you’ll bring:

• Experience leading technical teams and inspiring people to deliver strong business outcomes.
• Strong understanding of system and application architectures across complex environments.
• Hands-on experience with DevOps, CI/CD pipelines and modern delivery practices.
• Experience working with on-premise infrastructure, Linux/Unix and cloud platforms.
• Knowledge of containerisation, microservices and automation technologies such as Terraform or Ansible.
• Ability to analyse user requirements and advise on scope and technical options.

It would be great if you had:

• Scripting experience.
• Knowledge of Zero Trust networking and secure-by-design principles.
• Experience integrating with existing systems and networks.
• Understanding of perimeter defences, anti-malware and IDPS concepts.

If you’re interested in this role but not sure if your skills and experience are exactly what we’re looking for, please do apply, we’d love to hear from you!

Employment and Benefits

• Employment Type: Full-time, Permanent.
• Location: Gloucestershire, London or Manchester – on site 5 days per week.
• Security Clearance Level: DV (enhanced).
• Salary: Competitive based on experience.
• Benefits: £5,400 car allowance, 25 days annual leave with the option to buy additional days, private medical, life assurance, pension, and generous flexible benefits fund.

Sopra Steria’s Aerospace, Defence and Security business designs, develops and deploys digital solutions to Central Government clients. The work we do makes a real difference to the client’s goal of National Security, and we operate in a unique and privileged environment. We are given time for professional development activities, and we coach and mentor our colleagues, sharing knowledge and learning from each other. We foster a culture in which employees feel valued and supported and have pride in their work for the customer, delivering outstanding rates of customer satisfaction in the UK’s most complex safety- and security-critical markets.