Lead AWS DevOps Engineer - Defence

We're seeking a Lead AWS DevOps Engineer to significantly contribute to our DevOps efforts, with a particular emphasis on projects in the defence, public sector, and national security domains. In this role, you'll lead projects, guide engineering teams, and shape our technical direction in DevOps practices while ensuring compliance with the unique security, regulatory, and operational requirements of these sectors. You will actively participate in the entire DevOps lifecycle, focusing on automating and streamlining software delivery pipelines using modern DevOps tools and methodologies, with a strong commitment to security, resilience, and mission-critical delivery.

Responsibilities

• Design, develop, and maintain robust, scalable, and secure DevOps infrastructure and processes using modern tools and methodologies, tailored to the needs of defence, public sector, and national security projects.

• Ensure solutions meet stringent security, compliance, and accreditation requirements (e.g., ISO 27001, NIST, Cyber Essentials, or sector-specific standards).

• Guide and mentor junior and mid-level engineers, fostering a culture of innovation, quality, and efficiency in DevOps practices, with awareness of the sensitivities and protocols of working in government and defence environments.

• Lead the resolution of complex technical challenges, applying your deep expertise in DevOps and secure cloud solutions.

• Drive continuous improvement in our DevOps practices, ensuring alignment with industry standards, best practices, and government regulations.

• Shape the technical direction of our DevOps initiatives and contribute to strategic decision-making for mission-critical systems.

• Extensive experience in DevOps practices and CI/CD pipeline development.

• Exceptional communication, facilitation, and coaching skills.

• Strong decision-making and problem-solving abilities.

• Ability to influence stakeholders at all levels and drive organizational change.

• Proven experience in leading DevOps initiatives and projects.

• Technical skils: AWS,TypeScript/JavaScript Svelte or similar UI framework, Unit testing with Jest/Vite, Automated testing with Playwright, Experience with automated CI/CD pipelines, Browser extension development

As an equal opportunities' employer, we welcome applications from individuals of all backgrounds. However, for you to be eligible for this role, you must have the valid right to work in the UK. Unfortunately, we do not offer visa sponsorship and have no future plans to do so. You must be a resident in the UK and have been living continuously in the UK for the last 10 years. You must be able to hold or gain a UK government security clearance.

Preferred technical and professional experience

• Experience with CI/CD tools (e.g., Jenkins, GitLab CI/CD, CircleCI).

• Familiarity with configuration management tools (e.g., Ansible, Puppet, Chef).

• Knowledge of infrastructure as code (IaC) tools (e.g., Terraform, CloudFormation).

• Experience with monitoring and logging tools (e.g., Prometheus, ELK Stack, Datadog).

• Passion for continuous learning and professional development

Desirable Certifications

• AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Professional

• AWS Certified DevOps Engineer - Professional

• AWS Certified Security - Specialty

• Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA)

• HashiCorp Certified: Terraform Associate

• Many training opportunities from classroom to e-learning, mentoring and coaching programs and the chance to gain industry recognized certifications

• Regular and frequent promotion opportunities to ensure you can drive and develop your career with us

• Feedback and checkpoints throughout the year

• Diversity & Inclusion as an essential and authentic component of our culture through our policies and process as well as our Employee Champion teams and support networks

• A culture where your ideas for growth and innovation are always welcome

• Internal recognition programs for peer-to-peer appreciation as well as from manager to employees

• Tools and policies to support your work-life balance from flexible working approaches, sabbatical programs, paid paternity leave, maternity leave and an innovative maternity returners scheme

• More traditional benefits, such as 25 days holiday (in addition to public holidays), private medical, dental & optical cover, online shopping discounts, an Employee Assistance Program, life assurance and a group personal pension plan of an additional 5% of your base salary paid by us monthly to save for your future.

Your role and responsibilities

At IBM CIC, we provide technical and industry expertise to a wide range of public and private sector clients in the UK. A career in IBM CIC means you'll have the opportunity to work with leading professionals across multiple industries to improve the hybrid cloud and AI journey for the most innovative and valuable companies in the world. You will get the chance to deliver effective solutions, driving meaningful business change for our clients, using some of the latest technology platforms. Curiosity and a constant quest for knowledge serve as the foundation to success here. You'll be encouraged and supported to constantly reinvent yourself, focusing on skills in demand in an ever changing market. You'll be working with diverse teams, coming up with creative solutions which impact a wide network of clients, who may be at their site or one of our CIC or IBM locations. Our culture of evolution centres on long-term career growth and development opportunities in an environment that embraces your unique skills and experience.