Lead DevOps

As a Grade 7 Lead DevOps Engineer within the ESP Platform Support team, you will provide strategic technical and people leadership for a multidisciplinary tooling engineering team.

You will be accountable for the design, development and operation of strategic enterprise tooling, including integrations with ServiceNow, and for the infrastructure (including cloud platforms) that underpin critical business services.

This role combines deep technical credibility with senior leadership, ensuring platform stability, security and scalability while driving modern engineering practices, automation and continuous improvement across the estate.

You will operate as a technical authority, a people leader, and a key advisor to senior stakeholders across CDIO and wider business areas.

We will be hosting optional candidate information sessions for anyone interested in applying for this role. The Candidate session will be held on Thursday 21st May at 9:00am and will last 1 hour. This session will give you the opportunity to find out more about the role, the team, and the recruitment process, as well as ask any questions you may have. Attendance at an information session is entirely optional and has no bearing on the outcome of the selection process.

Person specification Strategic & Technical Leadership

Set the technical strategy and roadmap for enterprise tooling engineering within ESP Platform Support. Act as the technical authority for DevOps, platform tooling, integrations and supporting infrastructure. Drive adoption of modern DevOps practices, automation, CI/CD, reliability engineering and infrastructure-as-code. Ensure tooling and platforms align with enterprise architecture, security and operational standards. ServiceNow & Enterprise Integrations

Lead the design and delivery of integrations with ServiceNow, ensuring reliable data flows across enterprise systems. Oversee integration architecture, APIs, middleware and supporting services. Ensure integrations are supportable, secure, resilient and well-documented. Infrastructure & Cloud Oversight

Provide senior oversight of the infrastructure and cloud environments supported by the team. Ensure environments meet requirements for resilience, availability, performance, security and cost control. Work closely with infrastructure, security and architecture teams to manage risk and technical debt. Team & People Leadership

Lead, develop and inspire a strategic tooling engineering team, setting clear direction and expectations. Build capability through coaching, mentoring and performance management. Create a high-performing, inclusive culture focused on continuous improvement and learning. Own workforce planning, skills development and succession for the team. Operational Accountability

Provide senior technical input into incident management, problem management and major service restoration. Ensure services are operationally robust, with effective monitoring, alerting and support models. Balance run and change to maintain platform stability while enabling continuous delivery. Stakeholder Engagement

Engage confidently with senior stakeholders, translating complex technical topics into clear, actionable advice. Influence decisions across product, delivery, security and architecture communities. Represent ESP Platform Support in cross-department technical and governance forums.

Significant experience leading DevOps, platform or tooling engineering in complex enterprise environments, including responsibility for live services and supporting infrastructure. DevOps and Automation Strong knowledge and practical experience of DevOps ways of working, including CI/CD, automation, infrastructure-as-code and reliability-focused engineering practices. Enterprise Integrations

Proven experience delivering and operating integrations between enterprise platforms, including ServiceNow or equivalent systems, ensuring secure and resilient data flows. Infrastructure and Cloud

Senior-level understanding of infrastructure and/or cloud platforms, including availability, resilience, security and cost optimisation considerations. Leadership and Capability Building

Demonstrable experience leading, coaching and developing engineers, building high-performing teams and growing capability at both individual and team level. Change and Transformation

Experience leading teams through technical change, modernisation or platform transformation while maintaining service stability. Operational Accountability

Experience operating with accountability for business-critical live services, including incident, problem and change management. Agile and Collaborative Working

Experience working within agile, multi-disciplinary environments, collaborating effectively with delivery, product and operational teams. Communication and Influence

Ability to communicate complex technical concepts clearly and influence effectively across technical, non-technical and senior stakeholder groups.