Forward Deployed Engineer

Equal IT are hiring an infrastructure-focused Forward Deployed Engineer to support our client with some of its most critical UK government deployments.

If you are early in your infrastructure or SRE career (roughly 1-5 years) and currently working at a defence contractor or government-adjacent organisation where everything feels slower than it should, this could be exactly the step you’re looking for. The same applies if you are building and operating infrastructure at a big tech company and already hold (or have previously held) SC clearance.

As a Forward Deployed Engineer, you will build and operate the infrastructure that powers platforms across UK government environments. This isn’t a role where you hand production over to another team, as you will be responsible for the systems you build.

You will also take part in an on-call rotation roughly every 5-6 weeks, respond to real production incidents, and own problems through to resolution. If you enjoy operating production systems as much as building them, you’ll thrive here.

• You are highly adaptable and learn quickly. Potential and pace matter more than years of experience.
• You genuinely enjoy infrastructure, operations and production ownership, not just writing code.
• You already hold SC clearance or are eligible to obtain it. This is a requirement due to the nature of the work.
• Experience within defence, national security or government environments is a strong advantage and will help you ramp up faster.
• Kubernetes experience is beneficial but not essential.
• A strong background in Computer Science or Computer Engineering is valued, but this isn’t a box-ticking exercise.

They are looking for people who can solve difficult technical problems and continue learning quickly.