As a Cloud Engineer, you will be a vital contributor to the creation and enhancement of our technology landscape, ensuring our systems are scalable, reliable, and secure. You will collaborate closely with architects and key stakeholders to design and deploy robust platforms across both Microsoft Azure and GCP. Whether you are joining us at an engineer or senior level, you will play a transformative role in shaping our infrastructure through automation and modern engineering standards.
What you'll take on
In this role, your day-to-day focus will be on driving technical excellence and platform stability through the following activities:
* Developing IaC Solutions: Leading the creation and maintenance of Infrastructure-as-Code solutions and centralised modules using Terraform.
* Automating Provisioning: Streamlining the management of platform resources and ensuring consistent deployment of PaaS-based tools like serverless functions, databases, and containers.
* Infrastructure Governance: Utilising Azure Policy and internal standards to maintain high levels of configuration integrity and security.
* Monitoring & Reliability: Implementing proactive alerting and monitoring to resolve issues early, while participating in incident response and disaster recovery.
* Cross-Team Collaboration: Working with wider technology teams to ensure seamless integration across our IT infrastructure.
* Senior Leadership (for Senior level): Coaching junior team members through code reviews, leading technical workshops, and translating complex business needs into high-level architectural designs.
What you'll bring
We are looking for a proactive engineer who combines deep technical knowledge with the ability to communicate effectively with stakeholders. To succeed in this role, you should offer:
* Proven experience with Azure Foundations (governance and scaffolding) and a working knowledge of GCP.
* A strong understanding of networking architecture (Express Route, Virtual Networks, Firewalls) and identity management via EntraID and RBAC.
* Hands-on experience with Azure DevOps, CI/CD pipelines, Ansible, and PowerShell.
* Familiarity with Azure SQL, AKS, and observability tools like Log Analytics and App Insights.
* The confidence to scope and plan complex projects, translating requirements into pragmatic solutions.
In addition, the Senior Cloud Engineer should also offer:
* Act as a natural mentor, coaching junior team members through code reviews and technical guidance to foster professional growth.
* Lead technical workshops, develop engineering standards, and endorse cloud best practices across the organisation.
* Take the lead in translating complex business requirements into high-level architectural designs, ensuring long-term scalability and alignment with the broader IT strategy.
* Serve as a crucial point of escalation and take a lead role in coordinating the resolution of major technical issues and incidents.
You know Next, but did you know we're a FTSE-100 retail company employing over 35,000 people across the UK and Ireland. We're the UK's 2nd largest fashion retailer and for Kidswear we're the market leader. At the last count we have over 500 stores, plus the Next Online and it's now possible to buy on-line from over 70 countries around the world So we've gone global
* 25% off most NEXT, MADE*, Lipsy*, Gap* and Victoria's Secret* products (*when purchased through NEXT)
* Company performance based bonus
* Sharesave scheme
* On-site Nursery available; OFSTED outstanding in all areas
* 10% off most partner brands & up to 15% off Branded Beauty
* Early VIP access to sale stock
* Access to fantastic discounts at our Staff Shops
* Restaurants with great food at amazing prices
* Access a digital GP and other free health and wellbeing services
* Free on-site parking
* Financial Wellbeing - Save, track and enhance your financial wellbeing
* Apprenticeship - Grow and develop on the job whilst gaining a qualification
* Direct to Work - Discount online and instore, collect your items the next day for free from your place of work or local store
* Support Networks - Access to Network Groups to empower and celebrate each other
* Wellhub - Discounted flexible monthly gym memberships, with apps, PT sessions and more
Conditions apply to all benefits. These benefits are discretionary and subject to change.
We aim to support all candidates during the application process and are happy to provide workplace adjustments when necessary. Should you need support with your application due to a disability or long-term condition, feel free to get in touch with us by email (please include 'Workplace Adjustments' in the subject line), or call us on and leave a voicemail.