* Role : Senior Azure DevOps Engineer - SC Clearance
* Location : UK (Remote)
* Type : Contract (Inside IR35)
Job Description Summary
A highly experienced Azure DevOps professional responsible for architecting, delivering, and operating complex cloud and digital platforms that support large-scale public sector transformation. Expert in designing and implementing agile delivery pipelines across infrastructure, application, and platform services, with a strong emphasis on reliability, scalability, security, and compliance. Brings deep expertise in Microsoft Azure, Kubernetes (AKS), and modern automation practices to enable seamless, citizen-focused digital services. Highly effective in resolving critical operational issues, optimizing platform performance, and fostering cross-functional collaboration to align engineering outcomes with strategic and policy objectives. Passionate about continuous improvement, innovation, and building resilient, future-ready platforms that support sustainable long-term growth.
Programme Delivery & Engineering Strategy
• Ability to design and deliver Azure-centric DevOps solutions aligned with organisational and transformation goals.
• Skilled in translating platform requirements into technical delivery plans and implementation roadmaps.
Proven experience collaborating across teams to ensure consistent engineering standards and delivery practices.
Team & People Collaboration
• Demonstrated ability to work effectively within multidisciplinary agile teams (Azure engineers, DevOps specialists, analysts, testers).
• Strong technical mentoring skills to support knowledge sharing and uplift engineering capability.
• Experience contributing to sprint planning and supporting sustainable team delivery velocity.
Cloud Architecture & Engineering
• Deep knowledge of Microsoft Azure native architectures, container platforms (AKS), and hybrid cloud solutions.
• Hands-on experience implementing Infrastructure as Code using Bicep, ARM, or Terraform.
• Strong capability to engineer solutions for scalability, resilience, performance, and high availability within Azure environments.
Delivery Operations & Agile Practices
• Proficiency in contributing to sprint planning, backlog refinement, and iterative delivery using agile methodologies.
• Experience supporting CI/CD pipelines and monitoring engineering metrics (deployment frequency, failure rates, lead times).
• Practical use of Azure DevOps, GitHub, Jira, or similar tooling for pipeline management and delivery tracking.
Risk, Compliance & Security
• Strong understanding of secure Azure delivery practices aligned with GDS guidelines and NCSC principles.
• Experience implementing Azure security controls including identity, access management, and network security.
• Ability to identify and mitigate technical risks through automation, validation, and engineering best practices.
Stakeholder & Vendor Engagement
• Proven ability to work closely with internal teams, delivery partners, and external suppliers to achieve technical outcomes.
• Experience supporting third-party integrations and ensuring technical delivery aligns with agreed standards and SLAs.
• Clear communicator able to articulate technical concepts to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
Innovation & Continuous Improvement
• Commitment to continuous learning and adopting modern Azure and DevOps practices.
• Ability to evaluate emerging Azure services, automation tools, and cloud patterns to improve platform delivery.
• Active contributor to retrospectives, documentation, and knowledge-sharing initiatives across engineering teams.
Essential requirements
The Azure DevOps Operations Delivery Lead will be a highly hands-on engineer with strong experience in cloud, application, and infrastructure operations, and should possess the following experience and characteristics:
• Hands-on experience delivering, operating, and supporting services across Azure, hybrid, and legacy environments
• Strong practical understanding of industrialised DevOps delivery models, including CI/CD, automation, and repeatable deployment patterns
• Ability to interpret client contracts and SLAs and translate them into operational and technical delivery requirements
• Proven ability to identify, troubleshoot, and remediate SLA breaches, including implementing technical and process-based mitigations
• Hands-on responsibility for creating, reviewing, and maintaining operational runbooks, architecture diagrams, and service documentation
• Demonstrated experience communicating technical issues, risks, and solutions to senior stakeholders and clients
• Practical knowledge of ITIL processes (Incident, Problem, Change, Release) applied within modern Azure DevOps environments
• Ability to work directly across engineering, platform, security, and operations teams to present a single operational view of service
• Strong awareness of cost management and chargeback models within Azure-based services
• Hands-on experience aligning engineering work with cloud and digital transformation strategies
• Strong technical and business acumen with the ability to make sound engineering decisions
• Clear, confident communicator with strong collaboration and negotiation skills
• Highly self-motivated, proactive, and comfortable owning technical outcomes end-to-end
• Logical and structured problem-solver with a strong attention to detail
• Ability to think creatively and pragmatically to drive hands-on fault resolution and service improvements
• Proven ability to operate effectively under production pressure and incident scenarios
• Comfortable working with complex systems, cross-platform dependencies, and evolving architectures
• A collaborative team player who actively contributes to shared technical ownership
• Embraces and champions continuous improvement, automation, and modern Azure DevOps practices
The candidate must have currently valid, fully transferrable SC clearance and resided in the UK for the last 5 years.