Senior DevOps Engineer

About the role

**Role:** Senior DevOps Engineer

**Salary:** £70,000 \- 90,000 DOE

**Location:** Southampton (hybrid \- min 3 days per week on site)

We are looking for a Senior DevOps Engineer to help us design and deliver our platform architecture on Microsoft Azure. You will bring deep, hands\-on expertise in cloud\-native infrastructure, secure deployment practices, container orchestration, big data workloads and cost optimisation, and you will apply that expertise to build systems capable of operating reliably at global scale.

**Senior DevOps Engineer,** the role:

*Architecture \& Platform Design*

* Design the target\-state platform architecture on Microsoft Azure, selecting appropriate modern Azure services and reference patterns for a large\-scale, globally distributed software estate. * Architect scalable, resilient and secure infrastructure using Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and Platform as a Service (PaaS) offerings, choosing the right model for each workload. * Design content delivery and edge strategy using Azure Front Door and Azure CDN to deliver low\-latency performance to a global user base. * Own the container orchestration strategy across Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), Azure Container Apps and serverless container options, and advise on where a service mesh (for example Istio or Linkerd) adds value. * Design and support large\-scale data platform infrastructure, supporting the ingestion, storage, processing and querying of high\-volume datasets using Azure data services such as Data Lake Storage, Databricks, Synapse Analytics and Event Hubs. * Document architecture decisions, trade\-offs and standards so that they are transparent, repeatable and understood across the engineering teams.

*Secure Deployment \& DevSecOps*

* Embed security best practice into every layer of the platform, applying a defence\-in\-depth and zero\-trust approach appropriate to a business handling sensitive financial and tax data. * Implement secure\-by\-design deployment pipelines, including secrets management (Azure Key Vault), identity and access management (Microsoft Entra ID), network segmentation and least\-privilege access controls. * Integrate security scanning, policy\-as\-code and compliance guardrails into the delivery lifecycle using tools such as Microsoft Defender for Cloud and Azure Policy. * Work with the IT and security functions to ensure infrastructure meets internal governance, data protection and regulatory requirements.

*Automation, CI/CD \& Infrastructure as Code*

* Build and maintain CI/CD pipelines using GitHub Actions to enable fast, safe and repeatable deployments. * Define all infrastructure as code using Terraform and Bicep, promoting modular, reusable and version\-controlled definitions. * Champion GitOps ways of working and automate provisioning, configuration and release management to reduce manual effort and human error. * Implement deployment strategies such as blue/green and canary releases to minimise risk and downtime.

*Reliability, Observability \& Cost Optimisation*

* Establish observability across the platform, including monitoring, logging, tracing and alerting (for example Azure Monitor, Application Insights and Log Analytics). * Drive reliability engineering practices, defining service level objectives and improving resilience, scalability and disaster recovery posture. * Lead on cloud cost optimisation (FinOps), continuously reviewing spend, right\-sizing resources and building cost awareness into architecture and delivery decisions. * Respond to incidents, lead root\-cause analysis and drive continuous improvement of the platform.

*Collaboration \& Leadership*

* Act as a technical authority on DevOps and cloud architecture across both the IT and Software Engineering departments. * Mentor and upskill software engineers on secure deployment, automation and cloud\-native practices. * Partner closely with the Group IT Director to align the platform roadmap with wider business and technology strategy. * Contribute to a strong engineering culture built on quality, security, automation and shared ownership.

**Senior DevOps Engineer,** the person:

*Essential Skills \& Experience*

* Experience: 5 to 8 years of hands\-on experience in DevOps, platform or cloud engineering, including production ownership of business\-critical systems. * Azure: Deep, demonstrable expertise with Microsoft Azure, including core compute, networking, storage, identity and security services. * Kubernetes: Proven experience designing and running workloads on Kubernetes (AKS) at scale, including containerisation with Docker. * IaC: Strong hands\-on experience with both Terraform and Bicep for infrastructure as code. * CI/CD: Practical experience building and maintaining CI/CD pipelines with GitHub Actions. * Security: Solid understanding of secure deployment, identity and access management, secrets management and network security in the cloud. * Scale: Experience designing for global scale, including CDN, edge delivery, high availability and disaster recovery. * Cost: Demonstrable experience of cloud cost optimisation and FinOps practices. * Big Data: Hands\-on experience building or operating infrastructure for big data and high\-volume data workloads, including distributed processing, data pipelines and scalable storage. * Automation: Strong scripting ability (for example PowerShell, Bash or Python) for automation. * Certification: A current, valid Microsoft Azure certification (for example AZ\-400 Designing and Implementing Microsoft DevOps Solutions, or an Azure Administrator/Solutions Architect credential). * Communication: Ability to communicate architecture and trade\-offs clearly to both technical and non\-technical audiences.

*Desirable Skills \& Experience*

* Microsoft Azure Solutions Architect Expert or a security\-focused certification such as Azure Security Engineer Associate or CISSP. * Experience with service mesh technologies (Istio, Linkerd) and advanced networking. * Experience in a regulated, financial services or compliance\-driven environment. * Familiarity with observability tooling such as Prometheus, Grafana or Datadog. * Experience with big data technologies and frameworks such as Azure Databricks, Synapse Analytics, Apache Spark, Kafka or Data Lake architectures. * Experience supporting multi\-entity, multi\-jurisdiction or globally distributed operations. * Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA) or equivalent

**Senior DevOps Engineer,** the benefits:

* 25 days annual leave plus bank holidays. * Annual leave purchase scheme (up to 5 days per year). * Company Pension scheme (Royal London). * Cycle2Work Scheme. * Private Healthcare Insurance (Vitality). * Flexible working. * Regular departmental socials, company wide.

**ABOUT AVASK**

AVASK Global Compliance are a rapidly expanding international firm that specialise in VAT, tax and accounting for e\-commerce businesses.

AVASK assist hundreds of Amazon FBA sellers as well as entrepreneurs across eBay, Shopify and many other platforms. Providing clients with a comprehensive range of expertise \- from practical guidance on cross\-border transactions, to ensuring they are fully compliant.