DevOps Engineering Specialist

Job Description

Working locations: London

Working Style: 3 days a week in office and 2 days from home

Why this job matters

Our data and API platforms underpin critical analytics and operational services serving critical national infrastructure and consumer facing business. We run a large-scale hybrid data lake spanning on‑prem and cloud components using Kafka for streaming, ELK stack for logging/search analytics, and Prometheus for metrics and alerting. We also build and operate API-driven application platforms deployed on a Kubernetes ecosystem integrating the Core network with aggregators offering Network-as-a-service capability. This DevOps Engineer role is responsible for ensuring these platforms are secure, observable, scalable and reliable enabling teams to ship changes safely, troubleshoot quickly and operate with confidence. The role reflects the DevOps principle of taking services “through to live” and maintaining SLA/operational commitments through automation, monitoring and strong engineering practices.

What you’ll be doing

• Operate and evolve a hybrid data lake (AWS + on‑prem) ensuring performance, resilience and secure connectivity.
• Manage and optimize ELK Stack (Elasticsearch, Logstash, Kibana) for log ingestion, indexing, retention, performance tuning, cluster health and query reliability.
• Build and maintain Prometheus-based observability: metrics pipelines, alert rules, recording rules, dashboards (e.g., Grafana) using consistent standards (labels, correlation IDs, golden signals, SLO-aligned dashboards).
• Manage and tune Kafka clusters and ecosystem components (topics, partitions, replication, consumer lag monitoring, ACLs, capacity planning).
• Provide platform integration support for service-to-service communication (ingress, API gateway patterns, service mesh where applicable) and ensure API lifecycle hygiene (versioning, deprecation, documentation).
• Contribute to CI/CD practices and automation (pipeline reliability, environment promotion, configuration management, GitOps where appropriate).
• Work with developers and product teams to ensure clean API lifecycle practices (versioning, documentation, deprecation and backward compatibility).
• Ensure logging/metrics are actionable and support rapid incident triage (clear alerts, meaningful thresholds, low noise, good routing).
• Collaborate with security, network and architecture stakeholders to ensure platform controls meet required standards.

What you'll bring

MANDATORY

• Strong Linux fundamentals and troubleshooting (system performance, networking, storage).
  Hands-on Kubernetes experience in production (deployments, upgrades, debugging, cluster/ workload operations, managing secrets, network policies).
• Automation mindset: scripting (Python/Bash) + one or more of Terraform/Ansible/Helm/Kustomize/GitOps.
• GitOps and modern engineering practices (PRs, code review, release discipline).
• Strong Knowledge of API gateway/service mesh patterns and secure ingress.
• Experience designing observability for serverless systems (logs/metrics/traces) and implementing distributed tracing and dashboards using open standards and various tooling like Elastic, Grafana etc.
• Access, use, and disclose information only as required for the job; ensure appropriate safeguards and adherence to Information Security policies.
• AWS Cloud Practitioner Certification
• Familiarity with ITIL/incident management and change practices (or equivalent experience).
• Excellent verbal and written communication and interpersonal skills.

NICE TO HAVE

• Kubernetes certification (e.g., CKA/CKAD)
• Good understanding of foundational AWS services like EKS, IAM, VPC, S3, CloudWatch, and hybrid connectivity patterns (e.g., VPN/Direct Connect where applicable).
• Sound understanding of authentication and authorisation patterns, including OpenID Connect (OIDC), OAuth 2.0 and LDAP/Active Directory and how these integrate with Kubernetes (e.g., OIDC-based SSO, RBAC mapping, identity federation) and AWS identity/access controls.

What's in it for you

• 10% on target bonus
• BT Pension scheme, minimum 5% Employee contribution, BT contribution 10%
• Life Assurance Cover
• Exclusive colleague discounts on our latest and greatest BT broadband packages, BT TV with TNT Sports and NOW Entertainment
• From January 2025, equal family leave: receive 18 weeks at full pay, 8 weeks at half pay and 26 weeks at the statutory rate. It’s for all parents, no matter how your family is made up.
• Enhanced women’s health support: including help with menopause symptoms, cancer screenings, period care and more.
• 25 days annual leave (not including bank holidays), increasing with service
• 24/7 private virtual GP appointments for UK colleagues
• 2 weeks carer’s leave
• World-class training and development opportunities
• Option to join BT Shares Saving schemes

About us

BT Group was the world’s first telco and our heritage in the sector is unrivalled. As home to several of the UK’s most recognised and cherished brands – BT, EE, Openreach and Plusnet, we have always played a critical role in creating the future, and we have reached an inflection point in the transformation of our business.

Over the next two years, we will complete the UK’s largest and most successful digital infrastructure project – connecting more than 25 million premises to full fibre broadband. Together with our heavy investment in 5G, we play a central role in revolutionising how people connect with each other.

While we are through the most capital-intensive phase of our fibre investment, meaning we can reward our shareholders for their commitment and patience, we are absolutely focused on how we organise ourselves in the best way to serve our customers in the years to come. This includes radical simplification of systems, structures, and processes on a huge scale. Together with our application of AI and technology, we are on a path to creating the UK’s best telco, reimagining the customer experience and relationship with one of this country’s biggest infrastructure companies.

Change on the scale we will all experience in the coming years is unprecedented. BT Group is committed to being the driving force behind improving connectivity for millions and there has never been a more exciting time to join a company and leadership team with the skills, experience, creativity, and passion to take this company into a new era.

A FEW POINTS TO NOTE:

Although these roles are listed as full-time, if you’re a job share partnership, work reduced hours, or any other way of working flexibly, please still get in touch.

We will also offer reasonable adjustments for the selection process if required, so please do not hesitate to inform us.

DON'T MEET EVERY SINGLE REQUIREMENT?

Studies have shown that women and people who are disabled, LGBTQ+, neurodiverse or from ethnic minority backgrounds are less likely to apply for jobs unless they meet every single qualification and criteria. We're committed to building a diverse, inclusive, and authentic workplace where everyone can be their best, so if you're excited about this role but your past experience doesn't align perfectly with every requirement on the Job Description, please apply anyway - you may just be the right candidate for this or other roles in our wider team.