Senior DevOps Engineer (Microsoft Cloud Services)

Technology and Information Services

The University of Plymouth is seeking a Senior DevOps Engineer (Microsoft Cloud Services) to join their Technology and Information Services (TIS) teams. 

TIS focuses on providing efficient IT services with a cloud-first approach, increasing digital capabilities for staff and students, and ensuring a seamless and edgeless end-to-end digital experience for all stakeholders. 

This is an exciting opportunity to be part of a progressive and innovative University located in a beautiful area with the potential to make a real impact. 

As a Senior DevOps Engineer specialising in Microsoft Cloud Services, you will play a pivotal role in architecting, implementing, and maintaining cloud infrastructure solutions to support the dynamic needs of the University. Leveraging your expertise in DevOps practices and Microsoft Azure technologies, you will lead the design and deployment of scalable, resilient, and secure cloud environments tailored to meet the requirements of educational workflows, research initiatives, and administrative functions. 

Key responsibilities: 

• Collaboration Services: Oversee the platforms used across the University (M365, SharePoint, Teams, Intune, etc.) to maintain service and input into the wider strategy.
• Cloud Infrastructure Design and Implementation: Collaborate with stakeholders, business analysts and IT Architects to understand business objectives and translate them into scalable cloud infrastructure solutions.
• Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment (CI/CD): Identify, design and build automated CI/CD pipelines to streamline software delivery processes for academic applications and services. Implement configuration management tools such as Azure DevOps, PowerShell DSC, or Ansible for infrastructure provisioning and orchestration.
• Security and Compliance: Ensure the security, compliance, and data privacy of cloud environments by ensuring compliance with identity and access management (IAM) policies, encryption mechanisms, and network security controls.
• Monitoring and Performance Optimization: Ensure appropriate monitoring of availability, performance, and utilisation of cloud resources using Azure Monitor, Application Insights, and other monitoring tools. Proactively identify performance bottlenecks, optimise resource utilisation, and implement scaling strategies to maintain optimal performance during peak demand periods.
• Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity: Ensure appropriate disaster recovery plans, backup strategies, and failover mechanisms are in place to ensure high availability and business continuity for critical academic systems and data.
• Technical Leadership and Mentoring: Serve as a subject matter expert (SME) on Microsoft Cloud technologies. Provide guidance, mentorship, and training to junior team members, fostering a culture of knowledge sharing and continuous learning within the DevOps team.
• Documentation: Create comprehensive documentation including architectural diagrams, deployment guides, standard operating procedures (SOPs), and knowledge base articles to facilitate knowledge transfer and ensure operational consistency. Document infrastructure configurations, automation scripts, and troubleshooting procedures to enable efficient collaboration and problem resolution across the DevOps team. 

Please demonstrate how you meet the essential criteria outlined in the knowledge, qualifications, training and experience elements of the job description in your supporting statement. 

For an informal discussion to find out more about the role then please contact Rupert Frankum by email at rupert.frankum@plymouth.ac.uk. 

Interviews are likely to take place week commencing Monday 17^th June 2024. 

This is a full-time, permanent position, working 37 hours a week. 

Flexible working options including job share will be considered. 

We offer a competitive salary package and a generous pension and holiday scheme. We also offer a range of other benefits, including ongoing development opportunities. 

Advert information