Site Reliability Engineer (SRE) - National Security

£55,000 to 70,000 GBP
Hybrid WORKING
Location: Leeds, Yorkshire and the Humber - United Kingdom Type: Permanent
Site Reliability Engineer (SRE) - National Security
Location: Leeds (Hybrid Working)
Salary: £55,000 to £70,000 DOE
Security Requirement: Sole UKnationality is essential, as the roles require eligibility to undergo the highest levels of UK national security clearance.
The Opportunity
We are recruiting for six Site Reliability Engineers across multiple grades to join a growing National Security technology team in Leeds. These roles offer the opportunity to work on critical applications and services where availability, resilience and performance are essential.
You will combine software engineering, infrastructure and automation to improve the reliability of complex systems. Rather than relying on repetitive manual support, you will focus on engineering solutions that prevent incidents, automate operational tasks and make services more scalable and resilient.
There are opportunities across three salary bands, with appointments dependent on experience and technical capability.
What You'll Be Doing

• Supporting and maintaining critical services that underpin mission-focused applications.
• Improving system availability, performance, resilience and stability.
• Automating repetitive operational tasks to reduce manual intervention.
• Diagnosing and resolving application and infrastructure issues across the technology stack.
• Implementing and improving monitoring, logging and observability to identify issues and demonstrate service improvements.
• Working closely with software and product teams to embed reliability and engineering best practice.
• Helping design and maintain scalable systems that can withstand failure and recover effectively.
• Contributing to DevOps and Site Reliability Engineering communities, sharing knowledge and improving engineering standards.

The emphasis is on engineering and automation, with routine support work designed to remain a minority of the team's overall workload.
What We're Looking For
Experience will vary depending on grade, but relevant skills and experience may include:

• Software development experience, ideally with Java and web technologies such as JavaScript and HTML.
• Working knowledge of Linux and Windows environments, including Bash and PowerShell.
• Experience with cloud infrastructure such as AWS, Azure or OpenStack.
• Familiarity with databases and data technologies, including Elasticsearch or MongoDB.
• Monitoring, logging and observability tools, such as the ELK Stack.
• Configuration management and deployment tools, such as Chef or Puppet.
• Containerisation and microservices technologies, including Docker.
• Experience troubleshooting complex application, infrastructure and production incidents.
• Understanding of CI/CD, automation, Agile delivery and tools such as Jira.
• Familiarity with ITIL principles and service management.
• Exposure to automated testing frameworks or improving open-source software.

You do not need to have experience across every technology listed. We are interested in engineers with strong problem-solving skills, an automation mindset and a desire to continuously improve service reliability.
Why Consider These Roles?

• Work on technically challenging systems supporting national security objectives.
• Join an established engineering environment with opportunities to collaborate across software, infrastructure and DevOps teams.
• Develop your skills in automation, cloud technologies, observability and resilient system design.
• Benefit from hybrid working arrangements and opportunities for continued technical development.
• Progress your career across a range of engineering grades, depending on your experience.

Important Eligibility Requirements
Applicants must be sole British nationals and able to meet the requirements for the relevant level of UK security clearance. Previous nationality, residency history and other vetting criteria may affect eligibility. The required clearance is subject to formal assessment and approval.
Location: Leeds
Working pattern: Hybrid
Salary: Up to £55,000, £65,000 or £70,000, depending on grade and experience.
If you're an SRE, DevOps Engineer, Software Engineer or Infrastructure Engineer looking to work on critical systems and build more reliable, automated services, we'd be keen to hear from you.