Senior Cloud Engineer

£72,000 GBP
Hybrid WORKING
Location: Manchester, North West - United Kingdom Type: Permanent
An exciting opportunity is available for an experienced Cloud Engineer / AWS Developer to join a specialist engineering team delivering secure, mission-critical technology for UK National Security customers.
The role offers the chance to design, develop, deploy and maintain cloud-native applications and services on Amazon Web Services (AWS), supporting systems that contribute to the UK's national security and law enforcement capabilities.
Working within an autonomous, Agile DevOps team, the successful candidate will collaborate closely with engineers, stakeholders and end-users to understand complex business challenges and deliver innovative, reliable and scalable cloud solutions. The position offers exposure to varied projects, evolving technologies and technically challenging environments, alongside opportunities to develop expertise within a wider engineering community.
This is an excellent opportunity for an AWS specialist who enjoys hands-on engineering, takes ownership of the full software delivery lifecycle and wants to apply their technical skills to work with a meaningful national impact.
Key Responsibilities

• Design, develop, deploy and maintain cloud-based applications and services using AWS.
• Build secure, scalable and resilient cloud solutions that support critical National Security customer requirements.
• Work across the full software delivery lifecycle, from requirements gathering and solution design through development, testing, deployment and ongoing maintenance.
• Collaborate with end-users and technical stakeholders to understand complex problems and translate business needs into effective engineering solutions.
• Apply AWS services and cloud engineering best practices to deliver high-quality software and infrastructure.
• Develop and maintain Infrastructure as Code (IaC), enabling consistent, repeatable and automated cloud deployments.
• Use scripting and programming to automate processes, solve technical challenges and improve operational efficiency.
• Contribute to CI/CD pipelines, automated testing and continuous improvement across the delivery process.
• Work within Agile and DevOps teams, taking ownership of technical decisions and delivery outcomes.
• Evaluate emerging technologies and engineering approaches, identifying opportunities to improve performance, reliability and maintainability.
• Contribute to a collaborative engineering culture, sharing knowledge and developing technical capability across teams.

Essential Skills and Experience
Candidates should demonstrate experience across many of the following areas:

• AWS cloud engineering: Strong hands-on experience with AWS and the ability to solve complex technical and business problems, ideally operating as an AWS subject matter expert.
• AWS services: Practical experience with services such as EC2, ECS, EKS, S3, Lambda, RDS, KMS, Elastic Load Balancing, SNS, SQS and IAM.
• Programming and scripting: Proficiency in Shell, Bash or Python, alongside coding experience in at least one language compatible with AWS Lambda.
• Infrastructure as Code: Experience with technologies such as AWS CloudFormation, AWS CDK or Terraform.
• Version control: Experience managing source code using Git or other version control systems.
• Agile delivery: Experience working within Agile environments, including Scrum, Kanban, SAFe or XP.
• Problem-solving: Strong analytical skills and the ability to investigate complex issues and develop practical solutions.
• Communication and collaboration: The ability to work effectively within multidisciplinary teams, engage with stakeholders and communicate technical concepts clearly.
• Continuous learning: A proactive approach to learning new technologies, tools and engineering practices.

Desirable Skills and Experience
Experience in the following areas would be advantageous:

• AWS Associate-level certification, such as AWS Solutions Architect, Developer or DevOps Engineer.
• Microservices architecture and API design.
• Docker and container orchestration or runtime platforms, including Kubernetes, Amazon EKS and Amazon ECS.
• AWS operational practices, including monitoring, observability, performance optimisation and FinOps.
• CI/CD tooling such as Jenkins, Bamboo, TeamCity or Bitbucket.
• Automated testing frameworks and continuous testing practices.
• Linux administration and an understanding of networking, routing and firewalls.
• Secure software development and the operation of cloud-based services in complex environments.

Candidates do not need to possess every desirable skill. A willingness to learn, develop new capabilities and adapt to different technologies is equally important.
Security Clearance
Security clearance is required for this position. Applicants who do not currently hold the necessary clearance must be eligible to obtain it and willing to complete the required vetting process.