Senior DevOps Engineer - Hybrid Bristol or Berlin

Sponge has built a global reputation for pushing boundaries in the digital learning space. Our customers include companies whose products you might use every day, through to smaller companies looking to upskill their people to stay one step ahead of the competition. We design effective and engaging learning applications focused on making a difference in the lives of our learners.

There’s no greater gift in life than an education. Want a job with a purpose? Then join us to help deliver unforgettable learning.

Role and responsibilities

• Reporting to the Head of Engineering, the candidate will be an experienced DevOps engineer who enjoys both the design and implementation of solutions.
• Design, deploy and maintain Public Cloud (AWS and GCP) infrastructure. Note the strategy is to move across to AWS entirely over time.
• Define service level metrics and implement the monitoring tools for applications.
• Mentor and guide the software development teams to ensure smooth and continuous deployment and running of applications.
• Troubleshooting and incident management.
• Support is mostly in UK business hours, but there may be a need for the occasional out-of-hours support.
• Identify and act on areas of improvement and optimisation.
• Define processes and tools for deployment, and incident/problem management.

Experience and qualifications

Qualifications and background:

• Preferably a bachelor's degree in engineering or science, but we will consider other degrees for the right candidate.
• 4+ years of DevOps experience at a Senior or Lead level.
• Hands-on experience with SaaS applications.

Experience with:

• Agile software development practises
• IP Networking, DNS, CDN, Load Balancing and firewall design and configuration
• AWS and GCP infrastructure
• Managing infra as code - Terraform
• Architecting Kubernetes systems and tools e.g design, capacity and monitoring solutions (e.g Prometheus), Service Mesh (e.g Istio)
• Linux based environments
• Source code management using GitHub
• CI/CD pipelines and workflows using GitHub Actions
• Config and Secrets management
• Languages/scripts: Python, Shell, Perl.
• Security accreditation – As a SaaS provider, security matters for our medium-large enterprise customers so experience with ISO27001, and SOC compliance would be a bonus.

We will consider candidates who’ve been software developers but want to move into a DevOps role.

Tech stack

The Tech stack comprises of:

• OS: Linux (no Windows deployments)
• Languages – Python and PHP, Shell Script
• Managed Kubernetes
• AWS Lambda, Step Functions, Cognito, Kinesis
• Databases: Postgres, Redis
• Open-source apps: Apache Airflow, Key Cloak, CraftCMS
• Development Frameworks: Django, Tailwind CSS/UI

What we can offer you...

• A competitive salary – our priority is to find the right person 
• Flexible working hours and the opportunity to work from home some of the week 
• Pension 
• Income protection and life assurance  
• 5 weeks holiday plus bank holidays 
• Your birthday off 
• A fabulous health cash plan 
• Cycle to work Scheme

Location – Hybrid Bristol or Berlin 

Our new headquarters is in the Bristol area (The Paintworks). We offer a mix of home and office working because we believe both are necessary for a high performing team. We know you need some time to concentrate and avoid constant commuting, so homeworking is essential, but we also feel face-to-face time is important too.

We work in a Hybrid way with ideally 2/3 days per week in the office and the rest of the week worked remotely. We offer flexible working options also to help find the right work-life balance for you.

We currently have main offices in the UK in Bristol and in Europe in Berlin and Brussels.

Be you, with us!

At Sponge, we are all different. And that’s what makes us great! We hire talented people with different and diverse backgrounds, stories, and perspectives not just because it’s the right thing to do, but because it makes us stronger.

We are actively working and committed to increasing diversity in our teams and management positions. It’s our ambition to create an inclusive environment where we can all be ourselves together.

What’s next?

If this sounds like you, then you’re on your way to joining a forward-thinking industry leader and a team of like-minded, exceptionally talented people. Simply send us your CV, and we will be in touch.