{"id":2711099,"url":"https://alion.io/job/methods-lead-devops","title":"Lead DevOps","company":{"id":6935,"name":"Methods","domain":"methods.co.uk","url":"https://alion.io/company/methods-business-and-digital-technology","size_band":"5000+","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Workable","truth_index":{"grade":"A","score":91,"open_postings":32,"ghost_share":0,"stale_share":0.375,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":43,"computed_at":"2026-10-21T05:46:15Z"}},"role":"DevOps","role_family":"DevOps","seniority":"lead","employment_type":null,"work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["London, United Kingdom"],"countries":["GB"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":null,"salary_estimate":{"min_usd":97000,"max_usd":167000,"period":"year","method":"role_seniority_country_remote_cell","sample_n":30},"experience_years_min":null,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"Amazon CloudWatch","optional":false},{"name":"Amazon EC2","optional":false},{"name":"Amazon ECS","optional":false},{"name":"Amazon EKS","optional":false},{"name":"AWS","optional":false},{"name":"Azure","optional":false},{"name":"CI/CD","optional":false},{"name":"Docker","optional":false},{"name":"GitLab","optional":false},{"name":"GitLab CI","optional":false},{"name":"Helm","optional":false},{"name":"IAM","optional":false},{"name":"JMeter","optional":false},{"name":"k6","optional":false},{"name":"Kubernetes","optional":false},{"name":"Node JS","optional":false},{"name":"Platform Engineering","optional":false},{"name":"Pytest","optional":false},{"name":"Python","optional":false},{"name":"Terraform","optional":false},{"name":"Agile","optional":true},{"name":"API Gateway","optional":true},{"name":"Dynatrace","optional":true},{"name":"Grafana","optional":true},{"name":"Istio","optional":true},{"name":"JavaScript","optional":true},{"name":"Jira","optional":true},{"name":"Kong","optional":true},{"name":"Prometheus","optional":true},{"name":"Service Mesh","optional":true}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-10-16T13:18:23Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-10-16","last_verified_at":"2026-10-21T17:00:15Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":5,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":5},"description":"Methods is a £100M+ IT Services Consultancy who has partnered with a range of central government departments and agencies to transform the way the public sector operates in the UK. Established over 30 years ago and UK-based, we apply our skills in transformation, delivery, and collaboration from across the Methods Group, to create end-to-end business and technical solutions that are people-centred, safe, and designed for the future.\nOur human touch sets us apart from other consultancies, system integrators and software houses - with people, technology, and data at the heart of who we are, we believe in creating value and sustainability through everything we do for our clients, staff, communities, and the planet.\nWe support our clients in the success of their projects while working collaboratively to share skill sets and solve problems. At Methods we have fun while working hard; we are not afraid of making mistakes and learning from them.\nMethods was acquired by the Alten Group in early 2022.\nThe role is heavily AWS platform engineering focused. While Azure and DevSecOps experience are valuable, the day-to-day work is centred on designing, maintaining and improving AWS-hosted Identity platforms running on Kubernetes and ECS.\nThis is a hands-on technical leadership role. You will be expected to lead by example, mentor engineers, influence technical decisions and own services throughout their lifecycle.\nRequirements\nCore Technical Skills\nAWS\nExpected to have strong hands-on experience across AWS services including:\nECS\nEKS\nEC2\nIAM\nAuto Scaling Groups\nKMS\nCloudHSM\nSecrets Manager\nSystems Manager Parameter Store\nCloudWatch\nThis is an engineering role rather than an infrastructure administration role.\nInfrastructure as Code\nStrong Terraform experience is expected.\nThis includes:\nWriting production-quality Terraform\nCreating and maintaining reusable Terraform modules\nManaging multiple environments using Terraform Workspaces\nReviewing and improving existing modules\nFollowing engineering standards and code review practices\nKubernetes\nA high level of Kubernetes knowledge is expected.\nDaily work includes:\nDeploying and operating applications on Amazon EKS\nTroubleshooting workloads\nWorking with Deployments, Services, Ingress, ConfigMaps and Secrets\nUnderstanding RBAC\nResource requests and limits\nHorizontal Pod Autoscaling\nNetwork Policies\nKubernetes troubleshooting\nHelm\nHelm is used extensively.\nYou will be expected to:\nWrite Helm charts\nMaintain existing charts\nBuild reusable templates\nManage values across environments\nDebug Helm deployments\nThis is a core skill for the role.\nECS\nA significant amount of the estate still runs on ECS.\nExpected knowledge includes:\nECS Services\nTask Definitions\nAuto Scaling Groups\nCapacity Providers\nDeployment strategies\nOperational troubleshooting\nThe team owns the ECS platform.\nDocker\nAlmost every application is containerised.\nExpected experience:\nBuilding images\nWriting Dockerfiles\nMulti-stage builds\nImage optimisation\nContainer troubleshooting\nGitLab & CI/CD\nAll source code is hosted in GitLab.\nCI/CD is implemented using GitLab CI.\nExpected experience includes:\nWriting GitLab CI pipelines\nMaintaining reusable pipeline fragments and templates\nBuilding and maintaining reusable CI/CD components\nManaging multi-stage deployment pipelines across Development, Test, Stage and Production\nPipeline troubleshooting\nSecure secret handling\nBuild and deployment automation\nTesting & Quality Engineering\nTesting is considered part of delivering a feature, not an optional activity.\nLead Engineers are expected to understand how to test infrastructure, platform code and applications, and to integrate those tests into automated delivery pipelines.\nExpected experience includes:\nWriting and maintaining Terraform Tests\nWriting and maintaining Go-based tests for Helm charts where appropriate\nWriting or extending application tests (for example Node.js unit or integration tests)\nWriting automated tests for Python tooling and applications using frameworks such as pytest\nUnderstanding test coverage and identifying gaps\nIntegrating automated tests into GitLab CI pipelines\nTroubleshooting failing automated tests\nBuilding reusable testing stages within GitLab CI templates\nRunning tests locally and within CI/CD pipelines\nPerformance, load and stress testing using JMeter and k6\nIntegrating performance testing into GitLab CI pipelines where appropriate\nAnalysing performance test results and identifying bottlenecks\nProducing repeatable automated validation rather than relying on manual testing\nTesting is expected to form part of the Definition of Done.\nIdentity & Security\nAs an Identity programme, understanding authentication is important.\nExpected knowledge includes:\nOAuth 2.0 flows\nOpenID Connect (OIDC)\nJWTs\nAPI authentication\nIAM\nKubernetes RBAC\nKnowledge of identity platforms and authentication patterns is highly desirable.\nAPI Gateway\nThe platform makes extensive use of Kong API Gateway.\nUseful experience includes:\nRouting\nAuthentication plugins\nOIDC integration\nRate limiting\nUpstream configuration\nTroubleshooting gateway behaviour\nService Mesh\nApplications running on EKS use Istio.\nExpected knowledge includes:\nVirtual Services\nDestination Rules\nGateways\nmTLS\nTraffic routing\nBasic troubleshooting\nMonitoring & Observability\nCurrent monitoring stack:\nPrometheus\nGrafana\nThe organisation is introducing Dynatrace, either alongside or as a future replacement.\nExpected experience includes:\nCreating dashboards\nAlerting\nMetrics\nPerformance troubleshooting\nRoot cause analysis\nMonitoring production services\nTechnical Documentation\nStrong technical documentation is an expected part of the role.\nYou will be expected to:\nProduce clear Spike documentation covering the problem, investigation, options considered, recommendation and outcome\nWrite implementation documentation for new features and architectural changes\nMaintain comprehensive README files for repositories, Terraform modules and Helm charts\nProduce operational runbooks\nCreate support documentation\nProduce handover documentation where appropriate\nRecord technical decisions and their reasoning\nCommunicate ideas and proposals in a structured way\nWrite high-quality Jira stories, technical tasks and Spike tickets with clear acceptance criteria, implementation detail and expected outcomes\nGood written communication is considered a core engineering skill.\nTechnical Ownership\nLead Engineers are expected to take ownership of services rather than simply deliver individual pieces of work.\nThis includes:\nOwning services throughout their lifecycle, from design through to production support\nUnderstanding the wider platform and the impact of technical decisions\nDriving work forward with minimal supervision\nIdentifying technical debt and proposing practical improvements\nChallenging designs where there are operational, security, resilience or scalability concerns\nConsidering operational support as part of every solution\nDesigning solutions that are maintainable by the wider engineering team\nWorking across multiple repositories and services\nBeing accountable for the quality of technical delivery\nSupporting incident investigation and root cause analysis through to completion\nAgile Delivery & Ways of Working\nThe team follows Agile delivery practices and Lead Engineers are expected to actively contribute to both technical delivery and the running of the team.\nExpected experience includes:\nWorking effectively within Agile delivery teams\nParticipating in Sprint Planning, Sprint Reviews, Retrospectives and Daily Stand-ups\nLeading Agile ceremonies when required, with all engineers taking turns facilitating stand-ups, retrospectives and sprint planning\nBreaking down technical work into deliverable stories and tasks\nWriting high-quality Jira stories, technical tasks and Spike investigations\nProducing clear acceptance criteria and technical implementation plans\nContributing to backlog refinement by helping define technical requirements and identify dependencies\nProviding realistic estimates and identifying technical risks early\nCollaborating closely with Product Owners, Delivery Managers, Architects and other engineering teams\nManaging priorities while balancing feature delivery, technical debt, operational support and platform improvements\nCommunicating progress, blockers and technical decisions clearly\nPromoting continuous improvement across engineering practices and delivery\nLead Engineers are expected to help create an environment where knowledge is shared, engineering standards are maintained and the team continues to improve its ways of working.\nLeadership Expectations\nThis is a Lead DevOps Engineer position.\nTechnical leadership is as important as technical delivery.\nExpected behaviours include:\nSupporting and mentoring permanent DWP engineers through coaching, pair programming and technical guidance\nProviding technical direction within the squad\nLeading engineering discussions and helping the team reach sound technical decisions\nMaking pragmatic technical decisions within agreed architectural standards\nReviewing designs, code and merge requests, providing constructive feedback\nIdentifying opportunities to improve existing processes, tooling and automation within approved technology boundaries\nMaintaining engineering standards across the team\nProducing clear technical documentation to support delivery and future maintenance\nCommunicating technical ideas, risks and recommendations to engineers, architects and stakeholders\nWorking closely with Product Owners, Delivery Managers and Architects to shape technical delivery\nInfluencing delivery through technical expertise rather than authority\nOwning technical problems through to resolution\nSetting a high engineering standard through the quality of your own work\nThe environment is governed by established technology standards, so improvements are generally expected within the approved tooling and architecture rather than introducing alternative products or platforms.\nDaily Activities\nTypical work includes:\nDeveloping infrastructure using Terraform\nMaintaining reusable Terraform modules\nDeveloping and maintaining Helm charts\nSupporting and evolving reusable Helm chart libraries\nDeploying services to ECS and EKS\nSupporting the ECS platform\nWriting and maintaining GitLab CI pipelines and reusable pipeline templates\nWriting and maintaining automated tests for infrastructure, platform code and supporting applications\nIntegrating automated testing into GitLab CI pipelines\nInvestigating and resolving test failures\nPerformance, load and stress testing using JMeter and k6\nSupporting production services\nInvestigating incidents and performing root cause analysis\nReviewing merge requests\nParticipating in technical design discussions\nWriting and maintaining technical documentation\nProducing Spike investigations and implementation proposals\nWriting Jira stories, technical tasks and Spike tickets\nImproving automation and engineering standards\nWorking with application developers to support deployments\nMaintaining AWS platform components\nMentoring engineers\nLeading Agile ceremonies when required\nDriving continuous improvement across the platform and engineering practices\nTechnologies Used\nAWS\nECS\nEKS\nEC2\nTerraform\nTerraform Tests\nHelm\nGo\nKubernetes\nDocker\nGitLab\nGitLab CI\nKong API Gateway\nIstio\nOAuth 2.0\nOpenID Connect (OIDC)\nJWT\nIAM\nRBAC\nCloudHSM\nAWS KMS\nSecrets Manager\nSystems Manager Parameter Store\nPrometheus\nGrafana\nDynatrace\nPython\npytest\nNode.js\nJMeter\nk6\nWhat Success Looks Like\nAfter approximately three months in the role, a successful Lead DevOps Engineer would be expected to:\nTechnical Delivery\nBe comfortable deploying, supporting and troubleshooting services running on ECS and EKS\nDeliver production-ready Terraform, Helm and GitLab CI changes with minimal supervision\nUnderstand the architecture of the Identity platform and how the various services interact\nBe comfortable working across multiple repositories, 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