Senior DevOps Engineer

Job Description:

Your impact 

Are you ready to take the next step in your DevOps career and lead the delivery of secure automation solutions? At Leonardo, our Senior DevOps Engineers combine technical expertise with leadership, driving the design, integration, and support of automation frameworks and pipelines that underpin our customers’ missions. 

Your work at Leonardo UK will see you take the lead in solving customer problems in an agile, innovative and team-centric manner. The role may involve a blended hybrid working model, with a mixture of working from home and working on site at one of our Leonardo offices to ensure close collaboration with the wider team and with our customers. 

What you will do as a Senior DevOps Engineer 

• Lead the design, build, and support of CI/CD pipelines, automation frameworks, and containerised environments. 

• Take ownership of engineering delivery for one or more work packages, including planning, estimation, execution, and reporting. 

• Develop and review automation designs, infrastructure as code templates, and technical documentation. 

• Integrate DevOps solutions across secure environments, ensuring compliance with performance and security requirements. 

• Provide mentoring, guidance, and technical leadership to DevOps Engineers and Technicians. 

• Collaborate with stakeholders, project teams, and customers to ensure solutions meet requirements. 

• Drive continuous improvement and contribute to engineering standards and governance. 

DevOps Continuous Improvement

• Apply DevOps principles of flow, feedback and continuous learning within the team, identifying bottlenecks, unnecessary hand-offs and sources of delay across the software delivery lifecycle.
• Contribute to value-stream and lifecycle improvements, working with engineering, test, security and other disciplines to simplify delivery processes, reduce rework and improve the path from development through to operation.
• Use delivery and operational data to identify improvement opportunities, using measures such as lead time, deployment frequency, change failure rate and recovery time to understand where changes can deliver measurable benefit.
• Actively participate in continuous improvement, using retrospectives, operational feedback and lessons learned to propose and implement practical improvements to engineering practices and ways of working.

What you’ll bring 

• Strong technical ability with demonstrable experience of delivering and supporting automation solutions. 

• Ability to balance hands-on engineering with technical leadership and mentoring responsibilities. 

• Confidence to take ownership of solutions and represent DevOps in technical discussions. 

Core areas (must have): 

• Strong understanding of CI/CD concepts and version control (Git) 

• Hands-on experience with automation tools (e.g. Ansible, Terraform) 

• Proficiency in scripting languages (Python, Bash, PowerShell) 

• Knowledge of containerisation (Docker, Kubernetes) 

• Familiarity with cloud environments (AWS, Azure) 

• Awareness of cyber security practices in secure system delivery 

Desirable: 

• Experience designing and maintaining pipelines in Github Actions, GitLab CI, Jenkins, or Azure DevOps 

• Knowledge of monitoring and logging tools (ELK, Prometheus, Splunk) 

• Familiarity with secrets management (e.g. HashiCorp Vault, PKI) 

• Understanding of software-defined infrastructure and hybrid deployments 

• Industry certifications in DevOps, Cloud, or Security technologies 

• Experience in mentoring or supervising early-career engineers 

This is not an exhaustive list, and we are keen to hear from you even if you might not have experience in all the above. The most important skill is a good attitude and willingness to learn.  

Security Clearance 

This role is subject to pre-employment screening in line with the UK Government’s Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS). An additional range of Personnel Security Controls referred to as National Security Vetting (NSV) may apply, this could include meeting the eligibility requirements for The Security Check (SC) or Developed Vetting (DV). For more information and guidance please visit: https://careers.uk.leonardo.com/gb/en/security-and-vetting 

Location 

This role can be based at one of our UK sites , Bristol, with hybrid/custom working options where appropriate. 

Why join us 

At Leonardo, our people are at the heart of everything we do. We offer a comprehensive, company-funded benefits package that supports your wellbeing, career development, and work–life balance. Whether you're looking to grow professionally, care for your health, or plan for the future, we’re here to help you thrive. 

• Time to Recharge: Enjoy generous leave with the opportunity to accrue up to 12 additional flexi-days each year. 
• Secure your Future: Benefit from our award-winning pension scheme with up to 15% employer contribution. 
• Your Wellbeing Matters: Free access to mental health support, financial advice, and employee-led networks championing inclusion and diversity (Enable, Pride, Equalise, Armed Forces, Carers, Wellbeing and Ethnicity).  
• Rewarding Performance: All employees at management level and below are eligible for our bonus scheme. 
• Never Stop Learning: Free access to 4,000+ online courses via Coursera and LinkedIn Learning. 
• Refer a friend: Receive a financial reward through our referral programme. 
• Tailored Perks: Spend up to £500 annually on flexible benefits including private healthcare, dental, family cover, tech & lifestyle discounts, gym memberships and more. 
• Flexible working: Flexible hours with hybrid working options. For part time opportunities, please talk to us about what might be possible for this role. 

For a full list of our company benefits please visit our website. 

Leonardo UK operates a grade-based salary framework with broad bands. The salary range shown reflects the approved grade band for this role, or a narrower hiring range published within that band, and is benchmarked against the external market. Exceptions above the standard range are managed through governance controls to protect internal equity.
 
Leonardo is a global leader in Aerospace, Defence, and Security. Headquartered in Italy, we employ over 53,000 people worldwide including 8,500 across 9 sites in the UK. Our employees are not just part of a team—they are key contributors to shaping innovation, advancing technology, and enhancing global safety. 

At Leonardo we are committed to building an inclusive, accessible, and welcoming workplace. We believe that a diverse workforce sparks creativity, drives innovation, and leads to better outcomes for our people and our customers. If you have any accessibility requirements to support you during the recruitment process, just let us know. 

Be part of something bigger - apply now!

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Primary Location:

GB - Bristol - Coldharbour Lane

Contract Type:

Permanent

Hybrid Working:

Hybrid