Principal DevOps Engineer

Job Description:

Do you want to shape the future of Dev Ops across the UK’s most critical missions? At Leonardo, our Lead Dev Ops Engineers are recognised authorities in automation and secure software delivery. They set technical direction, act as subject matter experts across programmes, and ensure our Dev Ops solutions remain robust, secure, and innovative.

We are recruiting a Lead Dev Ops Engineer to join an established team working closely with one of our customers on an important delivery. The customer has a clear set of requirements and outcomes, and this role will provide the technical leadership to help the team determine how best to deliver against them.

You will guide and support the existing team, helping shape the technical approach, solve delivery challenges and ensure that the team delivers effectively against the customer’s needs. While the overall outcomes and requirements are customer-led, there is still plenty of opportunity to influence how those outcomes are achieved, bring your experience to bear, and drive strong Dev Ops engineering practices within the team.

The role is based at the customer site near Gloucester. Longer term opportunities to work across other projects and customer engagements may also be available, providing scope to apply and develop your experience across Leonardo.

Security clearance is a requirement for this role. If you already hold an appropriate clearance, this would be beneficial. Where clearance needs to be obtained, you would initially contribute to central initiatives and capability development while the clearance process is completed.

• Act as the technical authority for automation and Dev Ops solutions across projects and programmes.
• Lead the design and implementation of CI/CD pipelines, infrastructure as code, and container orchestration.
• Provide domain expertise in secure Dev Ops/Dev Sec Ops , embedding cyber security into pipelines and environments.
• Capture and analyse requirements, shaping high- and low-level technical designs.
• Take ownership of technical delivery for assigned work packages, including planning, estimation, and reporting.
• Mentor and coach Dev Ops Engineers and Technicians, raising the technical capability of the team.
• Support technology assessments, feasibility studies, and roadmap development.
• Engage with stakeholders and customers, presenting and defending technical solutions.

• Extensive technical expertise in automation, orchestration, and secure Dev Ops practices.
• Ability to balance hands‑on engineering with technical leadership and mentorship.
• A problem‑solving mindset with the confidence to recommend and justify technical approaches.

• Experience in the design, build and maintenance of CI/CD pipelines (Github Actions, Git Lab CI, Jenkins, Azure Dev Ops) and version control (Git)
• Infrastructure as Code (Terraform, Ansible, Helm)
• Containerisation and orchestration (Docker, Kubernetes, Open Shift/Tanzu)
• Scripting and automation (Python, Bash, Power Shell)
• Strong understanding of cloud platforms (AWS, Azure) and hybrid deployments
• Knowledge of Dev Sec Ops  and cyber security practices in software delivery

• Expertise in secrets management and PKI (e.g. Hashi Corp Vault)
• Experience with monitoring/logging tools (ELK stack, Prometheus, Splunk)
• Familiarity with service mesh and modern networking (Istio, Envoy)
• Exposure to data engineering and integration (Apache ecosystem, SQL, Python)
• Recognised technical certifications (AWS/Azure Architect, Kubernetes CKA/CKAD, Terraform)
• Experience in influencing technical standards, best practices, or contributing to professional forums

This is not an exhaustive list, and we are keen to hear from you…