DevOps/SysAdmin Engineer (Mid-Level)

Job Description

The Seed Warehouse, Hertford, UK
Salary: £35,000-£55,000 (experience dependent)
Hybrid/In person

Why we are hiring

As the demand for Zoocha’s services grows across Drupal development, support, and maintenance activities, the DevOps team has an increasing pipeline of work that runs well into the future. What this means in practice is that many of the important strategic initiatives that fall under the remit of the DevOps team are struggling to gain momentum against the pressures of routine client and project work.

We are therefore looking to bring in a mid-level DevOps engineer / Systems Administrator who will be able to lend a shoulder to the wheel of the demands of meeting our client requirements and obligations, and also to participate in some of the strategic threads of work that are going on.

As a mid-level DevOps Engineer, you will be working in a close-knit team of 6, where 4 members of that team are senior level or above, and where all team members are highly engaged and skilled, meaning that the opportunity for personal and professional development for the right candidate is significant.

About Zoocha

Founded in 2009, Zoocha is a leading Drupal specialist digital agency based in the UK, with offices in Spain and Brazil. With a team of over 80 passionate thinkers, makers and doers working across a range of disciplines including UX, strategy, design, development, hosting, project management and support.
We’re ISO 27001, ISO 22301, ISO 9001, and Cyber Essentials Plus certified – as well as a certified Great Place to Work.

We also hold ISO 14001 & Green Mark certifications, and our commitment to environment sustainability sits at the heart of Zoocha’s products and business processes.
We build long-lasting relationships with clients and push them, ourselves and the industry around us forward through the creation of secure, performant, reliable and useful digital products and services that enrich lives and bring about positive, measurable change.
With over 50 Drupal clients, our work is varied, but we have a focus on the not-for-profit, government and education sectors. Current clients include:

United Nations
University College London
University of Portsmouth
Alzheimer’s Society
Oxfam
Professional Darts Corporation (PDC)
Westminster City Council
Greater London Authority
Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea
Guy’s and St Thomas NHS Foundation Trust
Ofsted

The Role / Your Remit

Zoocha’s technical team specialise in Drupal development where all websites and platforms are hosted on Linux based environments; the vast majority of which are on AWS. Your role as a member of the DevOps team will be to help us standardise, maintain and evolve the DevOps and infrastructure offering that we make available to our customers.
Your typical day might include:

Communicate technical issues and decisions to colleagues and clients
Ensuring documentation exists for all important infrastructure and DevOps systems on a project
Staying abreast of the latest goings on in the Linux, security and DevOps fields
Creating and maintaining documentation that contributes to our ISO certifications
In-future, potentially participate in on-call rotation
Proactive maintenance across systems
Investigate problem tickets
Handle escalated issues that require sysadmin or DevOps skills
Estimate methodically and accurately based on iterative learning
Debug issues to help establish root causes
Building out and managing infrastructure
Ensuring smooth project launches and releases
Implementing DevOps technologies and processes eg. Containerisation, CI/CD, Infrastructure as code, metrics, monitoring, and pipelines.
Working on DevOps and Infrastructure strategic initiatives

Working with the latest tools, software and modern technologies such as:
Terraform (or OpenTofu)
AWS Systems Manager (SSM)
AWS CodeDeploy
Github actions
Cloudflare

Expectations

You possess a logical and analytical approach to problem solving
Able to spot problems before they happen, through being able to interpret information from various infrastructure and application monitoring systems
Keeping systems secure
Learning about new tools and approaches in your domain of expertise
Communicating complex concepts in an understandable fashion to people of all skill levels
Considering the bigger picture when implementing solutions, such as cost implications
Able to own client knowledge beyond technical implementation, understanding business goals and industry context to offer tailored, impactful solutions

Mandatory requirements

Ideally a bachelor’s degree in a subject with an IT, numerate, engineering or science focus (e.g. Computer Science, Physics, Engineering, Maths or related) or demonstrable experience where you have independently undertaken a complex problem and achieved success
At least 2 years of experience in a role involving routine use of Linux
Fluency in English, both written and spoken, is essential
You must be based in the UK, ideally within commuting distance of our office in Hertford so that you can spend a couple of days a week with the DevOps team
You MUST have a VISA or work permit already
You MUST NOT apply through a recruitment consultant as your application will be disregarded

Skills and experience we’re looking for

You have 2+ years of experience in a DevOps or Systems Administration role
You have knowledge and experience with AWS (or similar cloud hosting service such as Azure or Google Cloud Platform)
A good working knowledge of Linux
A working knowledge of a scripting programming language such as PHP
You have experience of configuring web servers for PHP applications
Experience of DevOps tools, such as those involved with Continuous Integration and Configuration Management

Nice-to-have experience

Experience of problem solving within the bounds of SLA’s
Good working knowledge of:
Ubuntu (which is used on 95%+ of systems that we maintain)
Jenkins
Git
nginx
Familiarity with Drupal

Why work at Zoocha?

Outstanding benefits including profit share, private healthcare, gym, team socials and wellness fund
Flexible working plus the ability to work from any of our offices (UK, Spain, Brazil) for periods of time
Providing an environment to let you grow and develop
An inclusive workplace with active advocacy networks for women, LGBTQI employees and people from ethnic minorities.

Sounds like you?

Please send your CV, along with a short cover letter to [email protected].
No Recruitment agencies please. If you apply through an agency, you will NOT be considered.
Should you not hear from us within a month from your application date, please consider that we will not be moving. forward with your candidacy. We truly appreciate your interest in joining our team and thank you for taking the time to apply.