Site Reliability Engineer – Contract

Location: Manchester or Gloucester (on-site, 5 days per week)
Clearance: Active HMG HLC (UK nationals only)
IR35: Inside
Contract Length: Start immediately, ending March 2027
Day Rate: To be discussed directly

Overview

We are seeking experienced Site Reliability Engineers to support the reliability and availability of critical systems within a secure, on‑premises environment. This role sits within the Space, Defence and Intelligence domain and requires full-time on-site presence.

Key Responsibilities

• Support and maintain mission‑critical platforms within a secure environment
• Engineer, deploy and support Kubernetes and container‑based infrastructure
• Build and enhance CI/CD pipelines using GitLab, Bitbucket or Git
• Deliver automation using Infrastructure‑as‑Code and configuration management tools
• Develop monitoring and observability solutions, including dashboards and alerting
• Collaborate with Agile and DevSecOps teams on engineering, testing and delivery activities
• Work within strict data‑handling and security constraints

Essential Skills

• Active HMG3 HLC clearance
• On-site availability, 5 days per week
• Strong networking understanding within secure authorities
• Kubernetes and container orchestration
• OpenShift or virtualisation technologies
• Git version control
• Linux (Bash/Zsh)
• Ansible
• Monitoring and observability (Prometheus, Grafana, check_mk)
• Experience operating in restricted data environments

Beneficial Skills

• GitLab administration
• PostgreSQL
• AWS familiarity
• Service desk tooling
• HS development tooling
• KD/CP alerting to LS