Cloud Platform Operations Engineer

About us

At Direct Line Group, insurance is just the start. Combining decades of industry experience with talented people in every field from data, technology, customer care and auto repair, to HR, finance and procurement , we’re a customer-obsessed market powerhouse. And we all work together to be brilliant for customers, every single day.

We’re evolving, to be a more digitally-focused data-driven insurance company of the future – and your unique talent, skills and ideas can drive our success. Like us, you thrive on collaboration, exploration and innovation. And like you, we take tech seriously. That’s why we’re embracing the move to a more digital, flexible world. With constant investment in the newest tools, programmes and equipment for our teams, it all adds up to creating the best possible user experience for customers. And a great career for you. Join us. Own the evolution.

What we look for

We are looking for a Cloud Platform Operations Engineer to join our Cloud Infrastructure Services team on a full-time permanent basis.

You will be responsible for managing and maintaining DLG’s IT infrastructure systems and services across our Azure cloud environments. This will cover supporting the day-to-day operations delivered by the internal and outsourced cloud operations teams, whilst also supporting new project initiatives and technology solutions.

This is a hybrid role with two working days a week from our London office.

Who you'll be working with

You will work alongside the outsourced support team to plan tasks and projects for the BAU operational activities and enhance operations via automation tooling, guardrails and policies. You will report to the Compute Platform Subject Matter Expert.

What you'll be doing

• Define the operational standards and capabilities for Azure cloud-hosted services

• Govern the provision of services by the outsourced service partners

• Develop runbooks and automation for the operational activities to ensure repeatability

• Ensure the relevant Azure landing zones are maintained to best practice standards and continually align to DLG’s minimum standards for operations and security

• Automation of processes and workflows

• Operational governance of underpinning services supporting systems hosted within Azure covering all aspects of cloud infrastructure including operating systems, vulnerability management, monitoring, backup, restore.

• Support the security team to ensure the Azure-hosted services maintain an appropriate security posture regarding vulnerabilities and regulatory compliance requirements

• Operating System maintenance – full lifecycle management & security patching (Windows & Linux)

• Improve reliability, availability and performance of the Azure-hosted systems and services

• Provide incident, problem and change support both in and out of working hours as necessary

• Identify process optimisation opportunities and contribute to and support the implementation of proposed solutions

• Create, manage and maintain excellent working relationships with stakeholders across the businesses and the outsourced operations vendor and technology partners

• Work with and respond to IT Audit requests

What skills and qualities you need to bring

We want to make sure you are set for success, so here are some of the skills and experiences we’re keen to see. We understand you might not tick all of them, but we’d still love to hear from you.

• Good experience gained in a multifaceted operations team with solid Azure infrastructure and networking skills

• Excellent written and spoken communication skills with an ability to communicate with impact, ensuring complex information is articulated in a meaningful way to wide and varied audiences

• High emotional intelligence, inspiring team collaboration

• Robust experience with Azure cloud technologies, cloud operations, security concepts, infrastructure as code, networking, storage, virtualisation

• Well-versed in Linux and Windows operating systems running as Infrastructure as a Service

• Experience of automating cloud and server operations with Ansible

• Experience in scripting and programming technologies such as: PowerShell, Powershell DSC, Bash, Terraform, Packer, Yaml etc,

• Experience of the ITIL framework and use of associated platforms such as ServiceNow for Change, Incident and Problem management etc

• Technical knowledge of Azure technology services (Identity, Networking, Compute, Storage, Web, Mobile, Containers, Databases, Analytics, AI & Machine learning)

• Experience operating in highly regulated industry and in particular, Financial Services