Cloud Platform Engineer

Howdens Joinery has an exciting new opportunity in the Cloud Team. We are looking for a new Cloud Platform Engineer to design, develop, test and deploy solutions to improve collaboration and productivity of the development teams by automating infrastructure, automating workflows and continuously measuring and improving application performance.

This is a permanent opportunity based from our offices in Northampton or Raunds working onsite 2 days per week.

What you will be doing as a Cloud Platform Engineer:

• You will be responsible for creating, maintaining and deploying secure, high-available, fault-tolerant systems at scale via on-premise and cloud-native architectures for development, testing and production environments.
• Developing and maintain solutions for operational administration, system/data backup, disaster recovery and security/performance monitoring
• Deploy and maintain CI/CD pipelines across multiple environments to maximize efficiency and optimise for flow therefore allowing the delivery teams to deploy new code daily.
• Help to develop policies, standards, governance, and related guidance for teams in using the CI/CD pipelines.
• Work with architects to design scalable infrastructure and systems for complex applications.
• Collaborate with Release Manager in the release planning, by identifying deployment steps and other activities that must be undertaken prior and post deployment;
• Responsible for developing and supporting container-based solutions using Kubernetes/Docker for Azure Cloud.

What we need from you:

You must bring at least 5 years experience in:

• Azure Cloud
• IaC (Terraform)
• Build and management of Kubernetes environments
• Azure DevOps (or other CI/CD GIT platforms)
• Cloud Security and Connectivity (Key Vault, vNet, DNS, Firewalls, Express Route / Direct Connect, VPN, GTM, NSG)
• infrastructure-as-code and Configuration management tools e.g. Terraform
• Practical experience with containerization and clustering technologies i.e., Docker/Kubernetes.
• Building automated CI/CD pipelines with tools such as SonarQube, Fortify, Selenium, etc.
• Be an excellent communicator, able to influence decision makers and work successfully in cross-functional teams

Desirable skills include:

• Azure Active Directory (Identity Management, Service Principles, Security Groups, Role Management, MFA)
• Cloud Adoption Framework (CAF)
• API Management
• Cloud Monitoring
• CDN (Akamai preferably)
• High Availability (Zones and Regions, Service Recovery

What we can offer you:

• Competitive salary and annual company bonus
• Excellent pension scheme (company contribution of up to 12%)
• 25 days holiday + bank holidays with the option to buy additional days
• Staff Discount.
• Exceptional Reward and Recognition events.

About Howdens:

Howdens Joinery is a highly successful FTSE 100 business, with more than 900 depots nationwide and more than 11,000 staff. Last year our sales reached circa 2.3bn, and we continue to experience significant growth and success. Despite our scale, Howdens remains a local business with traditional values.

There is a strong entrepreneurial ethos and the opportunity to develop within a fast-paced and commercial environment. That, along with a competitive salary, development opportunities, and exciting rewards, are among the reasons why our people enjoy working for Howdens – and why we have been named one of the 10 Best Big Companies to Work For.

Howdens is founded on the principle of being Worthwhile for ALL concerned. We’re working hard to ensure we provide an inclusive environment where everyone feels welcome. We will do everything we can to support you during your application. If you need us to make any adjustments to our recruitment process, please email with the job title and location, and we will be happy to help you.

Please note that candidates applying for this role must have a valid right to work in the UK, we do not offer sponsorship of employment for any depot positions at this time. We appreciate your understanding.