Head of DevOps

Head of DevOps
Location; Manchester
Location: Manchester | Full-time | Hybrid | £100,000

Our client is seeking a seasoned and visionary Head of DevOps to play a pivotal role within their engineering leadership team. This individual will be responsible for leading and developing a cross-functional group of specialists spanning DevOps, SRE, DBA, Platform and Network Engineering disciplines.
The ideal candidate will be a strategic leader with a track record of building high-performing teams, executing complex technical projects, and aligning infrastructure capabilities with broader business growth objectives. Deep expertise in Microsoft Azure and cloud-native architectures is essential, along with a passion for fostering a culture of ownership, innovation, and continuous improvement.
This role is ideal for someone who leads through influence, empowers teams, and is driven to make a meaningful impact on both technology and organizational culture.

Key Responsibilities

Operational Excellence
Oversee the reliability, performance, and availability of the client's CCaaS platform through advanced monitoring, alerting, and incident response mechanisms.
Ensure security, compliance, and infrastructure governance by enforcing best practices in configuration management and risk mitigation across cloud-hosted environments.
Maintain and enhance FinOps practices to optimise Azure spend without compromising performance or scalability.Platform Strategy
Develop and implement a platform engineering strategy that aligns with the client’s product roadmap and long-term growth plans.
Advocate for the adoption of cloud-native technologies, automation, and infrastructure-as-code to enable scalability, resilience, and operational efficiency.
Define and track key performance indicators (KPIs) that reflect platform health, team productivity, and delivery success.Team Leadership
Lead and mentor a multidisciplinary engineering team, creating a high-performance environment rooted in accountability, continuous learning, and team empowerment.
Set clear expectations, manage performance, and support professional growth through coaching and regular reviews.
Foster strong collaboration between platform and product engineering teams.Project Delivery
Drive the successful execution of major platform initiatives such as CI/CD enhancements, infrastructure modernisation, and observability improvements.
Manage team capacity and prioritisation, balancing immediate delivery needs with long-term strategic planning.
Contribute to commercial activities by providing work estimates and cost forecasts for sales-related technical initiatives.Security & Compliance
Integrate security best practices across all phases of the software development lifecycle, with an emphasis on secure-by-design and zero-trust principles.
Work closely with compliance teams to uphold standards such as ISO 9001, ISO 27001, and GDPR.
Ensure all infrastructure and platform processes support audit, regulatory, and data protection requirements.Communication & Stakeholder Management
Serve as a strategic advisor to internal stakeholders by translating technical challenges and opportunities into business-aligned insights.
Clearly communicate the platform vision, updates, and risks to both technical and non-technical audiences.
Maintain productive relationships with cloud providers, tooling vendors, and other external partners. 
Experience Required
Essential:
Demonstrated success in leading high-performing Platform Engineering, DevOps, or SRE teams within a SaaS environment.
Extensive experience with Microsoft Azure services such as Azure Functions, AKS, Cosmos DB, Azure DevOps, and Terraform, as well as open-source technologies like PostgreSQL.
Strong leadership and line management capabilities with proven experience in mentoring and performance development.
Proven ability to design and manage secure, scalable, and cost-effective cloud platforms.
Hands-on expertise in CI/CD pipeline development, infrastructure automation, and system observability.
Strong knowledge of SRE principles and operational excellence methodologies.
Experience embedding security and compliance into the SDLC (e.g., DevSecOps, Zero Trust frameworks).
Excellent communication and stakeholder engagement skills with a business-aligned approach to technical leadership.Benefits
25 days holiday (plus bank holidays), increasing up to 30 days with tenure
Cycle to work scheme
Birthday day off
Pension plan
Quarterly team socials and mixed team events
Salary sacrifice matched to pension (NI contribution)
Employee perks program
Employee referral bonus
Life insurance (4x salary, post-probation)
An evolving range of benefits as the company growsHow to Apply?     Deadline date for submissions: Tuesday 7th of July 2025
Please submit your resume and a reference detailing your experience and qualifications for the Head of DevOps position to;
Ben Trapnell – Recruitment Consultant, SR2 Socially Responsible Recruitment
Benjamin @ (url removed)
(phone number removed)