Senior Operations Engineer / Ops Lead

We’re looking for an experienced Senior Operations Engineer / Technical Lead to join Axis12 and play a key role in running and evolving the infrastructure behind our managed hosting and digital platforms.
This is a hands-on technical role, not a traditional management position. You’ll work across Linux, Kubernetes, networking, virtualisation, databases and web applications, while also providing day-to-day technical leadership to our Operations team.
We’re looking for someone who is comfortable being the senior technical point of contact: someone who can investigate a difficult production issue themselves, but who also knows when to delegate, coordinate others, make an operational decision or escalate a risk.
What you’ll be doing
Technical operations
You’ll help take ownership of the reliability, security, performance and day-to-day operation of our production and non-production platforms.
That includes:
Managing Linux infrastructure, primarily Ubuntu and Debian.
Administering and troubleshooting Kubernetes and containerised platforms.
Supporting KVM-based virtualised infrastructure.
Managing configuration and automation using Puppet and Ansible.
Working with HAProxy, pfSense, DNS, TLS, HTTP and network infrastructure.
Supporting MySQL, including performance, backups, replication and troubleshooting.
Maintaining monitoring, logging, alerting and operational observability.
Managing patching, hardening, backup, recovery and capacity.
Improving infrastructure through automation rather than relying on repetitive manual processes.
Ensuring platforms and operational procedures are appropriately documented.
You’ll be comfortable working across the whole stack rather than treating infrastructure, applications and networks as separate worlds.
Troubleshooting and engineering
Complex troubleshooting is an important part of this role.
You’ll investigate issues across Linux, Kubernetes, networking, databases and web applications, using logs, metrics and system behaviour to understand what is actually happening.
Our application environments include PHP, Drupal and Symfony, so you should be comfortable working with developers to diagnose application behaviour, deployment problems, environment differences and integrations.
We value finding and fixing the underlying problem rather than repeatedly applying the same workaround.
Operational leadership
As one of the senior members of the Operations team, you’ll also help coordinate its day-to-day work.
You’ll:
Help prioritise operational, support, release and infrastructure work.
Ensure important issues have clear ownership and are driven through to resolution.
Support and provide technical guidance to other engineers.
Identify blockers, risks and capacity problems early.
Coordinate activity when several operational priorities compete for attention.
Make appropriate day-to-day operational decisions within agreed authority.
Act as a senior operational escalation point when the CTO or other senior leadership is unavailable.
Escalate significant security, client, availability or business risks appropriately.
We’re looking for someone who can make good decisions rather than someone who needs to refer every decision upwards.
Incidents and releases
You’ll play a leading role in both planned releases and unplanned incidents.
You’ll:
Coordinate infrastructure and application releases with development, QA, project and client-facing teams.
Review the operational readiness and risk of significant releases and changes.
Have the confidence to challenge, delay or stop a change where the operational risk is unacceptable.
Lead incident response when required, coordinating investigation, actions, communication and escalation.
Keep stakeholders informed clearly and calmly during production incidents.
Participate in post-incident reviews and ensure preventative actions are followed through.
Improve our incident, release, change and operational runbooks over time.
What we’re looking for
You’ll have substantial experience in a senior Operations, Infrastructure, DevOps, Platform Engineering or Systems Administration role.
Strong practical experience in several of the following is important:
Linux systems administration, particularly Ubuntu/Debian
Kubernetes administration and troubleshooting
Containers and containerised platforms
KVM virtualisation
MySQL administration and performance troubleshooting
Puppet and/or Ansible
HAProxy or similar load-balancing technologies
pfSense or similar firewall/router platforms
PHP-based web platforms, ideally Drupal and/or Symfony
DNS, TLS, HTTP, TCP/IP, routing and firewalls
Monitoring, logging, alerting and observability
Backup, recovery, patching, hardening and capacity management
You don’t need to have used every technology in our stack. We’re more interested in strong infrastructure fundamentals, production experience and the ability to understand and troubleshoot unfamiliar systems.
The person we’re looking for
Technical ability matters, but so does judgement.
You should be:
Calm and methodical when something goes wrong in production.
Comfortable taking ownership of a problem and seeing it through.
Able to prioritise when several things need attention simultaneously.
Confident making operational decisions within agreed boundaries.
Able to lead and coordinate other engineers without needing to become a full-time manager.
Comfortable challenging a proposed technical approach or release when you believe the risk is unacceptable.
Able to communicate clearly with developers, project managers, support teams, clients and senior management.
Proactive about identifying weaknesses before they become incidents.
Pragmatic: able to distinguish between something that needs fixing immediately and something that can wait.
Collaborative and willing to share knowledge rather than becoming a single point of dependency.
What success looks like
You’ll know you’re succeeding when:
Our production platforms are stable, secure, observable and well maintained.
The Operations team has clear priorities and can operate effectively without continuous direction.
Operational issues have clear ownership and are driven through to resolution.
Incidents are handled calmly, with effective technical coordination and communication.
Releases and significant changes receive appropriate operational oversight.
Other engineers have access to strong technical guidance when they need it.
Significant risks are escalated appropriately without routine decisions unnecessarily depending on senior management.
Recurring problems are eliminated through engineering, automation and better processes.
Knowledge is shared across the team and captured in useful documentation and runbooks.
Ultimately, we want someone who can operate confidently from the bottom to the top of the stack while helping the wider Operations team do the same.
About Axis12
Axis12 is a UK digital agency specialising in the design, development, hosting and support of high-profile digital services.
We work with clients across government and other organisations where security, reliability and service quality matter. Our Operations team manages the infrastructure and platforms behind those services, including Linux, Kubernetes, virtualisation, networking, databases and application hosting.
We’re a remote-working company and you’ll work closely with our Operations, development, project and support teams.
What we offer
Remote working
Flexible start and finish times
Private healthcare with Vitality
Holiday allowance that increases with longevity
Company contributions towards gym membership
Pension plan
Regular staff events and social activities
Training and development opportunities
The opportunity to work on both client platforms and our own infrastructure and products
Because of the nature of some of our client work, you must be willing and eligible to undergo UK Security Check (SC) clearance and a DBS check if required.
If you’re a senior infrastructure engineer who enjoys solving difficult problems but also wants the opportunity to take greater ownership of how an Operations team runs, we’d like to hear from you.
Salary: £75,000 - £85,000 per year, depending on experience
Apply with your CV and a short introduction explaining your relevant experience.

Work arrangement
Yes