DevOps Engineer/ SysAdmin

Job content

About Recite Me

We’re building the future of accessibility at Recite Me - come and join our mission of achieving accessibility for all.

Recite Me is the leading provider of cloud accessibility and digital inclusion software. A true North-East SaaS success story, our flagship accessibility toolbar is used by thousands of organisations globally, including many household names, and we are on a journey towards our goal of accessibility for all.

As an innovative tech company in a period of scaling-up, we are growing fast and are now in need of a talented DevOps Engineer with those all-important SysAdmin skills to join our team.

About the Role

This is a crucial and timely role in Recite Me. We’re scaling fast - as more and more large organisations adopt Recite Me technology, so grows the need for our infrastructure to keep pace and support increased usage robustly and reliably.

Stability, security, and scalability - these are the cornerstones of this role, keeping services running and preparing our systems for the next big opportunity.

This is a chance to shape an evolving technology stack and keep a global user base online and fully supported across our product portfolio.

From building deployment pipelines (mainly using GitHub Actions) to server provisioning, security monitoring and performance optimising - your role underpins our global client base’s experience, and your dev-ops skills will be vital in helping users around the world access our accessibility tools whenever they most need them.

We’re on a journey to both create new containerised, microservice-based solutions as well as migrate our older tech stacks into this new, modern architecture. You should therefore be experienced with Docker and containerisation principles, in general, to help us get the most out of these solutions.

As the head of the DevOps department, you will also have the unique opportunity to shape the infrastructure of a global company from the early stages. You will also work closely with our head of technology, and help mentor our apprentice DevOps engineer, training him to become a DevOps superstar in the future.

Role in Summary

Maintain existing linux (Ubuntu/Debian) based server environments

Roll out any new server architectural requirements needed by the organisation

Maintain data centre relationships

Own, design and plan new, highly available infrastructure

Work with junior DevOps engineers in a training and development capacity

Work with existing DevOps automation pipelines and devise new ones

Get us to a place where everything is as automated as possible and everything is driven through IAC. We have already started this journey, we need you to take it to the next level

Work with our Information security Officer and data protection Officer to ensure maximum security posture across our environments.

Monitor the performance of our servers and applications

About You

You’ll be a DevOps specialist - able to advise us what scalable architecture looks like and put together migration and monitoring plans for our infrastructure, as well as advising the business on security best practices to help us meet the rigorous standards of our growing list of enterprise clients.

You’ll naturally feel a sense of responsibility for your tech stack and encourage others to find ways to optimise and improve the ways code is deployed and our systems.

This is a dual-role - you’ll be working across Recite Me and our sister agency, ARCH - keeping our client sites running and our SaaS accessibility services operating globally.

This role is perfect for a self-starter with deep sector expertise and a willingness to get stuck in and make our technology stack the very best it can be, supported by a first-class team in a rapidly growing technology company.

Skills and Experience

Must have:
Solid knowledge of Linux based server environments, particularly Debian based ones and proven commercial experience in the area (min 5 years)

Strong understanding of networking around physical infrastructure

Keen eye for security

Solid understanding of CI/CD pipeline creation and management

Used to working with bare metal servers as well as VPS solutions.

Ability to write solid technical documentation

Knowledge of Ansible and terraform

Solid knowledge of containerisation using Docker (ideally including docker-compose and docker swarm)

Nice to have:
Knowledge of Github actions

We’re not looking for a cloud specialist but knowledge of GCP and AWS would be beneficial

Knowledge of Kubernetes

Benefits

22 Annual days holiday plus bank holiday

Opportunity to work with a close-knit, motivational team in an established global company

Top-end tech

On-site parking

Flexible working hours

Remote working allocation if based in the office

10 days workcation

Social events

Location

Office-based, Newcastle/Gateshead Quays HQ