Platform Operations Engineer

Reach plc is looking for an experienced Platform Operations Engineer to become a key part of a new 'innovation and automation hub.' This talented team will shape the way our operational platform enables our business at scale. We believe that thinking smarter, thinking change, thinking automation will shape the way services are delivered to our customers. Using the model innovate - automate - optimise we will provide increased value, transparency, reliability and flexibility using continuous improvement principles.

We are Reach because it's what we do

Every day our newsbrands - national and regional, in print and online - reach millions of people up and down the country. We are the UK's largest news publisher, with influential national newsbrands such as the Daily Mirror, Daily Express, Sunday People, Daily Record, and more than 100 distinguished regional titles.

Our brands have a long heritage of being trusted sources of news and information, with our editorial conviction and high standards of journalism providing audiences with timely information and opinion across multiple platforms.

Last year we sold 540 million newspapers, and our network of over 70 websites provide 24/7 coverage of news, sport and showbiz stories, viewed by 110m unique browsers every month. This combination of physical products, national digital reach and a strong local footprint is the perfect base for establishing a future product portfolio fuelled by content, technology, and data.

• Join a team of motivated and enthusiastic engineers to design, build and deliver technology platforms using PaaS principles
• Help drive technical improvements to our platforms and environments
• Protect our solutions including availability and service level compliance
• Form strong working relationships with both customers, colleagues and outsource partners
• Support and Maintain flexible and automated infrastructure platforms using Infrastructure as code principles and tooling
• Drive automation of system deployments and configuration management
• Analysis, tracking and monitoring of technical issues including regular reporting
• Design and deliver platform and Infrastructure system monitoring utilising a variety of modern tools

• Proactive and passionate about technology and problem solving

• 3+ years experience in technology operations and automation roles.

• Cloud Infrastructure experience

• Highly organised

• A 'can do - action-oriented attitude' with a willingness to roll-up your sleeves

• A drive to improve and learn

• Agile methodology experience

• A DevOps mindset

  Key skills:

• Expert in Windows and Linux Servers technologies

• Sound understanding of Network layers and network services (e DNS and DHCP)

• In-depth understanding of infrastructure and application monitoring tools (functionality and performance)

• Experience working with, designing, configuring delivering and securing systems and applications on Amazon Web Services (AWS).

• Strong systems and hardware knowledge (Configuration and Management)

• Hands on experience in infrastructure automation and configuration management using tools like Ansible, Chef, Puppet, Vagrant etc.

• Strong Bash scripting skills

• Solid understanding of storage architectures and technologies

• Experience with Windows and Macintosh desktops at an Enterprise scale

• Understanding of Anti-virus, Group Policies and desktop security principles

• Strong Powershell scripting

• Strong Active Directory knowledge

• A strong grounding in Microsoft core services: DFSN, DFSR, DNS, AD, Printing, DHCP

  The following skills are considered desirable:

• Knowledge of Azure cloud technologies

• Python scripting skills

• DBA skills with experience in constructing SQL queries and troubleshooting performance

• Understanding of Web Services and API integrations using: REST, SOAP, Perl, PHP, etc

• Experience with automated desktop management technologies on Macintosh and Windows

In addition to competitive salaries, 25 days annual leave (plus bank holidays), bonus structures (if applicable) and a contributory pension scheme, Reach plc have a wealth of flexible benefits on offer. These include holiday purchase scheme, childcare vouchers, cycle scheme, a technology scheme in conjunction with Curry's PC World, car scheme, health cash plan, employee loans and lots of high street discounts! Our business is fully committed to heath and wellbeing in the workplace with an employee assistance programme and trained mental health first aiders across the business.

We are committed to equal opportunity for all. We may collect relevant data for monitoring as part of our candidate registration process. We will be reviewing applications as they are received so please don't delay in submitting your application.