Junior Operations Engineer

Junior Operations Engineer

Department: Tech

Employment Type: Permanent - Full Time

Location: Wallingford, UK - Hybrid

Description

About the TeamOur Operations function is part of the Tech Team responsible for the reliability, performance, and security of the infrastructure and platforms that power GTI’s digital products. Spanning on-premises infrastructure, cloud environments, and managed services, the team ensures that GTI’s systems remain available, performant, and resilient across the UK and beyond.

Working closely with Product Engineers, Software Engineers, and wider Technology teams, the Operations team manages the databases, monitoring, networking, and cloud infrastructure that underpin GTI’s platforms. The team takes a proactive approach to observability, incident management, and continuous improvement, building the operational foundations that enable delivery teams to move with confidence and speed.

As cloud hybrid, AI and automation continue to reshape infrastructure management, the team continuously evolves its tooling, processes, and capabilities to improve reliability, security, and efficiency across GTI’s growing platform estate.

About this roleAs a Junior Operations Engineer, you will be part of the team responsible for supporting the databases, infrastructure and operational systems that keep GTI’s platforms running across on-premises and AWS cloud environments.  The responsibilities will include the following with hands-on training as necessary: 

• Monitoring 
• Supporting the management of clustered databases 
• Supporting backups 
• Assisting with system patching 
• Supporting our on-premises and cloud infrastructure

 This is a hands-on technical role requiring mainly Linux skills but more importantly, an engineering mindset where detail matters and the ability and desire to learn everything from AWS cloud services to Cyber security.  This role will have the opportunity to learn it all. Training and playbooks will be provided initially, with the expectation that you will develop your skills and take on greater responsibility and autonomy over time. Key Metrics of Success  

• Availability and performance of our systems 
• Reliable and tested backup coverage across all systems, with clear recovery objectives met 
• Comprehensive monitoring coverage across infrastructure, databases, and services 
• Stable, well-maintained VMware, Linux and Windows environments with low unplanned downtime 

The role includes occasional planned out-of-hours work for maintenance and patching of critical systems. This is a broad infrastructure operations role rather than a traditional DBA position. Some SQL knowledge is useful, but the focus is on operating the infrastructure and platforms that support our services.

Outcomes

Database Reliability & Performance GTI’s database estate operates reliably, performantly, and securely across all environments. 

• Availability, security and performance maintained across our database environments 

 Backup & Disaster Recovery  All critical systems and data are backed up with recovery processes that are tested and trusted. 

• Backup coverage maintained across all critical databases and infrastructure components 
• Backup and recovery documentation kept current and accessible 

Monitoring & Observability  Infrastructure, databases, and services are monitored, enabling fast detection and response to issues. 

• Monitoring servers and services maintained and continuously improved 

General Operations & Infrastructure Stability  GTI’s infrastructure remains stable, secure, and well-maintained. 

• Systems patched, maintained, and performing reliably across the server estate 

Person Specification

• Technically minded 
• Methodical, dependable, and attentive to detail 
• Proactive 
• Genuinely motivated by the challenge of keeping systems reliable, secure and performing at their best 
• Comfortable working in fast-paced environments where priorities can shift 
• Collaborative team player who contributes to a culture of reliability and continuous improvement 

Work Experience, Knowledge & Skills

The ideal candidate will be technically minded, dependable and keen to develop a career in infrastructure and operations. You do not need experience with all of the technologies below; we are looking for someone with strong technical aptitude, a willingness to learn and a proactive approach to problem solving. It’s rare to get an opportunity to work and learn across such a broad estate.  You’ll have the opportunity to gain hands-on experience with technologies including: 

• Multiple clustered database platforms: MySQL, PostgreSQL and MS SQL Server. 
• AWS Cloud services, including Aurora/RDS/DMS, EC2, ALB, Route53, CloudFront, SES, S3, Certificate Manager, … 
• Linux, Windows, VMWare 
• Dell hardware 
• Cisco Meraki, pfSense 
• Puppet 
• Git (and GitLab) 
• Grafana, Prometheus, Loki, Tempo 
• MS Entra 

Over time, you’ll develop the skills and confidence to manage a number of these technologies independently.

Other Information

• Permanent role – 37.5 hours per week. Monday to Friday 9am-5:30pm.
• 3-month probationary period. 

Candidates applying for roles at GTI will be subject to background screening. You can find out more about our background screening and the recruitment of ex-offenders by reading our policies.
 
If you would like to speak to a member of our team to find out more information about this vacancy or you have any questions, please get in touch - recruitment@groupgti.com.