Lead DevOps Engineer

Job Title:          Lead DevOps Engineer

Team:              Shared Tech

Location:         SI HQ, Here East, London

Reporting to:   Technical Director

Position Overview

We are seeking an experienced and passionate Lead DevOps Engineer to head up, build and manage the DevOps team at Sports Interactive.

In this role, you will be responsible for many systems and services that are critical to the studio to deliver its products. This includes owning our continuous integration and continuous delivery to deliver several games and other products across many platforms simultaneously. It also includes owning systems supporting internal workflows and practices, such as our automated testing setup and asset pipelines.

You understand that DevOps is a service-based function within the studio that exists to support the studio delivering its products. You will have ownership of DevOps in the studio with full responsibility of the direction we go in, and you will be responsible for maintaining and improving these services, implement best practices and allow us to move faster and be better.

You will report into the Technical Director and work closely with all teams and departments in the studio to identify requirements and ensure the needs of every team is met.

Key Responsibilities

• Manage, lead, and build the DevOps team from the current size of 2 to what is required.
• Support, mentor, and train existing and new members of the DevOps team.
• Outline and implement short- and long-term plans, road maps, and strategies.
• Own, design and maintain all CI/CD infrastructure, pipelines and workflows used for the studio’s builds, deployments, and automated testing for all our products and services.
• Own the team’s backlog and ensure work is scheduled appropriately and delivered in a timely manner.
• Communicate timelines, risks, and dependencies with key stakeholders.
• Collaborate with developers, IT, production, and management to ensure the DevOps infrastructure can deliver all the studio’s needs.
• Identify all requirements and what is needed to improve DevOps infrastructure and services to build, test, package and deploy internal and external products, and ensure 24/7 availability.
• Define, implement, and oversee best practices for DevOps, CI/CD, and associated systems.
• Investigate and resolve technical issues with CI/CD and associated systems, analyse root causes, implement mitigation and fixes, and provide reports of issues and solutions.
• Set up systems for monitoring builds, systems, and deployments; visualising monitoring status and provide alerts and escalation.
• Build, test and deploy mobile, console and desktop applications and games, as well as web-based applications. 

Knowledge, Skills and Experience

• Significant experience in DevOps using CI/CD and associated systems for desktop apps or games for multiple desktop platforms. 
• Line management of technical team members.
• Great leadership skills as you will have responsibility to line manage, mentor and upskill colleagues along with internal support from our inhouse Developer Advocate.
• Excellent knowledge of CI/CD systems such as TeamCity or Jenkins used with build systems such as MSBuild, xcodebuild, etc.
• Excellent understanding of deploying and using on-premise and cloud services.
• Extensive experience with using CI/CD to build, package, test and deploy games and applications for platforms such as Windows, macOS, iOS and Android, and applications for web.
• Broad experience with configuration-as-code and infrastructure-as-code.
• Good knowledge of credentials management.
• Experience with languages such as Python or similar scripting languages, and shell languages such as PowerShell, Bash or similar.
• Knowledge of using source control and source code management tools in conjunction with CI/CD systems, and integration of code and assets.
• Experience with hosted and server-less environments, and experience with Windows and Linux servers.
• Experience with container technologies such as Docker and Kubernetes.
• Able to work with an agile methodology in a dynamic and fast-moving workplace.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills with the ability to collaborate across all disciplines within the studio.

Studio Overview 

Sports Interactive (SI) is an ambitious development studio creating immersive sports management simulations. Since 1994, we’ve captivated a global audience of players with our iconic, BAFTA award-winning game, Football Manager. We’re a wholly-owned subsidiary of SEGA, having caught their attention in 2006 with our continuous critical and commercial success.

We’re a tenacious community, coming together at the Here East technology hub in Stratford, East London. Always expanding, the SI team takes on the gaming genre through a diverse array of disciplines. No matter how big we dream, though, we keep our approach (and your schedule) flexible, creating a relaxed atmosphere where collaboration can thrive.

Working Here

We approach everything with passion, whether that’s leaving our mark on the gaming and football industries or doing our bit for the world around us. We want to share that outlook with everyone who works here. 

We like our talent to be tenacious, so you can expect to surround yourself with other ambitious individuals bringing their A-game to many different disciplines. We know collaboration is the key to consistent improvement and encourage our people to truly realise their own personal potential.

We believe everyone matters, no matter which part of the business you’re in. Above all else, we’re a team. A team with a down-to-earth dynamic that works and plays together. We have fun doing what we do and that’s one of the many reasons we’re one of the best places to work in the UK games business (Gameindustry.biz 2021 Large studio category).

If you want a positive work/life balance, we’re right behind you. While we live to create extraordinary games, we know that’s not all you’ve got going on, so you can trust that we always keep things in perspective, fostering an environment where work can be more than just a job.

Our flexible working culture gives team members the responsibility to optimise their workloads, with in-office, hybrid and remote working options. Even in countries where we don’t directly employ*, we’ll explore what’s possible via third parties and do our best to accommodate location preferences.

When you’re not here making the world’s best management games, there’s a top-class benefits package for permanent team members based in the UK including gym membership, private health, and dental care, plus many more perks. For permanent team members outside of the UK, we strive to offer equivalent and localised benefits.  We’re also a London Living Wage employer and proudly boast one of the lowest staff turnover rates in the industry.

 *We’re able to directly employ in the UK, Ireland, France, Sweden and Finland.

Inclusivity Matters

We’re proud to be an equal opportunities employer and encourage applications from any relevant candidate irrespective of sex, race, disability, age, sexual orientation, gender reassignment, marriage or civil partnership, pregnancy or maternity, religion, or belief. Our studio has disabled access and facilities.

This job description is an accurate reflection of the duties and responsibilities of the post as at the time of writing but will be changed from time to time as the job is a career development job which will be adjusted according to the progress of the job holder. It does not form part of the contract of employment.