Senior DevOps Engineer

Job description

We are looking for a highly skilled Senior DevOps Engineer to lead our DevOps team in building, optimizing, and scaling our cloud and on-premise platforms. Reporting to the CTO, you will shape our infrastructure, streamline our development workflows, and ensure our systems are secure, reliable, and cost-effective. This role combines hands-on technical expertise with team leadership and strategic thinking.

Responsibilities:

• Lead and mentor the DevOps team, fostering a culture of collaboration, learning, and innovation.
• Design, develop, and maintain cloud and on-premises infrastructure to support scalable, secure, and highly available solutions.
• Build, maintain, and improve CI/CD pipelines for faster, safer deployments.
• Manage AWS environments, including provisioning, monitoring, and cost optimization.
• Implement and maintain infrastructure as code (IaC) using tools like Terraform or CloudFormation.
• Ensure systems are observable through logging, monitoring, and alerting tools.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to ensure infrastructure supports business needs and product goals.
• Drive automation of repetitive tasks and processes for efficiency.
• Implement security best practices, compliance standards, and disaster recovery strategies.

What we are looking for:

• Strong analytical and critical thinking abilities.
• Excellent communication skills — able to clearly articulate complex ideas.
• Highly collaborative, with a track record of working effectively across teams.
• Adaptable problem-solver who thrives in changing environments.
• Passionate about data and software engineering, with a naturally curious mindset.
• Commitment to secure, inclusive, and equitable technical solutions.
• Self-motivated and proactive in identifying and pursuing improvements.
• Demonstrates exemplary software engineering practices in daily work.

Culture and values

• Personal values aligned with OCL’s aspirational culture
• Passion for data and technology.
• High ethical standards, integrity, and commitment to continuous learning
• Dedication to ongoing performance improvement and coaching programmes.

Skills and experience - must haves:

• Proven experience delivering across all phases of the software development lifecycle.
• 5+ years of experience in DevOps, Cloud Engineering, or Site Reliability Engineering.
• Advanced skills with: Linux, containerisation (Docker, Kubernetes), Python, R, SQL, WSL2.
• Strong experience with RESTful API development.
• Expertise in designing and implementing cloud architecture (AWS, Azure, or GCP) and on-premises solutions (VMware, OpenStack, KVM, HPC clusters).
• Solid understanding of databases (SQL/NoSQL) and data pipelines.
• Proficiency in Infrastructure as Code (Terraform, CloudFormation) and CI/CD pipelines (Jenkins, GitHub Actions, GitLab CI).
• Experience implementing automated testing and designing scalable software solutions.
• Knowledge of security best practices, including IAM, encryption, and compliance frameworks.
• Familiarity with web application frameworks and machine learning deployment.

Skills and experience - nice to haves

• Experience in Site Reliability Engineering (SRE), Champion operational excellence and resilience, backups, disaster recovery, and security
• Experience in building web services on AI/ML models

Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in CS, IT, Engineering, Math, or equivalent practical experience
• AWS certifications are a plus

Our Technology Stack

• AWS and Azure
• Python
• Docker, Kubernetes, AWS EKS/ECS
• AWS CDK and Terraform
• CKAN, Metabase & other Open Source solutions
• Mysql, MsSQL, PostgreSQL
• Github actions, AWS Code Pipeline

Company Description

OCL is a non-profit organisation that creates tools and interventions that strengthen capacity within government, empowers citizens and improves trust and accountability in the civic space.

We have been operating since 2015, and have international reach through our projects in African cities and urban spaces, and a global presence in knowledge creation.

Our organisation is made up of Researchers, Software Developers, Economists, Data Scientists, Designers and Product Owners who get to constantly expand their knowledge and learn peripheral skills as part of the job. We are all driven by a common purpose as a non-partisan community founded on the belief of equality and inclusion through openness across all aspects of society.

Posted on 21 Jan 18:30, Closing date 22 Mar