Software Engineering Specialist

Recruiter: Daniel McCarthy 

Career Grade: D

Internal Closing Date: 13th March 25

About us

BT is part of BT Group, along with EE, Openreach, and Plusnet.

Millions of people rely on us every day to help them live their lives, power their businesses, and keep their public services running. We connect friends to family, clients to colleagues, people to possibilities. We keep the wheels of business spinning, and the emergency services responding. 

We value diversity and celebrate difference. ‘We embed diversity and inclusion into everything that we do. It’s fundamental to our purpose: we connect for good.’

We all stick to the same values: Personal, Simple, and Brilliant. From day one, you’ll get stuck in to tough challenges, pitch in with ideas, make things happen. But you won’t be alone: we’ll be there with help and support, learning and development.  

This is your chance to make a real difference to the world: to be part of the digital transformation of countless lives and businesses. Grab it.

Why this job matters
As a Systems Engineer Specialist at BT Group, you will play a crucial role in the design, implementation, and maintenance of our cutting-edge infrastructure and deployment pipelines. You will be responsible for driving the adoption of DevOps/SRE best practices, fostering collaboration between development and operations teams, and ensuring the smooth operation of our systems. This role requires strong technical expertise, leadership skills, and a passion for driving continuous improvement.

What you’ll be doing – your accountabilities
The purpose of the Systems Engineer Specialist role is to be the lead specific large systems developments across Global/UK Fabric. 
Specifically, this role is accountable for:

• Technical Leadership: Technical Lead a matrix team of Systems Engineers, providing guidance and support in technical decision-making and problem-solving.
• Drive the adoption of best practices in software development, continuous integration, and continuous delivery (CI/CD) across the organization.
• CI/CD Pipeline Development: Drive the adoption of best practices in software development, continuous integration, and continuous delivery (CI/CD) across the organization.
• Infrastructure as Code (IaC): Utilize tools such as Ansible to provision and manage infrastructure resources in a scalable and efficient manner.
• Container Orchestration: Experience with container orchestration platforms such as Kubernetes for managing containerized applications at scale.
• Monitoring and Logging: Configure and maintain monitoring solutions such as Elastic search and Apache Kafka to ensure the health and performance of our systems and Network.
• Database Management: Work with both relational (MySQL) and NoSQL databases to design, deploy, and optimize data storage solutions.
• Network Engineering: Apply your understanding of network principles to troubleshoot network faults within our systems and look at how you can optimize performance and enhance security across our infrastructure.
• People Leadership: Mentor and guide junior team members, fostering a culture of continuous learning and professional development.
• Collaboration: Collaborate with software development teams to integrate DevOps best practices into the software development lifecycle.
• Solving problems: Ensuring that mission-critical services stay up and running and building automation to prevent problem recurrence with the goal of automated response to all non-exceptional service conditions

The skills you’ll need to succeed

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, related field or relevant experience.
• Proven experience in a Systems Engineering or infrastructure engineering role.
• Proven experience as a Systems Engineering, with a strong background in a modern programming language such as Python.
• Demonstrated expertise in CI/CD pipelines and associated tools (e.g. GitLab CI).
• Proficiency in containerization technologies, specifically Kubernetes.
• Experience with monitoring and logging solutions such as Elastic search, Apache Kafka, and Prometheus.
• Familiarity with configuration management tools like Ansible.
• Knowledge of the deployment of software (or code) to a variety of types of Infrastructure (including Virtual Machines, Routers, Switches and Compute hardware).
• An understanding and awareness of cyber security, the impact of not managing it properly and how to continually audit and prove compliance.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to collaborate effectively in a team environment.
• Proven leadership abilities, with a track record of mentoring and guiding junior team members.
• Expertise in working with frameworks for and automating test cases for systems in production
• Typical Certifications/Accreditations Attained or working towards include
• Member of a professional body e.g. Institution of Engineering and Technology.
• Certified Kubernetes Application Developer (CKAD) or Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA) or equivalent experience.
• Linux Foundation Certified IT Associate (LFCA) or Linux Foundation Certified System Administrator (LFCS) or Prometheus Certified Associate (PCA)
• Certified Tester Advanced Level Test Analyst (CTAL-TA) or equivalent
• Robot Framework Certified Professional (RFCP) or equivalent
• Prometheus Certified Associate (PCA) or equivalent
• PCAT - Certified Associate Tester with Python
• PCAP - Certified Associate Python Programmer
• AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner Foundational
• Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) or equivalent

Experience you’d be expected to have
Expected

• Experience with CICD methodologies (Robot, Gitlab, BDD)
• Ability to debug, optimize code, and to automate routine tasks
• Experience with data modelling with Yang (with a vendor neutral landscape in mind)
• Open-source software experience and engagement with open-source development practices (e.g. Netbox, Elastic, Kafka, Kong, fluentd, Prometheus)
• Experience with CICD methodologies (Robot, Gitlab, BDD)

Desirable

• Experience with RESTful, gRPC APIs and JSON/Protobuf
• Experience with agile delivery
• Experience with developing databases (Postgres, InfluxDB, MongoDB, ArangoDB)
• Experience with Software Defined Networking, Service Provisioning, fault management, inventory management, performance management
• Understanding of Life-Cycle Management (devices, services, resources)
• Awareness of Juniper Paragon Automation 
• Awareness of TM Forum API framework
• Awareness of Incident Management Systems (SNOW)

A FEW POINTS TO NOTE:

Although these roles are listed as full-time, if you’re a job share partnership, work reduced hours, or any other way of working flexibly, please still get in touch.

We will also offer reasonable adjustments for the selection process if required, so please do not hesitate to inform us.

DON'T MEET EVERY SINGLE REQUIREMENT?

Studies have shown that women and people who are disabled, LGBTQ+, neurodiverse or from ethnic minority backgrounds are less likely to apply for jobs unless they meet every single qualification and criteria. We're committed to building a diverse, inclusive, and authentic workplace where everyone can be their best, so if you're excited about this role but your past experience doesn't align perfectly with every requirement on the Job Description, please apply anyway - you may just be the right candidate for this or other roles in our wider team.