Lead Software Engineer, DevOps

We are a global company with a mission to advance the art and technology of visual experience. We know that creating an inclusive environment that values and encourages different perspectives is critical for our success, and the success of our people. We are learning, listening and taking action to be better and foster trust in our community. Our goal is to ensure every person working at Foundry feels safe and free to be themselves, to share their ideas or concerns and that there is equal access to opportunities for all.

Our hybrid policy is balanced; requiring employees to spend at least two days per week working from a Foundry office and up to three working remotely. We’re striving for the best of both worlds; giving people the freedom to decide where they work most of the time, as well as the opportunity to build relationships and work with people across Foundry.

THE ROLE. 

This role is an exciting opportunity for a DevOps expert to head up a team of 4 engineers that look after the Foundry’s engineering tooling, systems, automation and infrastructure.

The DevOps team is responsible for how Foundry builds and delivers their products to their clients. We oversee source control systems, ticketing systems, manage the build farm and maintain the automated testing infrastructure as well as integration and automation between these systems. We are also in charge of the cloud-based crash reporting pipeline, metrics gathering, static analysis systems, scripts and tools for automation and to support individual team members or entire product teams with their deliveries.

In this role you will have people-management responsibilities to lead, grow and look after your reports. You will contribute towards hiring, training and personal development plans.

As part of your technical leadership responsibilities, you will advocate for and apply best-practices, including ensuring quality and managing technical debt of the systems you are responsible for, apply agile practices appropriate for a service-oriented team, and help plan longer term roadmaps for your team.

DevOps is always on the lookout for new technologies and new talents with the enthusiasm for improving all aspects of software engineering and the potential to transform how we work at Foundry!

THE RESPONSIBILITIES.

• Look after people management for your reports, including hiring and interviewing, team building, performance appraisals and career development
• Planning and tracking work for a service-oriented team using agile best practices
• Contribute towards planning out longer term roadmaps for your team, working in conjunction with engineering management and integrating input from key stakeholders in the wider business
• Lead the design and implementation of high-level, complex systems, taking care to seek cross-validation for major design decisions with key stakeholders
• Ensure engineering is done to good quality by maintaining and improving code review, automated testing, monitoring and other engineering best practices
• Oversee the CI automated build and test systems.
• Propose DevOps technology solutions and take the lead in implementing and evaluating those solutions.
• Coordinate with other teams by promoting best DevOps practices and fostering a positive team culture, whilst actively seeking and implementing opportunities for continuous improvement across the organization.

Requirements

• 5+ Years of software development experience in a professional context
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, well organised, good time management
• Strong people management skills, including team performance management, coaching and mentoring team members. 
• Good at decision-making and delegation.  
• Excellent knowledge of CI/CD systems, preferably Jenkins and GitLab CI (or similar: GitHub Actions, Circle CI) in the context of stand-alone applications.
• Professional experience of administering and configuring Version Control Systems (e.g. Git, Perforce).
• Expertise of Linux system administration and use of shells such as bash or sh.
• Experience with configuration, management and deployment of VMs via virtualisation systems such as VMware.
• Experience of configuring servers and setting up integration with other engineering and business applications via scripting.
• Experience of working independently to produce well-structured, effective code for others to build on.
• Good analytical and problem solving skills
• Good working knowledge of Python.
• Good experience of task breakdown and estimation, proposing solutions for designs and issues within the team's work.

Nice to know/Keen to learn

• Experience with Windows and macOS administration beneficial with cross-platform development experience desirable
• Experience with PowerShell for Windows beneficial
• Experience with Docker and Kubernetes beneficial
• Knowledge of Cloud services (e.g. AWS) beneficial
• Familiarity with building and deploying C++ applications beneficial

Benefits

• Pension scheme & life assurance
• Health cash plan & medical insurance
• Bonus scheme
• Season ticket loan
• Company’s social events
• Anniversary day off
• Passion Days
• Flexible working
• Annual personal learning & development time

THE COMPANY.

Foundry develops creative software for the digital design, media and entertainment industries. With a 20-year heritage and a portfolio of award-winning products, Foundry advances the art and technology of visual experience in partnership with creative leaders around the globe.

Clients and partners include major feature film studios and post-production houses such as Pixar, ILM, MPC, Walt Disney Animation, Weta Digital, DNEG, and Framestore as well as automotive, footwear, apparel and technology companies such as Mercedes, New Balance, Adidas and Google. Foundry partners with these companies to solve complex visualization challenges to turn incredible ideas into reality.

The company’s products are used to create breathtaking visual effects sequences on a wide range of feature films, video-on-demand, television and commercials. Foundry software was integral in the making of every VFX Oscar-winning film, award-winning TV shows and commercials for more than a decade.

Founded in 1996, Foundry is headquartered in London, with 300 staff and a presence in the US, China, Japan, Australia and Europe. In 2015, the London Stock Exchange named Foundry one of the “1000 Companies to Inspire Britain.” It regularly features in The Sunday Times’ Tech Track as one of Britain’s fastest-growing private technology companies.

For more information visit www.foundry.com.