Applications Engineer
Job description
Original text imported from Reed
Job Overview:
We are looking for a Senior Automation Tools Engineer to join the Automation Tools team. In this role you will design, deploy, and maintain automation frameworks that improve infrastructure reliability, scalability, and efficiency. You'll collaborate closely with development, operations, engineering, and IT teams to streamline deployment and configuration systems and processes to enable enhanced system management, performance, and lifecycle.This includes deployment and operate automation tools and their frameworks (e.g., Ansible, Puppet, Terraform, GitLab, Vault, Foreman) for our hybrid estate and compute clusters.
Contract - 6 months
Location - Cambridge (2 days per week on-site)
Pay - attractive daily rate (inside IR35)
Responsibilities:
- Develop and maintain automation solutions using IaC, Python, Bash, and configuration management tools.
- Integrate automation into CI/CD pipelines to improve deployment efficiency.
- Troubleshoot infrastructure issues and implement automated solutions to improve stability and operability.
- Document tools, processes, and best practices.
- Participate in on-call rotations to support system availability.
- Continuously evaluate and adopt new technologies to improve automation practices.
Required Skills and Experience:
- Degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field (or equivalent experience).
- Hands-on experience with infrastructure automation and configuration management.
- Good experience handling large-scale Linux environments and resolving system issues.
- Experience with CI/CD pipelines and DevOps practices.
- Proficiency in scripting (Python, Bash, or similar).
- Experience working across hybrid environments (on-premises and cloud platforms such as AWS, Azure, or GCP).
"Nice To Have" Skills and Experience:
- Experience with large-scale or multi-cluster environments.
- Codex and other AI enabled development and use cases.
- Relevant technical certifications.
- Familiarity with Agile/Scrum methodologies.
What you need to do now
If you're interested in this role, click 'apply now' to forward an up-to-date copy of your CV, or call us now.
If this job isn't quite right for you, but you are looking for a new position, please contact us for a confidential discussion about your career.
Hays Talent Solutions is a trading division of Hays Specialist Recruitment Limited and acts as an employment agency for permanent recruitment and employment business for the supply of temporary workers. By applying for this job you accept the T&C's, Privacy Policy and Disclaimers which can be found at hays.co.uk
Key skills
AI-extracted from the job advert
Application advice
5 AI-generated recommendations to maximise your chances.
⭐ Highlight your Infrastructure as Code experience with Ansible, Puppet, and Terraform prominently as these are the core automation tools mentioned
📊 Quantify your automation impact: 'Automated deployment of 200+ servers, reducing provisioning time by 75%'
🌐 Emphasise your hybrid cloud experience across AWS, Azure, and GCP as the role specifically requires multi-platform expertise
🎯 Showcase your CI/CD pipeline integration skills with specific examples of deployment efficiency improvements
🤝 Demonstrate your cross-team collaboration experience with development, operations, and IT teams
Suggested CV bullets
3 bullets our AI drafted for this specific advert, mirroring its ATS keywords.
Add these 3 bullets under your most recent experience:
- •Deployed Terraform infrastructure automation across 150+ AWS and Azure instances, reducing provisioning time from 4 hours to 15 minutes
- •Integrated Ansible playbooks into GitLab CI/CD pipelines, achieving 95% automated deployment success rate for 12 microservices
- •Maintained Python and Bash automation scripts for 500+ Linux servers, improving system uptime to 99.8% through proactive monitoring
Free to copy — tailoring requires a 30-sec CV upload.
Your cover letter is ready
We've drafted a cover letter for Hays Specialist Recruitment Limited. Preview the opening, then unlock the full personalised version.
Letter preview — tailored to Hays Specialist Recruitment Limited
Dear Hiring Manager,
Hays' Senior Automation Tools Engineer position perfectly aligns with my expertise in Infrastructure as Code and configuration management tools including Ansible, Puppet, and Terraform. Your hybrid cloud automation requirements match my experience deploying scalable frameworks across AWS, Azure, and multi-platform environments.
My background in designing CI/CD pipeline integrations and maintaining large-scale Linux infrastructures has consistently delivered improved system reliability and deployment efficiency. I have extensive experience collaborating with cross-functional teams to streamline operations and implement automated solutions that enhance system performance.
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Interview questions
10 questions generated from this advert.
Technical
- ›How would you design an automation framework using Terraform for a hybrid cloud environment?
- ›Explain how you would integrate Ansible playbooks into a GitLab CI/CD pipeline
- ›What strategies would you use to troubleshoot infrastructure issues in large-scale Linux environments?
- ›How do you approach configuration management across on-premises and cloud platforms?
- ›Describe your experience with Python and Bash scripting for infrastructure automation
Behavioural
- ›Tell me about a time when you had to troubleshoot a critical infrastructure issue under pressure
- ›Describe a situation where you had to collaborate with multiple teams to implement an automation solution
- ›Give an example of how you've improved system reliability through automation
- ›Tell me about a time when you had to learn a new technology quickly to solve a problem
- ›Describe how you approach documenting complex automation processes for team knowledge sharing
STAR answer examples
Model answers using the Situation-Task-Action-Result framework. Adapt to your own experience.
Tell me about a time when you had to troubleshoot a critical infrastructure issue under pressure
Describe a situation where you had to collaborate with multiple teams to implement an automation solution