Principal DevOps Lead

On behalf of National Savings & Investments, we are looking for a Principal DevOps Lead (Inside IR35) for a 12 month contract based Hybrid in London.

Role Purpose

NS&I is embarking on a major transformation programme to modernise how it delivers digital services. As part of this change, we are introducing a new Principal DevOps Lead role to shape DevOps capability across the organisation and bring consistency to how our delivery partners work.

This is a strategic role. You will not be tied to a single project or programme. Instead, you will work across multiple delivery partners and internal teams to create the standards, processes and tooling that form NS&I's future DevOps model. Your work will lay the foundations for a more agile, efficient and resilient organisation.

This is an ideal opportunity for an experienced DevOps leader who has previously created policy, influenced engineering direction and helped complex organisations adopt modern ways of working.

As a Principal DevOps Lead your main responsibilities will be to:
. Define and deliver NS&I's DevOps strategy, policies and operating model across the organisation.
. Shape processes, frameworks and toolchains that support agile and iterative delivery.
. Work strategically across four major delivery partners to bring consistency to DevOps practices.
. Provide assurance and governance across DevOps practices, ensuring consistent standards and high-quality delivery across all suppliers.
. Create standards for automation, CI/CD, cloud, observability and secure delivery.
. Set direction for engineering capability, working closely with architecture, security and operations teams.
. Influence senior stakeholders and guide teams through change using strong communication and leadership skills.

Essential:
. Proven ability to define and deliver DevOps strategy and organisational policy at enterprise scale.
. Strong leadership of cross-functional engineering or digital teams, with a track record of building capability at pace.
. Ability to influence senior stakeholders and drive cultural and behavioural change.
. Expert understanding of DevOps, DevSecOps and continuous delivery including automation, release governance and pipeline optimisation.
. Strong grounding in cloud (AWS, Azure, GCP), infrastructure automation (Terraform, Ansible, CloudFormation) and version control (Git).
. Deep knowledge of enterprise tooling ecosystems and how to govern and standardise them effectively.
. Experience implementing frameworks for observability, SRE practices, reliability, SLIs/SLOs and operational excellence.
. Strong understanding of ITSM, incident response and transitioning services into live operations.
. Ability to lead assurance of supplier-delivered services, verifying quality, compliance and service-readiness.
. Ability to translate complex engineering concepts into clear policy, guidance and measurable outcomes.
. Awareness of how to identify and apply AI opportunities within DevSecOps.

Please be aware that this role can only be worked within the UK and not Overseas.

Disability Confident

As a member of the Disability Confident Scheme, NS&I guarantees to interview all candidates who have a disability and who meet all the essential criteria for the vacancy. In cases where we have a high volume of candidates who have a disability who meet all the essential criteria, we will interview the best candidates from within that group. This scheme encourages candidates with a disability and/or neurodivergence to apply. In exceptional circumstances, we may also need to apply the desirable criteria in our shortlisting process which may include holding active security clearance.

Armed Forces Commitment

National Savings & Investments guarantees to interview veterans or spouses/partners of military personnel who meet all the essential criteria for the vacancy. In cases where we have a high volume of ex-military candidates/military spouses or partners, who meet all of the essential criteria, we will interview the best candidates from within that group. In exceptional circumstances, we may also need to apply the desirable criteria in our shortlisting process which may include holding active security clearance.

In applying for this role, you acknowledge the following "this role falls in scope of the Off Payroll Working in the Public Sector legislation. Any rates of payment quoted will reflect the gross rate per day for the assignment and will be subject to appropriate taxes and statutory costs. As such the payment to the intermediary and your income resulting from this contract will be different".