Lead Cloud Architect

SSE has big ambitions to be a leading energy company in a low carbon world. Following our commitment to invest £12.5 billion in low carbon projects over the next 5 years, our Energy Portfolio Management (EPM) business is the energy markets heart of the SSE Group, and supports our ambitions to build a world that's more sustainable and inclusive for you, your family, the community you live in and for generations to come.

We are proud to be playing a crucial role in the net zero transition, ensuring we have the energy supplies required to meet the needs of our customers; procuring the fuel required by the generation plants and selling the power output from our renewable and low-carbon thermal assets.

We have ambitious net zero targets, and our business is growing to help us achieve our strategy. Join us on our journey to net zero, and help us power change.

About the Role

Base Location: Flexible, however our preference is that you will be based in one of our key UK sites, which includes but is not limited to: Glasgow, Perth, Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Reading or Havant

Salary: £Competitive + car / allowance + performance-related bonus + a range of other benefits to support your family, finances and wellbeing.

Working Pattern: Permanent | Full Time | Flexible First options available

This exciting role sits within the Energy Portfolio Management (EPM) IT team. EPM provide Route to Market and Risk Management services to SSE's Thermal, Renewable and Business Energy divisions.

The Lead Cloud Architect role will play a key part in maturing and growing our cloud capability, helping to enable the objectives and key results associated with the EPM strategic direction. It represents an opportunity to make a real difference at the commercial centre of the SSE Group.

See below some of the key accountabilities of the role:

- Work with business stakeholders throughout the whole cloud lifecycle, providing comprehensive support to transform and modernise the EPM application portfolios.

- Act as a trusted advisor and bridge between the central cloud team and EPM (technical and business) stakeholders, and so must be able to provide regular progress updates and flag any issues accordingly.

- Support stakeholders to adopt and leverage the latest software development methods; delivering effective DevOps practices that accommodate the latest security and software lifecycle patterns.

- Provide leadership, coaching and development for the immediate team and act as an evangelist within the organisation for engineering practices.

- Partner with Product owners and management to enable demand planning and delivery against the projected backlog and book of work.

- Identify and progress opportunities to drive continuous improvement across engineering, delivery, and operational practices.

What do I need?

The successful candidate will have a deep end to end understanding of cloud systems architecture and design. While broad Cloud skills are of course key, in-depth knowledge of Microsoft Azure or AWS will be very helpful.

It is the below attributes, skills and experience that will enable the right individual to succeed in the role:

- Demonstrates a strong understanding end to end product lifecycle, as well as how technical systems work and interact.

- Strong analytical skills and a solid understanding of operational support procedures.

- Background in Cloud or DevOps Engineering.

- In depth knowledge to Infrastructure as Code (IaC) such as Terraform or Azure Resource Management templates.

- Tangible experience of solution prominent in the DevOps toolchain i.e. Jenkins, GitHub, Argo.

- Exposure to Configuration Management Solutions such as Ansible, Puppet or Chef.

- Practical use and understanding of scripting languages such as Python or Go.

- Knowledge of operating system fundamentals including diagnostics, tuning and monitoring of IO, Networks, CPU and Memory.

The below skills are desirable but not essential for the role:

- Technical Cloud certifications.

- Exposure to container technology (i.e. Docker, Kubernetes).

- Awareness of security assurance and design best practices (i.e. NIST or CIS).

About our Business

SSE IT underpins the technology needs of all the different businesses that make up the SSE group. From emerging technologies to data and analytics to cyber security - we power SSE's growth and enable it to generate value, while keeping it secure. As a trusted business partner that helps SSE lead in a low carbon world, we are proud of our service. Working for SSE IT is all about equipping SSE for now and the future.

What's in it for you?

An excellent package with 34 days holiday entitlement, enhanced maternity/paternity leave, discounted healthcare and much more, view our full benefits package on our careers site.

As an equal opportunity employer we encourage diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. We actively encourage applicants from all protected characteristics and commit to providing any reasonable adjustments required during the application, assessment and upon joining SSE. Search for 'Inclusion & Diversity at SSE' to find out more.

What happens now?

All applications should be submitted online, and I'll be back in touch after the vacancy closing date to let you know the outcome.

If you would like to discuss any working differently requirements or adjustments you may require throughout the recruitment and selection process, please contact Laura on 01738 341814.

Before commencing employment with SSE, you'll be required to fully complete our pre-employment screening process consisting of a basic criminal records and credit check.