Role Overview
As a Senior DevOps Engineer for the Kantar Insights team, you will be tasked with supporting a custom application development team who codes and deploys mostly to Microsoft Azure environments as well as minimal AWS environments!
You will work as a member of the DevOps team who are responsible for all custom application deployments as well as the supporting cloud infrastructure. The platforms supported today are built with Microsoft .Net and MSSQL backends. There are also some large data warehouses and large data flow management in scope.
The DevOps team works closely with application developers, database admins, QA testers and project managers to support and provide guidance for all custom development deployed to a multi-tier application environment (Dev/Test/UAT/Prod).
Daily tasks will include, but are not always limited to, the following:
Azure DevOps support for code repositories, YAML CI/CD pipelines using shared library/templating
Deploying infrastructure in both BICEP and manual click will be ongoing as we move toward a fully automated infrastructure-as-code model. Completion expected by end of 2025.
Working with tools such as Visual Studio, VS-Code or other clients to manage all versioning and repositories
Monitoring application health and availability with ongoing visibility using Azure dashboards, monitors and alerting tools
Converting or migrating legacy application resources to modern cloud or platform services will be ongoing while we move away from IaaS (VMs and Containers) to serverless PaaS. Example: Supporting applications from virtual machine console apps to Azure App Services
Apply and maintain Kantar’s security, platform and budgeting standards to all areas of the process from application conception through production run.
Trouble shoot all aspects of application or infrastructure CI/CD including build, deploy or runtime errors.
Continuous optimization of processes using automation and scripting with YAML, PowerShell and BICEP
Conduct testing of new solutions and collaborate with leaders on results to make informed technical decisions
Staggered off-hour monitoring and escalation support will be needed for 24/7/365 application SLAs
Continuous cost and systems footprint reduction efforts expected while modernizing all platforms and applications
Key Responsibilities
The Senior DevOps Engineer must balance several roles in the application development process, including application code packaging and deployments, management and automated deployments of cloud resources and application availability and performance monitoring.
They must also possess the communication and management skills needed to work within a custom application development team. They will need to collaborate with product development, data services, QA testing and architecture teams throughout the development lifecycle. Data handling, privacy and compliance, as well as overall application security standards are woven into all processes and will be a constant factor in all decision making.
Capabilities and experience
Must possess a strong understanding of both Azure IaaS and PaaS solutions and their use cases
Hands-on experience in the packaging, building, automating, managing, and releasing of code from one environment to another. Supporting a muti-tier application environment.
Expert level experience (2+ years) with Infa as Code (IaC) using Terraform or BICEP though Azure DevOps pipelines is a requirement. BICEP is preferred.
Must have strong scripting and automation experience with PowerShell, Terraform Ansible or similar technologies
Ability to configure and navigate code management tools such ad VS Code as well as maintaining versioning and protection
Strong understanding of cloud virtual networking, connectivity and traffic management including WAF, firewalls rules, routing, VPNs and private connectivity
Experience with disaster recovery and high availability within a client/partner facing environments
Ability to diagnose issues at all layers (full stack) including infrastructure, application or deployment errors, capacity or performance related and connectivity
Strong documentation and presentation skills. Must communicate with all directly supported teams with clarity to drive operational excellence throughout the development lifecycle
Plan, coordinate and execute environmental changes and set reasonable expectations while delegating tasks and managing projects through completion
Diagramming and documentation for all work will be requires
Availability for On-Call monitoring and incident escalation for areas of ownership
Why join Kantar?
We shape the brands of tomorrow by better understanding people everywhere. By understanding people, we can understand what drives their decisions, actions, and aspirations on a global scale. And by amplifying our in-depth expertise of human understanding alongside ground-breaking technology, we can help brands find concrete insights that will help them succeed in our fast-paced, ever shifting world.
And because we know people, we like to make sure our own people are being looked after as well. Equality of opportunity for everyone is our highest priority and we support our colleagues to work in a way that supports their health and wellbeing. While we encourage teams to spend part of their working week in the office, we understand no one size fits all; our approach is flexible to ensure everybody feels included, accepted, and that we can win together. We’re dedicated to creating an inclusive culture and value the diversity of our people, clients, suppliers and communities, and we encourage applications from all backgrounds and sections of society. Even if you feel like you’re not an exact match, we’d love to receive your application and talk to you about this job or others at Kantar.
Location
Kantar Rewards Statement
At Kantar we have an integrated way of rewarding our people based around a simple, clear and consistent set of principles. Our approach helps to ensure we are market competitive and also to support a pay for performance culture, where your reward and career progression opportunities are linked to what you deliver.
We go beyond the obvious, using intelligence, passion and creativity to inspire new thinking and shape the world we live in. Apply for a career that’s out of the ordinary and join us.
We want to create an equality of opportunity in a fair and supportive working environment where people feel included, accepted and are allowed to flourish in a space where their mental health and well being is taken into consideration.
We want to create a more diverse community to expand our talent pool, be locally representative, drive diversity of thinking and better commercial outcomes.
Kantar is the world’s leading data, insights and consulting company. We understand more about how people think, feel, shop, share, vote and view than anyone else. Combining our expertise in human understanding with advanced technologies, Kantar’s 30,000 people help the world’s leading organisations succeed and grow.