Platform Engineer

Hi we’re Glean. We make study software that improves your confidence and ability to learn. We’re a SaaS scale up and one of the fastest growing tech companies in the North. There’s 100 of us around the UK with our HQ in Leeds. Our software is award-winning and used by 100,000s of students at over 800 universities & colleges worldwide. We’re growing so we can achieve our mission to support 1 million students to become better learners by 2026. The role of Platform Operations Engineer (DevOps): Glean are looking for a talented Platform Operations Engineer who wants to be part of a small, beautifully formed and growing Platform Operations team. We are focussed on pragmatic delivery with quality at the centre of everything we do. We use a mixture of front-end (TypeScript, React) and back-end technologies (JVM / Kotlin), with an automated build pipeline (Github Actions, Kubernetes, Terraform, Helm etc.) We are trusted by the business to own our technology stack and processes and repay this trust by delivering regularly and predictably. We aspire to be the best engineering team we can be, by constantly asking, "given what we know now, is there anything we should change?". The stack you’ll be working with: GCP, AWS, Azure and Backblaze Kubernetes, Docker, Helm Terraform Prometheus, Elastic, Grafana Kotlin/JVM (backend) TypeScript (web frontend) Flutter (mobile frontend) Python (scripting, misc tasks) Github Actions Meet the team: Technology at Glean is a cross-functional function made of Engineering, Product, Product Marketing, User Experience, Customer Experience and Data. This filters down to our product squads where we have at least one team member from each discipline working together to build the best product for our users and customers. You’ll be managed by one of our Engineering Managers, and work alongside Mark, our Lead Platform Engineer. If you want to know more about joining Glean, you can hear from our Head of Engineering Mala here. To give you an idea of who you may meet during the recruitment process - Bruce (Engineering Manager, makes the most of our remote policy, a man with a large vocabulary), Chris (good dog owner, amazingly organised), or Mark (Platform Lead, Nomad policy champion, Glean Pride organiser) What you’ll be doing: As a Platform Operations / DevOps Engineer, your role within engineering is to help develop and maintain our DevOps and DevEx stories to support the entire function, while aligning to our Engineering Principles. Your technical responsibilities include: Cloud Infrastructure: Manage and optimise Glean’s cloud infrastructure, embedding Infrastructure as Code and CI/CD best practices. Support teams and align solutions with industry standards. Observability: Improve application monitoring, alerting, and logging. Promote SLOs, SLAs, and SLIs, ensuring teams integrate observability into new features. Technology & DevOps: Evaluate emerging technologies, recommending and implementing tools to enhance efficiency. Foster DevOps best practices and process documentation. Automation: Advocate for and implement automation to reduce repetitive tasks. Guide and upskill teams in building automation into workflows. Tooling & Knowledge Sharing: Support teams in using and adopting tooling effectively. Ensure sustainable deployment practices and share knowledge on new processes. About you: Programming skills: Strong experience in scripting and programming with languages like Python and/or Bash for automation and tooling. Infrastructure as Code: Proficiency with tools like Terraform for infrastructure automation. Cloud Platforms: Hands-on experience with cloud services (AWS or Google Cloud ideally). Containerisation and Orchestration: Experience with Docker and Kubernetes for container management and orchestration. Collaboration: Ability to mentor others, foster trust, and contribute to a positive team culture. Adaptability: Willingness to learn, develop new skills, and adopt a flexible, team-oriented mindset. Communication: Strong skills with "passionate views, loosely held" – articulate ideas clearly but remain open to other perspectives. Not every one of the above is essential, but hopefully it gives an idea of what we find useful day to day. If you meet some but not all of the criteria, we will welcome your application. Salary and benefits: £44,000- £50,000 dependent upon experience ️ 33 days annual leave (Inclusive of bank holidays) 3 gifted days off at Christmas EMI Share Options Scheme Generous individual learning and training allowance ⌚ Truly flexible hours to suit when you work best Full home working set up and beautiful collaborative office space Nomad working policy with family travel insurance Enhanced 26 weeks maternity and 4 weeks paternity (fully paid) Health cash plan (from glasses to massages) 6% employer pension contribution Free city centre parking in Leeds Location: We have a beautiful office space in Leeds and we love it when we get together to collaborate in person. We typically operate a hybrid way of working, however some of our roles support remote working within the UK, if you live more than 50 miles from the office. We will discuss ways of working with you at interview however if you have any questions before you apply please reach out to recruitment@glean.co What to expect next: We’ll review your application and provide a response within 1 week. Even if it’s not the news you’d hoped for, we appreciate it’s good to know either way. If we invite you to meet with us for interview, here’s an overview of what the process will look like: Video Screening call with Courtney our Recruitment Advisor (30 minutes) A take-home technical test for you to complete offline and submit back to us Technical interview with Mark and an Engineer from the Platform Operations team CV Review and Culture & Values Interview with Mala (Head of Engineering) and one of our Engineering Managers, Natasha, Charlene or Bruce Ahead of your interviews you will receive a confirmation email outlining who you’ll be meeting and when, anything you’ll need to prepare in advance and any resources we think you might find helpful. Interested in learning more about a career at Glean? Here are a few further resources: About Glean Glean Tech Blog Working at Glean Blog The Glean Study Tool Not quite the right role for you however you’d love to be a part of Glean’s journey? Let’s connect! Reach out to recruitment@glean.co and we’ll add you to our network, to keep you updated with any future opportunities we think you might be interested in. Applicant Privacy Notice We think it’s important that you understand how we use and handle your personal information, so here’s a link to our privacy notice. By submitting your application, you’re confirming that you’ve read and understood this notice. About Us Glean empowers learners with the confidence and ability to build useful knowledge in an age of information overload. Our inclusive learning technology is used by 100,000s of students to gain 21st century learning skills with a proven note taking process. We aim to reduce waste by helping learners to get more value from working with spoken language. Our mission is to challenge how the world thinks about learning so that it’s more accessible, productive, and purposeful for all learners. Join our values-driven and growing team if you’re excited by our goal to change a million lives for the better.