IT DevOps Lead

Cornerstone is the UK's leading mobile and digital infrastructure provider, managing over 15,700 sites and holding 35% of the market. Our Mission is to be famous for excellence in delivery, embracing transformation with our people and our customers at its heart.

Lead and manage the internal DevOps team, setting technical direction, owning the roadmap, and ensuring the right skills and structure are in place to deliver and maintain bespoke software applications. Own the end-to-end technical stack, ensuring compliance with enterprise architecture and data security principles.

In addition, the role requires hands-on software development leveraging modern AI-assisted coding tools and practices. The DevOps Lead is expected to actively contribute to the codebase, accelerate delivery through AI-enabled development approaches, and champion the adoption of AI tooling across the engineering lifecycle.

KEY ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

SCOPE
Manage an agile software development team comprising engineers, analysts, and QA specialists to deliver in-house bespoke applications for internal users, clients, and partners. Own the full technical stack, including backend, frontend, APIs, and databases, ensuring alignment with enterprise architecture and security standards.
Act as the primary point of accountability for technical direction, team capability, and roadmap execution.
Engage with stakeholders across the business to manage expectations, dependencies, and critical decisions.

DELIVERY
Oversee design and agile delivery of cloud-based DevOps projects, ensuring proactive collaboration with stakeholders and adherence to agreed schedules.
Maintain high-level monitoring, reporting, and governance of project portfolios in partnership with PMO.
Produce and maintain clear, achievable plans and roadmaps, managing scope, resources, risks, and impacts of change.
Ensure operational monitoring and alerting for the DevOps tech stack, applying InfoSec best practices including vulnerability patching and penetration testing.
Contribute actively to health and safety, environmental, business continuity, and information security arrangements to meet ISO obligations.
Combine traditional DevOps practices with AI-enabled development workflows to improve speed, consistency, and developer productivity
Support the team in embedding AI-first engineering practices into everyday delivery
Maintain governance and oversight of AI usage in development, ensuring compliance with data security and organisational standards

ROLE EXPERTISE
Proven experience leading software development teams and delivering cloud-based solutions in Agile/DevOps environments (Scrum, Kanban).
Expertise in source code version control (e.g., Git), backlog management tools (e.g., Jira, Azure DevOps), and CI/CD automation (e.g., Jenkins, CircleCI).
Strong knowledge of public cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP) and full-stack development including frontend, backend, APIs, and databases.
Skilled in planning, stakeholder management, and driving delivery across complex projects.
Comprehensive understanding of software development lifecycle, security, scalability, and stability in cloud environments.

AI-ASSISTED ENGINEERING & DEVELOPMENT
Act as a hands-on contributor to the codebase, using modern programming languages, frameworks, and development tools
Leverage AI-assisted coding tools (e.g. code generation, copilots, test generation, documentation automation) to accelerate delivery and improve quality
Define and promote best practices for AI-assisted development, ensuring safe, secure, and effective usage across the team
Drive adoption of AI tooling across the software development lifecycle, including:
- Design and prototyping
-Code development
- Testing and QA automation
- Documentation and knowledge sharing

Ensure AI-generated outputs meet engineering standards, security requirements, and enterprise architecture principle
Continuously assess emerging AI development capabilities and incorporate them into the DevOps toolchain where appropriate

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS AND EXPERIANCE
Experience running software development teams and architecting cloud-based solutions.
Proficiency in Agile/DevOps methodologies and tools (Scrum, Kanban, Git, Jira/Azure DevOps).
Experience with CI/CD automation tools and public cloud platforms.
Strong technical knowledge across full stack development and security best practices.
Demonstrated leadership, stakeholder management, and communication skills.
Experience with AI-assisted development tools (e.g. Cursor, GitHub Copilot, code generation platforms)
Understanding of prompt engineering, AI limitations, and code validation practices
Experience integrating AI tooling into CI/CD or DevOps pipelines
Awareness of secure and responsible AI usage in software engineering

QUALIFICATIONS:
Degree in Software Engineering, Computer Science, Computer Systems, Electrical/Electronic Engineering,

CORNERSTONE VALUES
Operate and uphold Cornerstones' values of Everyone Matters, Innovate to Elevate, Do the Right Thing and Customer First by being Professional, Respectful and Open