Senior IT Infrastructure Engineer

Department:
Operations

Location:
Bristol, UK

Compensation:
£55,000 - £75,000 / year

Description
We're building the UK's next generation engineering powerhouse, providing critical technology that strengthens national security and resilience.
At Rowden, we design and integrate advanced systems that sense, connect, and protect data in challenging environments where quick decisions are vital. Our solutions use intelligent automation to enhance speed and efficiency and are built to be reliable and straightforward for critical operations in remote or high-pressure settings.

Headquartered in Bristol (UK), we combine modern engineering methods with cutting-edge commercial technology to create adaptable, mission-critical systems. We focus on solving the tough challenges that others overlook, ensuring our customers can operate effectively in an ever-changing world.

We're looking for a Senior Infrastructure Engineer to strengthen Rowden's internal IT and platform infrastructure capability — bridging the gap between traditional IT operations and platform engineering. This is a critical enabling role that will allow Rowden to scale its operations during a period of rapid growth.

About the role
As a Senior Infrastructure Engineer at Rowden, you'll play a pivotal role in maintaining, improving, and scaling the company's core infrastructure. You'll align IT operations with the wider platform strategy, ensuring seamless integration between core business systems and engineering platforms. This includes ownership of physical and virtual systems, networking, enterprise tooling, and containerised platforms that underpin our internal and operational systems.

You'll bring hands-on technical expertise, strong problem-solving skills, and a collaborative mindset to a small, capable team. Your work will contribute directly to Rowden's ability to deliver secure, reliable, and scalable systems.

Key areas of responsibility

• Infrastructure Operations & Maintenance:
  Manage and optimise hybrid infrastructure spanning AWS, Azure, and on-prem environments, ensuring secure, consistent, and scalable deployments.
• Linux & Virtualisation:
  Support Linux-based environments, virtual machines, and containerised workloads.
• Infrastructure as Code (IaC):
  Develop and maintain reusable configuration templates. Promote consistency and repeatability across environments by automating provisioning, updates, and scaling of systems.
• Physical Infrastructure & Networking:
  Maintain core business infrastructure, including racks, switches, servers, and storage.
• Collaboration & Process Improvement:
  Act as the link between IT and Platform Engineering, standardising infrastructure management and operational practices.
• Support & Incident Response:
  Serve as an escalation point for infrastructure-related requests, guiding and mentoring IT Support colleagues.
• Tooling & Enterprise Platforms:
  Help to administer M365, Atlassian, GitHub, and other enterprise systems.
• Governance and Compliance:
  Ensure systems are fully documented, risk assessed, and all relevant assurance testing is completed correctly.

Key skills, experience and behaviours
We're looking for someone who is passionate about technology, curious about new approaches, and pragmatic in delivery. You'll already bring strong technical foundations and a mindset geared towards improvement and automation.

Essential

• Experience managing AWS and Azure services and deployments
• Strong knowledge of Linux systems and virtualisation (VMware, Hyper-V, or similar)
• Familiarity with containerisation tools (e.g. Docker, Podman, Kubernetes)
• Exposure to Infrastructure as Code (Terraform, Ansible)
• Good understanding of networking, routing, and switching fundamentals
• Proven experience in systems and infrastructure administration
• Practical scripting or automation skills (PowerShell, Bash, or Python)
• Excellent troubleshooting and documentation skills

Desirable

• Experience administering enterprise systems (M365, Atlassian, GitHub etc.)
• Knowledge of identity and access management (AD, Entra, SSO, SCIM)
• Exposure to automation platforms and experience implementing integrations between systems
• Understanding of information security and compliance (ISO27001, Cyber Essentials+)
• A quick learner who uses their initiative to find new ways to solve problems and understand new technologies

About You
You're a senior engineer who enjoys being hands-on while also thinking strategically about how systems fit together. You take ownership of your work, care deeply about reliability and user experience, and are motivated by the opportunity to strengthen the backbone of a growing technology company.

You're collaborative, adaptable, and thrive in environments where pragmatism, curiosity, and initiative are valued.

Working at Rowden
We are committed to building a flexible, inclusive, and enabling company. Our aim is to create a diverse team of talented people with unique skills, experience, and backgrounds, so please apply and come as you are

We also recognise the importance of flexible working and support this wherever we can. We typically operate a flexible, hybrid-working model, with an average 3 days in the office each week (dependent on the role). We welcome the opportunity to discuss flexibility, part-time working requirements and/or workplace adjustments with all our applicants.

Rowden is a Disability Confident Committed company, and we actively encourage people with disabilities and health conditions to apply for our roles. Please let us know your requirements early on so that we can make sure you have everything you need up front to help make the recruitment process and experience as easy as possible.

Finally, if you feel that you don't meet all the criteria included above but have transferable skills and relevant experience, we'd still love to hear from you