TechOps Architect, Octopus Energy Group
Octopus Energy UK
The UK's most awarded energy supplier
Open for applications
The UK's most awarded energy supplier
1001+ employees
Open for applications
1001+ employees
Company mission
To make a big green dent in the universe by building a truly sustainable energy system globally.
Role
Who you are
- Experience leading on a range of technical projects across various technologies and platforms
- Experience with scripting, using APIs and automating mundane, error-prone repetitive tasks
- To be comfortable with a huge amount of ambiguity and spinning a lot of plates all at the same time
- Experience working with multiple teams and managing multiple stakeholders
- Experience supporting, managing and deploying applications to macOS, Windows, iOS and Android devices
- Understanding at the API level of Mobile Device Management systems and principles
- Experience with modern Identity & Access Management systems, including Okta, Microsoft Entra, JumpCloud, PingIdentity
- Experience administering and troubleshooting Single Sign-On (SSO) technologies such as OAuth, OIDC and SAML and Identity provisioning technologies such as SCIM
- Understanding at a protocol level of Single Sign-On (SSO) and identity provisioning technologies such as OAuth, OIDC, SAML and SCIM
- Ability to explain technical concepts to non-technical, senior stakeholders
- Experience mentoring less experienced team members
- A conscientious approach to everything you do and a passion for doing the right thing rather than the easy thing
- Strong opinions on best practice and you challenge traditional norms, advocating for more modern, novel approaches
- Experience with email gateway administration and email routing
- Understanding of email security protocols and standards e.g. SPF, DKIM, DMARC etc
- Experience using git and GitHub for code changes and CI/CD
- Experience with Munki and AutoPkg for macOS software deployment
- Experience with Chocolatey and PowerShell for Windows software deployment
- A foundational understanding of programming and software engineering
- Experience integrating different identity providers
- Don’t think you check off all of the above? We love hiring passionate people with a drive to learn so get in touch and let us know which areas you don’t currently have confidence and/or experience with, we’d love to hear from you!
Desirable
- Familiarity with frontend and backend engineering, including languages such as TypeScript and Python, and frameworks such as React, Remix and Django
- Familiarity with our security tooling - CrowdStrike EDR, Kolide, osquery, Zscaler
What the job involves
- We’re really excited to be building a small, thoughtful and effective TechOps team at Octopus
- We’re looking for a knowledgeable and experienced TechOps Architect to help shape how we support people across the business - someone who can lead with clarity, build with empathy, and bring a mix of technical depth and sound judgment
- There’s loads to get stuck into, from identity management and scripting to device management and scalable tooling, areas where most of our work sits and where we need thoughtful, sustainable solutions
- You’ll play an important role in shaping how we work: setting direction without overcomplicating things, supporting the team with care, and balancing technical curiosity with a down-to-earth mindset
- We’re after someone who can spot where things could be better, help others grow, and make improvements that stick. If you’re excited about solving meaningful problems and shaping how TechOps supports a growing, people-first business – we’d love to chat
- A more modern, more lean version of a traditional enterprise IT team
- We cover everything from what most people would call “1st line support” all the way up to high-level strategic planning, and everything in between
- We focus on advising rather than enforcing, and give people the autonomy to work with technology to solve their problems in the way that works best for them
- We’re an autonomous team who look after a wide range of technology across the business
- We empower teams to do the best work they can whilst keeping things running efficiently in the background
- We tackle big problems and the breadth of work is huge. Dealing with ambiguity is a key part of working in TechOps, and every day will be a new and exciting one, working on varying challenges across the company
- We have a cloud-first approach to everything we do. This allows us to scale quickly and focus on things where we can add the most value. No on-prem AD here!
- You will be responsible for high-level strategic and architectural technical decisions around the business
- We also strongly believe that no matter what role you have within TechOps, it’s still important to keep your ear to the ground and see, first hand, the problems our users are facing, and the impact that decisions you make have on everyone at Octopus
- This means you’ll spend some of your time helping out with day-to-day “1st, 2nd and 3rd line” support
- You’ll have a wide breadth of knowledge and experience across all areas of IT, but also an immensely deep understanding of many of those areas too
- You’ll likely be an acknowledged expert among your peers in Identity and Access Management, and have a passion for hacking and building
- You will have interest and/or experience in related areas like software engineering, security, platform architecture, UI/UX design etc
- Roles that you might currently be in: IAM Engineer, Tech Lead, Lead/Senior Support Engineer, Site Reliability Engineer, Systems Architect, Systems Designer, Senior Systems Engineer, Workplace Technology Architect, Solutions Architect
- Define what good looks like for a small and lean TechOps team
- Tackle some of the toughest technical issues as we scale to tens of thousands of people
- Make wide-scale strategic technical decisions across the whole Octopus Energy Group, globally
- Design, build and continually improve processes, automations and systems that will improve user experience, remove inefficiencies, allow us to scale quickly and keep our team small
- Mentor the wider TechOps team, providing support and guidance for any technical project they may be working on. (This role will not involve directly managing people)
- Support the rest of the team in providing delightful day-to-day technical support to all areas of the business, to ensure our incredible employees are able to do their job as efficiently as possible. Their problems are our problems
- Collaborate closely with our Security team to ensure we strike the right balance between security, productivity and user experience
- Managing supplier relationships and the procurement process for SaaS and hardware
- Lead and manage complex technical projects with multiple stakeholders from around the business
- Examples of some TechOps projects include…
- Rollout of, and migration to, a new identity provider mac OS and Windows MDM migration
- Rollout of a new device trust and posture compliance solution
- The replacement of insecure factors like SMS with phishing-resistant factors
- Office fit-outs, including tech like network infrastructure, AV and access control SaaS migrations for acquisitions, including Microsoft 365 to Google Workspace
Our take
According to Octopus, the energy industry in the UK is ruled by a handful of complacent companies peddling fossil fuels, pricing trickery, and poor customer service. Aiming to disrupt the status quo with sustainable energy, Octopus entered the market in 2016 and now supplies energy to millions of homes in a number of countries. Octopus has made a name for itself in energy circles largely because of its “Kraken” technology platform, which it claims is able to reroute energy from renewable sources around a network far more efficiently than competitors.
Octopus further differentiates itself through its aspiration to make everything as easy as possible for consumers, from the simplicity of their bills and the fact that customers are not locked into a contract, so they can leave at any time, to offering customer service over email and social media at times that suit customers. It aims to make the eco‐friendly choice the easy choice, so all of its tariffs use 100% green electricity, while being cheaper than competitors' non-green tariffs.
Its continually creating innovative new products too. For example, Octopus Tracker, where prices change daily to guarantee you get the market rate; Agile, where the price changes every half hour to enable you to benefit from cheap electricity when the sun shines, the wind blows, and the networks are under-utilised. One of the current challenges the company faces is that its products are more complex than its competitors, given that it uses 1000x more data than traditional energy companies. Because of this, it's exploring ways to explain to customers exactly how their products work.
Kirsty
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
Company
Funding (last 2 of 6 rounds)
Dec 2023
$800m
GROWTH EQUITY VC
Jul 2022
$225m
GROWTH EQUITY VC
Total funding: $2.6bn
Company benefits
- Equity Option Scheme
- Pension Scheme: We'll pay 5%. You can decide what you contribute, starting from 3%
- Money Coach: You may want to think about financial planning. The company has an arrangement with Octopus Money Coach . They offer the opportunity to talk with a professional coach
- Holidays: We're all grown ups, so we don't count your holidays here. We work hard and so we know you need to play hard as well (within reason of course)
- Flexible working: We're passionate about a genuine work-life balance here and we don't pay people to watch a clock. Need to catch that school nativity or work from home? That's cool
- Free Breakfast + other stuff: ice lollies if you're lucky)! Weekly on a Friday we all get together (this happens virtually too) for company updates and drinks - we call it Family Dinner
- Tech: We want to get the best out of our people and get that everyone is slightly different. Have a certain tech requirement? We’ll do our best to get it
- Car Salary Sacrifice: Browse the wide selection of electric vehicles and get a sample quote under our workplace salary sacrifice scheme. If approved, the monthly leasing costs are taken directly from your gross salary each month meaning you're saving on paying some tax
- Cycle to Work Scheme: The Cycle to Work Scheme is a cost effective way to “buy” a bike up to a value of £2.5K, which hopefully is enough for a decent commuting bike, even an electric one. This extends to the cost of accessories and safety equipment as well as the bike
- Season Ticket Loan: Commuting to the office on the regs? If you travel more than twice a week, it’s worthwhile getting an annual ticket. With our Season Ticket Loan, you can spread out the cost over 10 months. It’s quick and easy to sort. Once approved and ordered, your season ticket will be posted to you within 5 days or so
- Maternity leave: 16 weeks full pay + 8 weeks half pay + 15 weeks statutory maternity pay
- Paternity leave: 12 weeks full pay
- Private Medical Insurance: Say goodbye to long waiting lists! For anyone who wants some additional peace of mind when it comes to their health, we offer Private Healthcare Insurance at different levels of cover. The monthly costs are taken directly from your gross salary and spread across 12 months. You even save on National Insurance
- Gym & Yoga: You can get up to 25% discount on gym memberships and we have 45 minute live yoga classes open to all Octopus staff twice a week!
- Headspace: Need some calm in your life? We have 'Octopus Headspace Licences' available
- Eye Test: Free eye test vouchers for all colleagues who use Visual Display Units (VDU). Long spells of VDU work can often be visually demanding and can lead to tired eyes, discomfort, temporary short sightedness and headaches
Company HQ
Soho, London, UK
Articles
Leadership
Greg Jackson
(Co-Founder & CEO)Previously an Adviser at Ashcombe Advisers for 9 years and a Non-Executive Director at Zopa for 7 years.
James Eddison
(CTO)Previously CEO at Claripoint for 7 years and CTO at Tangent Labs also for 7 years.
Stuart Jackson
(Co-Founder & CFO)Previously a Director of "Foundation" Business Unit at Barclaycard for 2 years and Chief of Staff, Secured Lending SBU at Barclays also for 2 years.
People progressing
Joined as Marketing Assistant, being promoted to Marketing Executive after 6 months and again to Junior Product and Marketing Manager after 7 months. After 8 months they became a full Product and Marketing Manager.
Joined as Senior Talent Partner, being promoted to Talent Manager after 1 year and again to Head of Talent Acquisition after 8 months.
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion at Octopus Energy Group
- Unconscious Bias workshops for interviewers and hiring managers
- Octopus Energy Equality Foundation
- Partnership with the Saracens High School - inspiring future generations - https://www.saracens.com/powering-futures-together-saracens-high-school-octopus-energy/
- Octopus Energy Internships - https://octopus.energy/blog/ada-lovelace-tech-internship/
Share this job
View 43 more jobs at Octopus Energy Group