Senior GCP Cloud Engineer

About The Company VIQU IT is a leading technology recruitment firm dedicated to connecting talented professionals with innovative organizations across various sectors. With a strong focus on delivering tailored staffing solutions, VIQU IT prides itself on its extensive industry knowledge, professional integrity, and commitment to client satisfaction. The company specializes in sourcing top-tier IT talent for roles spanning cloud computing, cybersecurity, software development, and more, ensuring that clients receive the best candidates to meet their strategic objectives. As a trusted partner in the technology landscape, VIQU IT continuously strives to foster long-term relationships and support the growth of both clients and candidates in a rapidly evolving digital world. About The Role We are seeking a highly skilled Senior GCP Cloud Engineer to join a dynamic, venture-backed UK scale-up specializing in AI platforms for highly regulated and security-sensitive sectors. This is a contract role requiring active SC clearance and offers the opportunity to work on a complex, innovative project involving the deployment of a new data platform on Google Cloud. The successful candidate will be responsible for designing, building, and maintaining secure, resilient infrastructure tailored for regulated, air-gapped environments. You will play a critical role in implementing and managing Kubernetes clusters, ensuring seamless replication between edge and central topologies, and embedding security controls to meet stringent accreditation standards. This position demands a deep understanding of cloud architecture, container orchestration, network security, and infrastructure automation, with a focus on delivering solutions that are both robust and compliant with industry regulations. Qualifications The ideal candidate will possess a strong background in Google Cloud Platform, with extensive experience in GKE and container orchestration. Proven expertise in Linux systems administration and a solid understanding of infrastructure as code tools such as Terraform or Ansible are essential. Candidates should demonstrate a successful track record of deploying and managing production cloud infrastructure, particularly within regulated or high-security environments. Experience with CI/CD pipelines using GitLab CI, GitHub Actions, or Jenkins is required, along with familiarity with observability tools like Prometheus, Grafana, and Loki. A comprehensive understanding of secure deployment practices, network security, secrets management, and identity services is crucial. Active SC clearance is strongly preferred, with eligibility for clearance considered for the right candidate. Additional skills in multi-cluster deployments, Kubernetes networking, and security tooling such as Cilium, eBPF, Vault, or Keycloak will be advantageous. Responsibilities The Senior GCP Cloud Engineer will be responsible for designing, implementing, and operating secure cloud infrastructure tailored for sensitive environments. Key responsibilities include building and maintaining Kubernetes clusters on GKE, managing the split topology of edge and central clusters with replication, and ensuring high availability and resilience. You will own the infrastructure as code, automate deployments, and oversee CI/CD pipelines to facilitate reliable and repeatable releases. Implementing comprehensive observability and monitoring solutions using Prometheus, Grafana, and Loki will be part of your daily tasks, along with setting up alerting and incident response processes. Hardening systems to meet accreditation standards will involve configuring network policies, secrets management, and identity controls. You will collaborate with cross-functional teams to ensure security, compliance, and operational excellence across distributed, air-gapped environments, supporting deployments into restricted and high-classification networks. Additionally, providing technical guidance, documentation, and continuous improvement initiatives will be integral to your role. Benefits This role offers a competitive daily rate ranging from £400 to £500, depending on experience and clearance status, with active SC clearance positioned at the top of the pay scale. The position is fully remote within the UK, providing flexibility and work-life balance, with occasional travel as required by the project. You will have the opportunity to work on cutting-edge technology within a highly autonomous environment, contributing to impactful projects in regulated sectors. The organization fosters a collaborative and innovative culture, encouraging professional development and continuous learning. Additional benefits include exposure to complex security and compliance challenges, working with a talented team of engineers and security specialists, and the chance to make a tangible difference in highly sensitive environments. Equal Opportunity VIQU IT is an equal opportunity employer committed to fostering an inclusive and diverse workplace. We value and respect individual differences and believe that diverse teams drive innovation and success. We do not discriminate based on race, gender, age, religion, sexual orientation, disability, or any other protected characteristic. All qualified candidates are encouraged to apply, and we are dedicated to providing equal employment opportunities throughout the recruitment process and beyond. Our goal is to create a welcoming environment where everyone has the opportunity to thrive and contribute to our collective success.