IT Specialist - Application Upgrades & Automation Engineer

Location: Hybrid (50% onsite)
Contract Length: 6 Months
Rate: Up to £400-£450 per day Umbrella (depending on experience)
Security Clearance: SC Clearance

Overview

We are seeking an experienced IT Specialist to support a major programme of application upgrades, migrations, and future platform modernisation initiatives within a large and complex enterprise environment.
This role will focus on delivering application and infrastructure upgrade activities across both Windows and Linux platforms, while driving automation and engineering best practices. The successful candidate will play a key role in ensuring applications remain secure, vendor-supported, and aligned with operational standards.
Working closely with application, infrastructure, and engineering teams, you will be responsible for planning and executing upgrades, troubleshooting issues, implementing automation solutions, and contributing to the organisation's wider technology objectives.
Strong communication skills are essential, as the role requires regular collaboration with technical and non-technical stakeholders.

Key Responsibilities

• Plan, coordinate and deliver application upgrades, migrations, and platform refresh activities.
• Ensure applications remain compliant with vendor support lifecycles and security requirements.
• Administer and support enterprise applications across Windows and Linux environments.
• Troubleshoot application, middleware, database, and infrastructure-related issues.
• Perform root cause analysis and implement long-term solutions to recurring problems.
• Develop and maintain operational documentation, procedures, and support runbooks.
• Identify opportunities to automate manual operational processes and improve efficiency.
• Build and maintain automation solutions using PowerShell, Bash, Python, Ansible, or similar technologies.
• Design, develop, and support CI/CD deployment pipelines.
• Promote Infrastructure as Code (IaC) and DevOps best practices across the technology estate.
• Support application release management and deployment activities.
• Collaborate with engineering, infrastructure, and operational teams to ensure successful delivery of upgrades and enhancements.
• Provide documentation, knowledge transfer, and technical guidance where required.

Essential Skills & Experience

• Strong experience administering enterprise applications across both Windows and Linux environments.
• Proven experience delivering application and platform upgrades within production environments.
• Hands-on experience with scripting and automation using PowerShell, Bash, Python, or similar technologies.
• Experience with configuration management tools such as Ansible.
• Strong understanding of application servers, middleware technologies, and databases.
• Excellent troubleshooting, diagnostic, and root cause analysis skills.
• Experience working within large-scale enterprise organisations.
• Ability to manage multiple priorities and work effectively within structured change and release processes.
• Strong stakeholder management and communication skills.

Desirable Skills & Experience

• Experience integrating Artifactory, Xray, and SonarQube into CI/CD pipelines.
• Knowledge of application release management, dependency management, and repository governance.
• Experience designing, implementing, and maintaining GitHub Actions CI/CD pipelines.
• Experience with monitoring, logging, and observability tooling.
• Exposure to Infrastructure as Code and modern DevOps delivery practices.
• Previous experience working within highly regulated environments.
• Active SC Clearance or eligibility to obtain clearance.

What's on Offer

• Opportunity to work on a large-scale application modernisation and upgrade programme.
• Exposure to complex enterprise environments spanning Windows and Linux technologies.
• Work with modern automation, DevOps, and CI/CD tooling.
• Competitive day rate of up to £450 per day Umbrella.
• Initial 6-month contract with potential for extension.
• Hybrid working model with 50% onsite presence required.