Test Environment Manager (10105)

Senior Test Environment & Platform Manager - OpenShift / Kafka

Location: London - 8 days onsite per month, remainder remote
Contract: Inside IR35
Rate: Flexible

We are seeking an experienced Senior Test Environment & Platform Manager to support a major enterprise technology transformation, moving from a legacy monolithic landscape towards a modern microservices-based architecture using Java, Kafka and OpenShift.

This is a highly technical Test Environment Management position combining environment strategy and ownership with hands-on platform engineering capability.

The successful candidate will be responsible for supporting both the existing legacy landscape and the new microservices environment, while helping transform the organisation's approach from permanent, Waterfall-style environments towards automated, on-demand environments capable of supporting Agile delivery squads.

This is not a purely managerial or coordination-focused Test Environment role. Candidates MUST have demonstrable hands-on technical experience with OpenShift and Kafka.

• Own and drive the Test Environment Management strategy across a large-scale transformation programme.

• Define the approach for transitioning from permanent/shared Waterfall environments towards on-demand Agile environments.

• Work closely with architects, engineering teams, developers, QA and delivery squads to understand environment requirements.

• Ensure environments can effectively support both legacy applications and new microservices-based services.

• Define environment standards, processes, governance and operating models.

• Support the design, provisioning, configuration, maintenance and decommissioning of environments.

• Provide hands-on technical support across OpenShift, Kafka and Linux-based environments.

• Manage environment configurations, dependencies and integration points.

• Coordinate environment availability and scheduling across multiple projects and Agile squads.

• Support environment capacity planning, utilisation and costing.

• Maintain appropriate documentation covering environment configurations and dependencies.

• Continue supporting legacy infrastructure alongside the modern platform landscape.

• Provide hands-on technical support and troubleshooting for environment-related issues.

• Diagnose issues across OpenShift, Kafka, Linux and associated infrastructure.

• Work across Development, QA, Infrastructure, DevOps and Operations teams to resolve complex environment issues.

• Identify environment dependencies and potential blockers before they impact delivery.

• Drive greater automation across environment provisioning and management.

• Implement and maintain Infrastructure as Code (IaC) approaches using technologies such as Ansible.

• Integrate environments with CI/CD pipelines to support automated testing and continuous delivery.

• Support tooling including Jenkins, GitLab and Azure DevOps.

• Reduce manual environment provisioning and improve environment consistency and repeatability.

• Monitor environment availability, health, performance and utilisation.

• Develop appropriate metrics and dashboards for environment reporting.

• Work with monitoring and logging technologies such as Prometheus, Grafana and Splunk.

• Identify opportunities to improve environment reliability, automation, scalability and cost efficiency.

• Drive continuous improvement across Test Environment Management processes.

• 5+ years' experience within Test Environment Management in complex enterprise technology environments.

• Demonstrable experience defining and delivering Test Environment strategies.

• Hands-on OpenShift experience, including environment setup, configuration, support and troubleshooting.

• Hands-on Kafka experience, including supporting/configuring Kafka-based environments.

• Strong Linux infrastructure/engineering experience.

• Strong understanding of microservices and containerised architectures.

• Experience with Kubernetes and Docker.

• Experience with Infrastructure as Code and environment automation.

• Ansible or equivalent automation experience.

• Strong understanding of CI/CD pipelines and modern DevOps practices.

• Experience supporting complex transformation programmes involving both legacy and modern technology environments.

• Strong troubleshooting and problem-solving capability.

• Ability to work effectively across Development, QA, Infrastructure, Architecture and Operations teams.

Experience with some of the following would be advantageous:

• Azure / Azure DevOps

• Jenkins / GitLab

• Terraform or other IaC technologies

• HP NonStop infrastructure

• Java-based environments

• Prometheus / Grafana / Splunk

• UFT / Selenium / Cucumber

• Linux shell scripting

• Large-scale financial services or similarly complex regulated environments

*Rates depend on experience and client requirements