TechOps Team LeadOctopus Energy

London, U 06-09-2024
We are very excited to be building a small and efficient TechOps team at Octopus. We are looking for an ambitious, knowledgeable and experienced TechOps Team Lead with a passion for leading and managing great people, who are on a mission to tackle big challenges and drive innovation at Octopus Energy. 

You will be a key partner in defining what TechOps is at Octopus. We will be shaping this team to provide a world class support service to our employees, building our way out of problems with engineering firepower and undertaking transformational organisational change.

What is TechOps?

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 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!

About the role

As a TechOps Team Lead, you will be responsible for the day-to-day running of the Octopus TechOps team. 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.

As a Team Lead within the TechOps team, you will be responsible for balancing the team of Generalists’ everyday workload, managing schedules and helping to prioritise proactive, planned project work and reactive, support based work. The TechOps team is exposed to huge ambiguity on a day to day basis and we are looking for a superstar to lead the team and help make sense of the most impactful and important work we can focus on as a team. 

Roles that you might currently be in: IT Manager, Technical Operations Lead, Head of IT, Technical Services Lead, IT Operations Lead, Systems Operations Manager, Technology Operations Lead, IT Service Delivery Manager, Technical Services Manager, DevOps Manager, IT Services Manager, Technology Support Manager, Technical Lead, Technology Lead, Technical Operations Lead, IT Team Lead. 

What you'll do...

    • Define what good looks like for a small and lean TechOps team.
    • Liaise with TechOps leadership and architects to prioritise project work for the team.
    • Mentor the wider TechOps team, providing support and guidance for any technical project they may be working on.
    • Take on management of TechOps Generalists to help develop their careers, expose them to new technologies and be an advocate for their success at Octopus. 
    • 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.
    • Manage supplier relationships and the procurement process for SaaS and hardware.
    • Coordinate 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
    • macOS 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, AV, access control etc
    • SaaS migrations for acquisitions e.g. Microsoft 365 to Google Workspace

What you'll need...

    • A track record of leading successful IT or TechOps teams, through intense periods of growth.
    • Experience leading on a range of technical projects across various technologies and platforms.
    • A people-first attitude to team leadership and prioritisation. We are a team of humans, supporting thousands of other humans. 
    • Experience managing people, and enjoy nurturing and developing professional skills and careers.
    • To be comfortable with a huge amount of ambiguity and spinning a lot of plates all at the same time.
    • A very technical background, which underpins your approach to your every-day workload. You must live and breathe the technical challenges that the team you lead are facing. 
    • Ability to explain technical concepts to non-technical people.
    • A conscientious approach to everything you do and a passion for doing the right thing rather than the easy thing.
    • A strong mindset for diagnosing, communicating and dealing with incident response across our tooling stack. 

    • Should have:
    • You have strong opinions on best practice and you challenge traditional norms, advocating for more modern, novel approaches.
    • Experience mentoring less experienced team members.
    • Experience supporting, managing and deploying applications to macOS, Windows, iOS and Android devices.
    • Experience with Identity & Access Management systems like Okta or Microsoft Entra.
    • A strong desire to show presence in our office locations, including travelling to multiple offices to support the team and develop relationships with people around the business. 
    • Experience working with multiple teams and managing lots of stakeholders.

    • Nice to have:
    • A foundational understanding of programming and software engineering.
    • Familiarity with our security tooling - CrowdStrike EDR, Kolide, osquery, Zscaler.
    • A foundational understanding of programming and software engineering.
    • Experience with email gateway administration and email routing.

    • 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! 

    • This role can be either fully office-based in any of our major offices in Brighton, Manchester, Leicester, Coventry or London, or a hybrid of a few days a week working remotely and office based. If you’re looking for a completely remote role, that is possible too. 

      We're very excited to be growing our small team. We're looking for skills and experience to help shape and define the future of not only our team, but the wider business at a global scale. If you're reading this and grinning, please apply! There are huge challenges to tackle, and we need amazing people who are keen to get stuck in.

Why else you'll love it here

    • Wondering what the salary for this role is? Just ask us! On a call with one of our recruiters it's something we always cover as we genuinely want to match your experience with the correct salary. The reason why we don't advertise is because we honestly have a degree of flexibility and would never want salary to be a reason why someone doesn't apply to Octopus - what's more important to us is finding the right octofit!
    • Octopus Energy Group is a unique culture. An organisation where people learn, decide, and build quicker. Where people work with autonomy, alongside a wide range of amazing co-owners, on projects that break new ground. We want your hard work to be rewarded with perks you actually care about! We won best company to work for in 2022, on Glassdoor we were voted 50 best places to work in 2022 and our Group CEO, Greg has recorded a podcast about our culture and how we empower our people. We’ve also been placed in the top 10 companies for senior leadership and most recently The Sunday Times, Best Places To Work 2023
    • Visit our UK perks hub - Octopus Employee Benefits
If this sounds like you then we'd love to hear from you.

Are you ready for a career with us? We want to ensure you have all the tools and environment you need to unleash your potential. Need any specific accommodations? Whether you require specific accommodations or have a unique preference, let us know, and we'll do what we can to customise your interview process for comfort and maximum magic!

Studies have shown that some groups of people, like women, are less likely to apply to a role unless they meet 100% of the job requirements. Whoever you are, if you like one of our jobs, we encourage you to apply as you might just be the candidate we hire. Across Octopus, we're looking for genuinely decent people who are honest and empathetic. Our people are our strongest asset and the unique skills and perspectives people bring to the team are the driving force of our success. As an equal opportunity employer, we do not discriminate on the basis of any protected attribute. Our commitment is to provide equal opportunities, an inclusive work environment, and fairness for everyone.