Senior Systems Engineer

hackajob is collaborating with Next Ltd to connect them with exceptional professionals for this role.

Senior Systems Engineer
Based at Next Head Office, Leicestershire
Salary: From £48,618

We're looking for a Senior Systems Engineer to join our Ecommerce Support Team based from the NEXT Head Office in Leicestershire!

The Role:

As a Senior Systems Engineer at NEXT, you'll occupy the apex of technical expertise within our operational team, acting as the primary driver in evolving how we work from reactive incident management to a proactive engineering and observability practice.

In this pivotal role, you will safeguard our retail e-commerce estate of over 140 websites and diverse customer applications, ensuring our digital storefronts run seamlessly for millions of customers. You will work hand in hand with Product Development, Cloud Engineering, and Central Infrastructure teams, using data-driven insights and advanced automation to influence architecture and eliminate operational toil.

From day one, NEXT will support your journey with the tools and collaborative environment you need to lead our reliability standards and shape the future of our digital platform.

What You'll Take On:

• Drive Observability & Reliability: Define and monitor Service Level Objectives (SLOs) and Error Budgets for critical customer journeys like Checkout and Search, using Dynatrace (DQL) and Grafana to build high-fidelity dashboards and real-time health alerts.
• Optimise Platform Performance: Pinpoint and resolve latency spikes across microservice architectures using distributed tracing, while conducting deep-dive profiling on application runtimes to maximise overall system throughput.
• Eradicate Toil Through Automation: Develop high-quality automation scripts in Python or PowerShell to eliminate repetitive manual tasks and build self-healing workflows that trigger programmatic remediations.
• Lead Technical Incident Response: Take the technical lead on major incidents, orchestrating cross-team diagnostics, and championing blameless Post-Incident Reviews to drive structural, long-term resolutions.
• Shape Strategy and Influence: Review proposed production changes, partner with development teams to embed robust telemetry during early feature design phases, and collaborate with InfoSec to mitigate edge-layer threats.
• Performance Testing Methodologies: Apply a solid understanding of performance testing strategies—including load, stress, and endurance testing—to monitor system resilience under varying traffic patterns, ensuring all releases align with defined performance benchmarks and reliability standards.
• Mentor and Upskill: Act as a trusted Subject Matter Expert, providing deliberate mentorship to support engineers and analysts in shifting the team's baseline skillset toward code-based automation.

What You'll Bring:

• Advanced Technical Skills: Expert-level mastery of observability tools (such as Dynatrace or Grafana) and strong programming capabilities in Python, PowerShell, or equivalent languages to build internal tools and interface with REST APIs.
• High-Traffic Expertise: Proven experience supporting high-volume commercial web applications with a deep understanding of DNS, SSL, and CDN caching strategies.
• Database & Architecture Knowledge: High-level SQL expertise to investigate data performance, alongside a solid understanding of cloud services, microservices, and containerised concepts (Docker/Kubernetes).
• Incident Mastery: Strong familiarity with Incident and Problem Management frameworks, particularly within enterprise tools like ServiceNow.
• Collaborative Influence: The ability to work with a high degree of independence, communicating clearly and diplomatically to influence external engineering teams and represent the team on high-level stakeholder calls.
• An Organised, Growth Mindset: A proactive approach to managing your own workload during busy retail peaks, a passion for sharing knowledge through documentation, and a desire to foster a high-velocity, collaborative team environment.

We build on success and learn from every challenge. You will be part of a team that encourages you to own your work, take calculated risks, and help the business grow. We know everyone is at their best when they are being themselves, so you will find a supportive environment where your unique perspective is valued.

Ready to lead our technical evolution? We would love to hear from you!