Dev Ops Engineer

Who are we?

Smarkets: Predicting the Future of Betting

Smarkets runs one of the world’s most sophisticated prediction markets, handling over £29 billion in volume since 2010 and engaging 200,000+ traders globally. We’re a technology company that happens to revolutionise betting - from sports to political markets, to delivering the sharpest prices and the fairest odds.

Our stack is designed for scale, reliability, and speed: Linux, Kafka, Postgres, Kubernetes, with Python 3, C++17, and React powering our platform. We build infrastructure that institutions trust while keeping trading accessible to everyone. Our edge? We’ve thrived through every market cycle, competitor, and industry revolution.

At the heart of our success are our people. We create a high-performance environment where exceptional talent can thrive, blending deep business experience with a commercial mindset to drive strategic growth.

If you’re ready to help shape the future of prediction markets with cutting-edge technology and a customer-first philosophy, Smarkets is where you belong.

About the Role

You’ll join the DevOps Infrastructure Team, responsible for real-time distributed systems that power our trading engine-systems that are always-on, ultra-low latency, and demand resilience at scale.

You won’t just be building infrastructure-you’ll be crafting platform capabilities to streamline how engineers build, test, deploy, and run applications across our hybrid estate of self-hosted, co-located hardware and AWS cloud.

This is a role where infrastructure meets engineering productivity: part DevOps, part Platform, 100% mission-critical.

What You’ll Do

• Platform Enablement: Design and maintain internal tooling and workflows that improve the developer experience across deployment pipelines, observability and testing environments.

• Empower Developers (DevEx): Automate workflows, streamline CI/CD pipelines (Jenkins, GitLab), and ensure fast, safe, and reliable deployments across environments.

• Infrastructure Automation: Build, manage, and scale Kubernetes-based microservices infrastructure on AWS using Terraform and Infrastructure-as-Code best practices.

• Developer Experience: Collaborate closely with product engineers to provide reliable, low-friction paths for development, testing, and deployment.

• Operational Excellence: Monitor, debug, and ensure the stability of our systems with robust alerting and logging using Prometheus, Grafana, and ELK.

• System Reliability: Optimize performance and availability for high-throughput, low-latency services that power the betting exchange.

• Collaborative Delivery: Participate in on-call rotations, incident reviews, and cross-functional projects with engineering and SRE teams.

• Security & Compliance: Contribute to secure system design and operational practices that support industry-standard compliance (SOC 2, ISO 27001, etc).

  What You Bring

• 2–4 years of experience in DevOps, SRE, or platform engineering roles.

• Strong Linux systems administration background.

• Proficiency in Python and Bash scripting.

• Hands-on experience with Kubernetes, Terraform, and AWS (or other public clouds).

• Familiarity with PostgreSQL, Redis, Kafka, and production-scale deployment.

• Experience with CI/CD tools (e.g., Jenkins, GitLab CI) and a passion for improving the build/deploy process.

• A pragmatic mindset that balances ideal solutions with immediate business needs.

• Curiosity and initiative to explore new technologies and bring fresh thinking into the team.

Bonus Points For

• Exposure to Nix-based Build environments.

• Understanding of self-hosted or hybrid infrastructure models.

• Experience with ArgoCD, Backstage or internal developer portals.

• Knowledge of Rust or C++ environments.

• Interest in performance engineering and low-latency systems.

Our Stack

• Languages: Python, Bash, Rust, NodeJS

• Datastores: PostgreSQL, Redis, Kafka

• Infrastructure: AWS, Kubernetes, Terraform, Nix, Jenkins, GitLab CI

• Monitoring & Observability: Prometheus, Grafana, ELK, Sentry

Our Values

Our values are at the heart of everything we do - guiding how we work, collaborate, and innovate. They reflect what we expect of ourselves and each other to deliver the best results, while fostering a positive, high-performing environment:

• Push to Win: We set ambitious goals and relentlessly pursue them, always striving for excellence.

• Make Others Better: We lift each other up, share knowledge, and celebrate team success over individual achievement.

• Give a Shit: We care deeply about our work, our users, and the impact we make.

• Be a Pro: We take ownership, act with integrity, and consistently deliver to a high standard.

• Bring the Energy: We bring positivity, curiosity, and enthusiasm to everything we do, inspiring those around us.

Culture Fit: These values define how we succeed as a team. If this isn’t you, this may not be the right place. We hire people who thrive in a fast-paced, collaborative, and ambitious environment.

Perks & Benefits
We offer a competitive salary and benefits package, alongside a dynamic, collaborative environment where your work truly makes an impact and your voice is heard. Our team is diverse, driven, and ambitious - united by a strong work ethic and a hunger to innovate and win.

Our benefits are designed around Health, Wealth,and Development, supporting you both professionally and personally.

These include:

• Stock Options: Vest over 4 years, your success is our success.

• Pension Scheme: Competitive plan via Aviva, with up to 6% matched contributions if you opt in.

• Health Insurance: Comprehensive coverage to keep you and your family healthy.

• Enhanced Parental Leave: Enhanced maternity and paternity leave to support you through life’s most important moments.

• Stay Fuelled: Enjoy fresh, chef-made breakfast and lunch every day, plus a constant supply of fruit, snacks, tea, coffee and soft drinks, because great work starts with great food.

• Cycle-to-Work Scheme: Support for sustainable commuting and staying active.

• Learning & Development: £1,000 annual education budget for courses, conferences, books, or training.

• Holiday: 25 days paid leave + bank holidays, with the option to carry over 5 days.

• Flexible Working: Hybrid model with 3 days in the office and 2 days from home to fit your lifestyle.

• Global Working: Work from anywhere in the world for up to 20 days a year.

• Team Energy: Regular socials, hackathons, and events — because collaboration and fun go hand-in-hand.

What happens next​

We aim to have a simple and speedy hiring process and we want to make sure that we are right for you as much as the other way around.

• CV application review - We will review it as quickly as possible

• HackerRank Exercise - At home test to show off your skills

• Let’s chat - Quick chat with our team about your experience and the role

• Technical Interview - Live Technical Interview + Experience and Mindset Chat

• In Office Interview - Lunch with other colleagues in the team + LT Chat

Diversity & Inclusion

We’re an equal opportunities employer and celebrate diversity in all its forms. If you need any adjustments during the recruitment process, please let us know — we’re happy to accommodate your needs.