Operations Support Associate

About Us

Here at the FT, gold-standard journalism is just the beginning. 500-people strong, our Product & Technology team keeps us ahead of the ever-changing digital landscape by delivering cutting-edge products to over one million digital subscribers every day. Our plans for growth rely on a diverse, dedicated and dynamic group of product, tech, delivery and data specialists - everyone’s welcome in this friendly, forward-thinking team. And with entrepreneurial spirit, intelligence and opportunity at every turn, there’s no limits to where your FT career will take you.

 

Our commitment to diversity and inclusion in the workplace

At the FT, we give all employees a voice so that diverse perspectives are heard and valued. We believe that a supportive workplace is one where employees feel they can be themselves at work. We'll continue to remove barriers for all, and in particular barriers facing employees from underrepresented groups.

 

The Team

The Operations Support Team is responsible for ensuring that the services that support FT as a business are operational and available to our customers. We carry out proactive monitoring, first line support and incident response to a diverse range of products, systems and services globally.

 

The team is based in London & Manila and operates 24x7. Our primary focus is providing support for the FT's technical systems when things go wrong. We frequently work on projects to develop new tools and improve processes in this area, but we're not an engineering team focused on product delivery - we are part of the wider Engineering Enablement group at the FT, whose goal is to standardise and simplify how engineering teams build new technology systems, and advise teams on best practice.

 

The Role / Position Overview

Ideal for junior professionals seeking experience in supporting FT’s digital estate. We’re committed to equality and diversity in the tech industry, and want to encourage applications from underrepresented backgrounds. We support and encourage flexible working to be as inclusive as we can.

 

This is a shift based role working on a predefined shift pattern. As a result, once capable, the post holder will be required to work on bank holidays and weekends on a shared basis. When not on shift, the post holder will get the opportunity to work on service improvements, projects and other initiatives.

 

We are looking for a junior engineer to be part of Operations Support team that provides a great service to the FT as a whole:

• Providing first line support and supervising the FT’s technology estate; Also carrying out technical and non-technical requests e.g. crafting and providing ad hoc reports.
• Carry out our incident management and support processes; Includes dealing with and liaising with 3rd parties.
• Continuously evolve the operations of our 24x7 first line support team; also involved in service improvements and giving to working towards our goals.
• Pairing up with other team members to boost technical skills and capabilities - the ability to guide and train others would be advantageous.
• Promoting the team across the business, by running workshops and learning sessions.
• Strong great teammate, keen to learn, adaptable, and ready to accept change within a team.

 

What you will work on

Working alongside the team, you will:

• Monitor the FT systems and services and respond to issues.
• Manage incidents and provide input in operational issues.
• Support our tools and processes; Use your experience to help to drive service improvements e.g. improve and or develop our monitoring/observability.
• Work with other team members to learn new skills and capabilities.

 

Tech we work with

The FT is cloud only and the majority of the technical systems we support are built using a mixture of:

• Amazon Web Services like ECS, PostgreSQL, Docker, Kubernetes
• Google Cloud Platform
• Jira, GitHub, CircleCI
• Terraform
• JavaScript, Golang, Python, Django, and others

 

We monitor our systems using

• CloudWatch
• Grafana
• Prometheus
• Solarwinds
• Pingdom
• Splunk
• ...and a number of in-house aggregation and dashboard tools

We don’t expect you to have worked with all of these, but having experience in similar technologies would be advantageous. We would ideally want someone with experience of AWS and some previous exposure to programming.

 

Skills we are looking for

• Excellent organisational skill able to manage competing priorities; And communication skills with a strong customer focus.
• Able to understand technical issues; A strong analytical and problem solving capabilities.
• Assuming responsibility for ensuring systems are available and operating well; Understanding of the principles of operational support and incident management.
• A quick learner with a strong passion for technology and cloud computing.
• Understanding of networking concepts and web technologies would be an advantage.
• Experience with DevOps practices and CI/CD tools like CircleCI, GitHub Actions, Terraform; And working in an Agile environment would be an advantage.

 

What’s in it for you? Our Benefits:

 

Our benefits vary depending on location, but we are committed to providing best in class perks across all our offices as well as an inclusive environment to develop your career. Examples of our benefits include; generous annual leave allowances, flexible working (including working from home), health coverage (medical, dental & vision insurance), 401k and company match, enhanced family leave packages, and Giving Back opportunities. Full details of our benefits can be found here. 

 

Further Information:

 

The FT is committed to providing an inclusive working environment for all. We are an equal opportunities employer who seeks to recruit and appoint the best talent regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, socio-economic background, religion and/or belief. We also promote flexible working and will consider specific requests around flexibility for all roles where it can be accommodated. Please let us know if you require any adjustments as part of the application process or to enable you to attend an interview. If you would like to discuss your requirements, or have any questions, please contact a member of our HR team who will be happy to help.