Senior Site Reliability Engineer

About Kinetic

At Kinetic we’re redefining operational excellence in higher education, conferencing, and events. As the leading provider of software solutions for student accommodation, event management, catering, and residential services, we help institutions streamline operations, elevate customer experiences, and unlock their full potential.

With over 25 years of experience and trusted by more than 350 institutions worldwide, our software empowers universities and venues to run smarter, faster, and more collaboratively. From bustling campuses to dynamic corporate environments, our technology adapts to the rhythm of each organisation — helping them thrive in a fast-changing world.

But we’re more than just software. We’re a team of passionate problem-solvers, innovators, and collaborators who care deeply about our customers and each other. Our culture is built on empowerment, community, and continuous growth. We believe in giving people the tools, support, and freedom to do their best work — and have fun while doing it.

Joining Kinetic means being part of a purpose-driven business where your ideas matter, your development is supported, and your impact is real. If you’re ready to help shape the future of operational technology in education and events, we’d love to meet you.

The Role

As a Site Reliability Engineer at Kinetic, your primary focus will be on the reliability and uptime of our customer-facing platforms. You will be embedded within our unified CloudOps team - a team that brings together platform engineering, SRE, and DevOps functions under one roof. Your day-to-day will centre on building stability, responding to active incidents, implementing short-term fixes, and helping to defend the uptime of our customer systems. Over time, you will also feed into a broader platform, and DevOps work through cross-training and collaborative engineering.

This is a pivotal moment for our platform and operations. We are actively evolving how we work, and this role offers a real opportunity for someone who comes with experience but wants to keep growing - learning new skills, shaping improvements, and contributing to how we build and run things for the future.

What You’ll Bring

Experience

• Demonstrable experience in an SRE or similar operations role within a SaaS business

• Strong hands-on experience with at least one major cloud provider, with a preference for Microsoft Azure

Technical Skills

• Infrastructure as Code (IaC) - for example, Terraform, Bicep, or ARM templates

• Container orchestration - for example, Kubernetes or Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS)

• Monitoring and observability tooling - for example, Prometheus, Grafana, Datadog, or Azure Monitor

• CI/CD pipelines and version control - for example, GitHub Actions, Azure DevOps

• AI tooling - proficient in leveraging AI tools to improve operational efficiency, accelerate troubleshooting, automate repetitive tasks, and augment day-to-day engineering workflows

• Windows Server administration - including Active Directory, DNS, Group Policy, and core Windows Server infrastructure fundamentals

• Advanced Networking - including TCP/IP, DNS, VPNs, firewalls, load balancers, and general network troubleshooting in cloud and hybrid environments

• Linux systems administration and networking fundamentals

• Documentation - proficient in producing clear technical documentation, including runbooks, incident reports, architecture diagrams, and process guides

• Atlassian suite - hands-on experience with Jira and Confluence for issue tracking, sprint management, and knowledge base management

Soft Skills

• Ability to work effectively in a fast-paced, incident-driven environment

• Clear communicator - able to engage both technical teams and customer-facing colleagues

• Customer-first mindset, with a focus on delivering reliable, high-quality service

• Growth mindset - curious, willing to learn, and eager to improve

Nice to Have

• Microsoft Azure certifications (e.g. AZ-900, AZ-104, AZ-400)

• DevOps Institute SRE Foundation or Practitioner certification

• Scripting or programming skills in Python, Go, or PowerShell for automation and tooling

• Experience with chaos engineering, game days, or blameless post-mortem practices

• Experience with performance profiling, load testing, or capacity modelling

What to Expect

Months 1 to 3 - Learn, Embed, Contribute

• Get to know our products and existing technology stack

• Embed into our on-call rotation and monitoring operations

• Understand our improvement initiatives around 24/7 incident response

• Get to know the team, understand why we do what we do, and begin to shape the future

Months 3 to 12 - Drive and Shape

• Take ownership of incident resolutions with increasing independence

• Actively drive down key reliability metrics (MTTR, incident frequency, on-call toil)

• Begin contributing to improvement initiatives and shaping how we respond and recover

• Identify areas for automation and help implement changes that raise the bar for reliability

Benefits & Perks

At Kinetic, we believe work should come with rewards that make a real difference. Here’s just a taste of what you can expect when you join us:

• 25 days holiday (plus bank holidays) - with extra days the longer you’re with us

• Two paid wellbeing days each year, with a budget to enjoy some time out with someone important to you

• Enhanced pension contributions to support your future

• Two paid days a year to give back through volunteering, charity work, or sustainability projects with our Green Team

• Salary sacrifice schemes for electric vehicles and cycle-to-work

• 24/7 access to our Employee Assistance Programme for confidential advice and support

• A full annual health check to keep you at your best

• A flexible benefits platform - from life assurance and learning opportunities to retail discounts and cinema tickets

• A genuine people-first culture where your growth and wellbeing come first

• Performance-related bonus scheme to reward your contribution

• Regular socials - from team get-togethers to all-company celebrations, with each department owning a budget for their events

• The opportunity to attend group conferences, away days and learning forums both in the UK and abroad - network with other talent

We’ve created a welcoming office environment, with well-stocked kitchens offering free breakfast, fresh fruit, hot and cold drinks, and a range of tuck shop goodies to keep you fuelled throughout the day.

Kinetic is an equal opportunity employer, fostering diversity and committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees.