DevOps Engineer

Senior DevOps Engineer

Location: Kiel, Germany Engagement: 24 months, with planned conversion to permanent employment Compensation: up to €95,000 per annum Working model: 40 hours per week, up to 60% remote Start: As soon as possible

The Opportunity

We are partnering with an established German technology company operating in the maritime IT and secure platforms sector to hire a Senior DevOps Engineer into a four-person engineering squad based in Kiel.

This is not a standard contract role. The hiring company has confirmed the explicit intention to take the successful candidate on as a permanent employee at the end of the 24-month engagement. For senior DevOps engineers seeking long-term career development in northern Germany, this offers a structured, low-risk path: the chance to evaluate the team, the work and the location across two years before committing to a permanent move.

About the Role

You will join a tight four-engineer DevOps squad responsible for the IT platforms underpinning a maritime application portfolio.

Responsibilities

• Plan, implement, operate and maintain virtualisation and container solutions across Linux and Windows for development and test environments
• Design, build and continuously optimise CI/CD pipelines in GitLab to automate software builds and deployments
• Build containerised customer and development platforms, including reusable templates and components written to internal best practice
• Embed DevOps practices alongside the development teams, integrating engineering with delivery across the software development lifecycle
• Implement and continuously evaluate DevOps strategy as part of the squad

Required Experience

• 5+ years of professional DevOps experience, with a substantive, hands-on track record
• Completed degree in Computer Science or a STEM field with clear IT affinity
• Multi-year practical experience with containers — Docker and Podman — across both Linux and Windows
• Multi-year experience with Git and GitLab CI/CD
• Demonstrable experience working in agile environments
• Very good German language skills — ideally near-native; this is a significant differentiator
• Willingness to relocate to Kiel for the engagement and for the planned permanent role thereafter

Eligibility (Non-Negotiable)

The role requires a German security clearance (Sicherheitsüberprüfung). To be eligible, applicants must have lived AND worked in Germany for a minimum of five consecutive years. A strict nationality list applies. Both requirements must be confirmed before submission; neither can be flexed.

What Is Offered

• Permanent employment intent at the conclusion of the 24-month engagement
• A senior position within a small, focused engineering team building substantive technical platforms
• Up to 60% home office, with relocation support available for the move to Kiel
• Compensation of up to €95,000 per annum