CNI Infrastructure Automation Engineer

About us

At National Grid, we keep people connected and society moving. But it’s so much more than that. National Grid supplies us with the environment to make it happen. As we generate momentum in the energy transition for all, we don’t plan on leaving any of our customers in the dark. So, join us as a CNI Infrastructure Automation Engineer, and find your superpower.

National Grid is hiring a CNI Infrastructure Automation Engineer for our CNI Operations team. This role is based at our Warwick office, with hybrid working (1 day per week on-site). You’ll play a key role in designing, developing and supporting secure, scalable infrastructure platforms that underpin critical operations across our enterprise.

About The Role

Step into a transformative role as a CNI Automation Engineer, becoming a key player within National Grid’s high‑impact CNI Support Team. This is your opportunity to shape the future of automation across some of our most critical IT environments—driving innovation, resilience, and operational excellence at scale.

In this role, you’ll be at the forefront of designing, building and maintaining automation solutions that eliminate manual effort, boost reliability, and accelerate the delivery of IT operations. You won’t just support change—you’ll lead it, modernising and enhancing how we work across our data centres, networks, and platform environments.

Your focus will be on automating the end‑to‑end lifecycle of our private cloud infrastructure—from provisioning and configuration to monitoring and day‑to‑day operational routines. You’ll help us unlock new levels of speed, efficiency and consistency across our estate.

We’re looking for someone with a passion for automation and strong expertise in scripting, modern infrastructure tooling, CI/CD pipelines, private cloud platforms and observability. If you thrive on solving complex problems, love working with cutting‑edge tech, and want to make a real impact on critical national infrastructure, this is the place to do it.

What You'll Do

As a CNI Automation Engineer, you’ll be a driving force behind transforming how National Grid delivers and operates mission‑critical technology. Your work will directly accelerate efficiency, resilience, and innovation across our private cloud and infrastructure landscape.
In this role, you will:

• Spot opportunities for impact by identifying repetitive, manual or error‑prone IT processes—and designing smart automation solutions to replace them.
• Build infrastructure the modern way, developing and maintaining Infrastructure as Code (IaC) using tools such as Terraform and Ansible.
• Create reusable, scalable automation assets, including scripts, modules, and frameworks that uplift the entire engineering community.
• Develop and optimise CI/CD pipelines using platforms like GitHub Actions and GitLab CI, enabling faster, safer delivery.
• Engineer powerful automation through robust scripting in Python, PowerShell or Bash.
• Strengthen resilience by implementing configuration drift detection and self‑healing mechanisms.
• Automate monitoring, alerting and incident response workflows—integrating with tools such as Prometheus, Grafana, PagerDuty and ServiceNow to speed up detection and recovery.
• Collaborate across functions, working closely with development, security, operations and platform teams to embed automation into everyday workflows.
• Set standards and share knowledge by documenting automation patterns, runbooks and best practices.
• Help others grow—mentoring junior engineers and championing automation culture across the organisation.
• Continuously improve our automation maturity and tool ecosystem, always pushing for simplification and innovation.
• Enhance incident response using automated diagnostics, enabling faster root cause analysis and resolution.
• Ensure every automation aligns with security, compliance and governance requirements, supporting the integrity of our critical national infrastructure.

About You

You’re an engineer who thrives in automation‑led environments and loves solving complex problems with smart, scalable solutions. Curious, collaborative and forward‑thinking, you bring a blend of technical depth and a passion for improving how infrastructure is delivered and operated.

Here’s what you’ll bring to the team:

• A solid understanding of core IT infrastructure—including compute, storage and networking—and how these components come together in modern environments.
• Strong proficiency in at least two key automation technologies such as Terraform, Ansible, Python or PowerShell.
• A clear grasp of CI/CD concepts, and the ability to translate them into maintainable automation code.
• Hands‑on experience with container technologies like Docker and orchestration platforms such as Kubernetes, EKS, AKS or GKE.
• Good working knowledge of Linux and/or Windows server administration, especially within automated or highly optimised environments.
• Confident use of Git version control, including branching strategies, pull requests and collaborative workflows.
• In‑depth knowledge of Infrastructure as Code (IaC) principles, lifecycle management and best practices.
• Familiarity with runbook automation and operational orchestration patterns.
• A strong understanding of DevOps and Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) principles—and how they drive resilient, high‑performing systems.
• Practical, hands‑on skills in scripting and automation languages, enabling you to build solutions that are reliable, repeatable and scalable.
• Excellent troubleshooting and root‑cause analysis skills across automated environments.
• Awareness of Agile or ITIL practices, and comfort working in fast‑paced, iterative environments.

If you’re passionate about automation, motivated by meaningful challenges, and excited to contribute to critical national infrastructure, you’ll thrive here.

What You'll Get

• Competitive Salary: circa £54,000 – £63,000 per annum (based on capability, and experience)
   

Additional benefits:

• A competitive contributory pension scheme where we will double match your contribution to a maximum company contribution of 12%
• You will receive a bonus based on personal and company performance
• Flexible benefits such as a cycle scheme, share incentive plan, technology schemes
• Access to apps such as digital GP service for round the clock access to GP video consultations and NHS repeat prescriptions, wellbeing app to support your health and fitness
• Access to Work + Family Space, providing support and resources for work and family life, including paid emergency childcare and eldercare
   
   

More information

• This role is offered on a full time basis.
• This role will require National Security Vetting (NSV) checks.  
• We are also offering hybrid /flexible working where travel to the office will be as per business need- 1 day per week on average. Base location for this role will be NG House, Warwick.
• This role closes on 23rd March however we strongly encourage candidates to submit their application as early as possible. 
   

**Please note that in most cases, National Grid is unable to offer sponsorship for employment under the UK points-based immigration system. As such, applicants must have the legal right to work in the UK without requiring sponsorship now or in the future under the UK points-based immigration system. However, in exceptional circumstances where there is a clear and demonstrable need for specialist skills that cannot be sourced from the local labour market, National Grid may consider offering sponsorship. All applications are welcome from candidates who meet these requirements, regardless of race, nationality, or ethnic origin.**

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Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

National Grid is an equal opportunity employer that values a broad diversity of talent, knowledge, experience and expertise.  We foster a culture of inclusion that drives employee engagement to deliver superior performance to the communities we serve.  National Grid is proud to be an affirmative action employer. We encourage minorities, women, individuals with disabilities and protected veterans to join the National Grid team.