DevOps Engineer (AWS/Kubernetes/Terraform) - EU Full Remote (Part-Time ~20h/week)

DevOps Engineer (AWS/Kubernetes/Terraform) - EU Full Remote (Part-Time ~20h/week) ABOUT THE OPPORTUNITY Join a fast-growing, venture-backed consumer AI company building a learning platform already used by more than 1.5 million students worldwide, with approximately 40,000–50,000 new students joining every week across markets including the UK, Ireland, Brazil, South Africa and Australia. The company operates with a small, highly autonomous international team and has recently raised approximately $4M in seed funding from experienced technology investors and operators. We are looking for an experienced DevOps Engineer to support the team on a part-time, temporary basis for approximately 3–5 months . The initial working model is expected to be around 20 hours per week , although there is some flexibility depending on project needs and the candidate's availability. The engagement may therefore involve slightly more or fewer hours during specific periods. This is a fully remote position within Europe , with preference for candidates based in Western or continental European time zones. PROJECT & CONTEXT You will work closely with the engineering team to strengthen, maintain and improve the infrastructure supporting a rapidly growing consumer AI platform. The role will have a strong focus on AWS infrastructure, CI/CD, containerisation, production reliability, observability and Infrastructure as Code . You will be expected to operate with a high level of autonomy, identify infrastructure risks and improvements proactively, and implement practical solutions without requiring heavily defined processes. The broader application stack includes Node.js, React.js, React Native, Next.js, Nest.js, Expo, Prisma, Tailwind CSS and AWS . Key responsibilities include: Maintain and improve production infrastructure running on AWS . Support AWS services including ECS/EKS, EC2, S3, RDS, IAM, CloudWatch and VPC . Build and maintain CI/CD pipelines using GitHub Actions, GitLab CI or equivalent tooling . Manage containerised workloads using Docker and Kubernetes or AWS ECS . Develop and maintain Infrastructure as Code using Terraform, AWS CDK or CloudFormation . Support production PostgreSQL and/or MySQL databases. Improve monitoring, logging, alerting and overall observability. Troubleshoot infrastructure, deployment and production reliability issues. Automate operational tasks using scripting. Collaborate with developers on deployment, infrastructure and release workflows. Identify opportunities to improve infrastructure reliability, scalability and cost efficiency. WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR (Required) 3+ years of professional DevOps, Platform Engineering, Cloud Engineering or SRE experience . Strong hands-on experience with AWS , including services such as ECS/EKS, EC2, S3, RDS, IAM, CloudWatch and VPC. Strong scripting skills using Bash . Professional experience with at least one of Python 3.x or TypeScript 5.x . Experience building and maintaining CI/CD pipelines , ideally with GitHub Actions, GitLab CI or similar platforms. Strong experience with Docker . Experience with Kubernetes and/or AWS ECS for production workloads. Experience with Infrastructure as Code using Terraform 1.x, AWS CDK or CloudFormation . Experience managing production databases such as PostgreSQL and/or MySQL . Experience with monitoring, logging and observability tooling such as AWS CloudWatch, Grafana, Prometheus, Datadog or Sentry . Experience with Git and collaborative software development workflows. Ability to work independently and take ownership of infrastructure-related tasks. Comfortable operating in a fast-moving startup environment with limited bureaucracy and high autonomy. English C1 or equivalent professional fluency is required , as English is the daily working language of the international team. Must be based in Europe and able to collaborate effectively within European working hours. Availability for approximately 20 hours per week , with some flexibility to increase or decrease hours depending on project requirements. Comfortable with a temporary engagement expected to last approximately 3–5 months . NICE TO HAVE (Preferred) Previous experience in an early-stage startup or high-growth scale-up . Experience supporting high-traffic B2C / consumer-facing platforms . Experience with infrastructure for AI-enabled or EdTech products. Experience supporting React Native / mobile application release pipelines . Familiarity with Expo EAS and App Store / Google Play deployment workflows. Experience with AWS infrastructure cost optimisation . Previous experience improving cloud spend without compromising reliability or performance. Exposure to Node.js, Nest.js, Next.js, Prisma or Expo environments. Experience establishing or improving DevOps practices in a small engineering organisation. Strong startup mindset: autonomous, pragmatic, hands-on and comfortable identifying what needs to be done without waiting for detailed instructions.