Salesforce DevOps Lead

We are seeking a highly skilled and experienced Salesforce DevOps Lead to join our growing Digital Transformation team at Thames Water. As the UK’s largest water company, we are committed to fixing the problems of today and building resilience for tomorrow, using data and technology to drive innovation and deliver real impact. In this role, you will be responsible for defining and implementing Salesforce DevOps best practices, leading CI/CD pipeline development, and improving the stability, scalability, and security of the Salesforce platform.

This position requires deep expertise in Salesforce DevOps, CI/CD tools, environment management, and automation. You will collaborate with cross-functional teams to ensure seamless deployments, enhance developer workflows, and deliver a reliable Salesforce platform that supports the needs of our customers, communities, and the environment.

What you’ll do as a Salesforce DevOps Lead

DevOps Strategy & Implementation:

• Develop and implement DevOps strategies for the Salesforce platform.
• Define best practices for CI/CD, release management, and automated testing.
• Enhance deployment automation to support Salesforce solutions.

CI/CD Pipeline Management:

• Design, implement, and maintain CI/CD pipelines for Salesforce development.
• Ensure conflict-free and automated deployments with minimal downtime.
• Continuously monitor and improve pipeline efficiency.

Environment & Release Management:

• Manage Salesforce environments, ensuring consistency across development, testing, and production.
• Establish and enforce version control strategies.
• Oversee release schedules, ensuring incident-free deployments with minimal business impact.

Infrastructure & Security:

• Implement security best practices for Salesforce, including role-based access control and compliance monitoring.
• Work closely with security teams to mitigate risks and enforce governance policies.
• Optimise performance and scalability of Salesforce infrastructure.

Monitoring & Incident Management:

• Establish monitoring and logging solutions for proactive issue detection.
• Respond to production incidents, performing root cause analysis and implementing preventive measures.
• Collaborate with platform teams to resolve performance bottlenecks.

Automation & Continuous Improvement:

• Identify opportunities to automate manual processes within the Salesforce estate.
• Lead efforts to improve development workflows and manage code from various projects and product teams.

Key relationships and interactions:

• ERP & Integration Platform Lead.
• Salesforce Technical Lead.
• Salesforce Development Manager.
• Salesforce Platform Architect.
• Product/Project Team Managers and Members.
• Product Owners.
• Change and Release Management.
• SecOps.

What you should bring to the role:

Essential Experience:

• Experience in Salesforce development and DevOps.
• Hands-on experience with CI/CD tools such as Git, Jenkins, Azure DevOps, Bitbucket, or Copado.
• Expertise in Salesforce deployment strategies, including change sets, Salesforce DX, and metadata API.
• Strong understanding of version control and branching strategies.
• Experience with automation frameworks for testing and deployment.
• Experience working in agile and DevOps environments.

Essential Technical Skills & Qualifications:

• Strong experience with Salesforce DX, CLI, and automation tools.
• Experience with APEX, Visualforce, LWC, and JavaScript.
• Experience in Salesforce API integration (REST, SOAP, Platform Events).
• Demonstrable experience working within Agile and DevOps frameworks.
• Hands-on experience with infrastructure-as-code (IaC) and scripting languages such as Python or Shell.
• Experience with microservices architecture, integration/middleware, source control, CI/CD deployment, and security.
• Salesforce certifications such as Salesforce DevOps Specialist, Salesforce Administrator, or Salesforce Platform Developer.

Desirable Experience:

• Previous experience in the utility industry.
• Knowledge of Salesforce CPQ, Commerce Cloud, Service Cloud, and Field Service.
• Experience with test automation tools.
• Experience in VRA, OwnBackup.
• Experience with cloud-based infrastructure services, such as AWS or Azure.
• Previous involvement in digital transformation projects.

Desirable Technical Skills & Qualifications:

• Knowledge of Salesforce security best practices.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills – confident in presenting to senior stakeholders and explaining technical concepts to a senior business audience.

What’s in it for you?

• Competitive salary up to £75,000 per annum depending on experience.
• Annual Leave - 26 days holiday per year, increasing to 30 with the length of service. (plus bank holidays)
• Generous Pension Scheme through AON.
• Access to lots of benefits to help you take care of yourself and your family’s health and wellbeing, and your finances – from annual health MOTs and access to physiotherapy and counselling, to Cycle to Work schemes, shopping vouchers and life assurance.

Find out more about our benefits and perks

Who are we?

We’re the UK’s largest water and wastewater company, with more than 16 million customers relying on us every day to supply water for their taps and toilets. We want to build a better future for all, helping our customers, communities, people, and the planet to thrive. It’s a big job and we’ve got a long way to go, so we need help from passionate and skilled people, committed to making a difference and getting us to where we want to be in the years and decades to come.

Learn more about our purpose and values

Working at Thames Water

Thames Water is a unique, rewarding, and diverse place to work, where every day you can make a difference, yet no day is the same. As part of our family, you’ll enjoy fast-tracked career opportunities, flexible working arrangements and excellent benefits.
Whether you’re interested in a role in one of our call centres or science labs, we’re looking for people like you with real passion and a burning desire to make things better.

So, if you’re looking for a sustainable and successful career where you can make a daily difference to millions of people’s lives while helping to protect the world's water for future generations, we’ll be here to support you every step of the way. Together, we can build a better future for our customers, our region and our planet.

Real purpose, real support, real opportunities. Come and join the Thames Water family. Why choose us? Learn more.

Our overarching aim is to ensure that Thames Water is a great, diverse, and inclusive place to work. We welcome applications from everyone and offer extra support for those who need it throughout the recruitment process. We aim to remove any real or perceived barriers to success, so if you need assistance, we’re here to help and support.

When a crisis happens, we all rally around to support our customers. As part of Team Thames, you’ll have the opportunity to sign up to support our customers on the frontline as an ambassador. Full training will be given for what is undoubtedly an enriching experience. It’s also a great opportunity to learn more about our business and meet colleagues.

Disclaimer: due to the high volume of applications we receive, we may close the advert earlier than the advertised date, so we encourage you to apply as soon as possible to avoid disappointment.