System Administrator

Up to £55,000 | Permanent | Farnborough (hybrid flexibility)
National Security & Defence | Security Clearances required prior to start

Are you a system admin with Windows and Linux experience and want to keep critical systems reliable, secure, and up to date across multiple environments. Here, you’ll own monitoring, patching, and hardening workflows that underpin a high-profile programme.

This is working for a growing defence consultancy with extensive growth secured for the next few years, with lots of projects in the Defence Industry.

Core Focus

• Proactively monitor and triage alerts (Elastic
• Maintain resilient network connectivity across the estate
• Run vulnerability assessments (Nessus) and action SOC outputs
• Implement firewall upgrades and configuration changes
• Manage WSUS for controlled Windows patch deployments
• Maintain Linux repositories and oversee patching cycles (pre-prod → prod)

Essentials

• Proven System Administration in secure/enterprise environments
• Hands-on with Linux and Windows Server
• Patching at scale (WSUS, Linux repos) and firewall management
• Understanding of network protocols and core cyber security principles
• Familiar with Elastic monitoring, Nessus, and SOC workflows

If you take pride in clean operational execution and secure-by-default systems, this is a solid fit.

There are good corporate benefits and lots of career growth and opportunities going forward.

Successful applicants will be required to be security cleared prior to appointment.

Contract Senior Platform Engineer 

Outside IR35 | Defence & Security | Hampshire 

Talent Locker is partnering with a specialist organisation operating at the forefront of national security initiatives, recruiting for a contract Senior Platform Engineer to join their team and step into this high-impact role to strengthen and modernise complex platform environments that support sensitive operational systems. 

This is a hands on role that would suit an engineer who is confident leading technical direction while delivering practical, scalable solutions across cloud and on-prem infrastructure. PLEASE NOTE - The nature of this project will require the work to be carried out onsite and successful candidates will be required to be security cleared (SC Level) prior to appointment.

The day to day assignment: 

• Develop and refine platform services across hybrid environments, ensuring security, stability and maintainability 
• Improve and standardise automated deployment processes, helping teams deliver faster and with greater consistency 
• Enhance observability tooling and contribute to a proactive operations 
• Work alongside reliability and operational teams to maintain uptime and performance across critical workloads 
• Support incident response, troubleshooting and longer term service improvements 
• Provide expert guidance on platform patterns, tooling choices and best practice engineering approaches 
• Share knowledge with wider engineering teams, supporting skill uplift and consistent delivery standards 
• Input into architectural decisions and technical governance 
• Explore emerging technologies and assess how they could strengthen platform resilience and capability 

The successful applicant will have a strong background in Platform Engineering or similar (DevOps, Infrastructure development roles etc) as well as hands on and demonstrable working experience with Kubernetes, IaC, CI/CD pipelines and major cloud platforms (AWS, Azure or GCP). 

The Platform Engineer will also be confident delivering within hybrid environments, navigating secure, regulated technical landscapes and air gapped environments. 

It would be highly advantageous for candidates to have worked in a similar environment (Defence, Security or similar) and have a sound understanding of security considerations, compliance expectations and operational tooling. 

Other key experience that the Platform Engineer will demonstrate should include: 

• Cloud or DevOps certifications 
• Experience with Terraform, Ansible or similar automation frameworks 
• Familiarity with structured governance or architectural review processes 
• Working knowledge of incident management and complex operational support models 

PLEASE NOTE - The nature of this project will require the work to be carried out onsite and successful candidates will be required to be security cleared (SC Level) prior to appointment.

To apply or to find our more information, please get in touch with Emma on emma@talentlocker.co.uk 

Contract VMWare VCF Engineer

Outside IR35 £525-£550 per day | Defence & Security | Hampshire 

Contract position at a defence consultancy operating at the forefront of national security initiatives for a VMWare VCF Engineer.

PLEASE NOTE - The nature of this project will require the work to be carried out onsite and successful candidates will be required to be security cleared (SC Level) prior to appointment.

Key responsibilities include working as an infrastructure and application engineer with strong VMware Cloud Foundation expertise to design, build, run and keep improving our private cloud platform in support of a data-centric security line of effort. You’ll turn business and application needs into scalable VCF reference architectures, covering management and workload domains, VI workload design, and choices between consolidated or standard deployments. The role also involves planning capacity and producing BOM and HCL-compliant designs across compute, storage and networking, including edge setups. You’ll maintain, improve and secure the client’s multi-classification virtualised collaboration and development environments, stand up and configure VCF with automated deployments, integrate and configure platform services where needed, and set up templates, standard operating procedures and baselines for application teams.

Essential skills and experience:
- Previous infrastructure or platform engineering work, ideally with some VCF exposure
- Solid understanding of data-centric security principles
- Strong fundamentals in networking, storage, operating systems, plus platform monitoring and logging.

Desirable experience includes working with MOD systems and processes, and familiarity with MOD assurance processes.

PLEASE NOTE - The nature of this project will require the work to be carried out onsite and successful candidates will be required to be security cleared (SC Level) prior to appointment.

Please apply or get in touch to find out more.

Contract Network Engineer

Outside IR35 £500 per day | Defence & Security | Hampshire 

Contract position at a defence consultancy operating at the forefront of national security initiatives for a Network Engineer

PLEASE NOTE - The nature of this project will require the work to be carried out onsite and successful candidates will be required to be security cleared (SC Level) prior to appointment.

You’ll be just as comfortable building and supporting production LANs as you are working with global WANs. You’ll be able to take an application’s specific requirements and turn them into the right firewall rules. You like getting hands-on with new technologies in a lab or POC, but you’re also happy in the CLI and know how to keep things running smoothly. You’ll work with modern technology in an environment that uses it in smart, innovative ways, and you’ll be ready to learn Secure by Design approaches within a National Security and Defence setting.

Essential skills include:
- Implementing and supporting WAN architecture
- routing protocols such as OSPF and BGP, VPNs and network security platforms like IKEv2 and next gen firewalls.
- You’ll also write clear configuration guides and deliver builds from both high level and low level designs.

Desirable experience includes data centre networking with spine leaf fabrics, EVPN, BGP and Geneve, working with high assurance IP encryptors, using automation and orchestration tools like Ansible or Terraform, exposure to whitebox networking such as Mellanox, Cumulus Linux or Nvidia, supporting and troubleshooting NSX, and CCNP or equivalent experience.

PLEASE NOTE - The nature of this project will require the work to be carried out onsite and successful candidates will be required to be security cleared (SC Level) prior to appointment.

Please apply or get in touch to find out more.

Contract Infrastructure Architect / Senior Infrastructure Engineer

Outside IR35 £500 per day | Defence & Security | Hampshire 

Contract position at a defence consultancy operating at the forefront of national security initiatives for an infrastructure architect/senior engineer

PLEASE NOTE - The nature of this project will require the work to be carried out onsite and successful candidates will be required to be security cleared (SC Level) prior to appointment.

You’ll lead the build of JEDI-X, guiding the technical team and supporting its use through the experimentation phase. You’ll look after multi-classification virtualised collaboration and development environments, keeping them secure and improving them over time. You’ll work with internal infrastructure teams to strengthen Secure by Design across business and projects, and support Office 365 plus project systems in public, private and hybrid clouds.

You’ll handle infrastructure changes, monitor alerts and tickets, patch platforms to policy, and respond to incidents quickly. You’ll spot trends, plan fixes to improve stability, stay current on secure cloud and network tech, share knowledge with the team, and support customer and project needs, including helping with bids.

Essential skills

Windows Server 2016+ admin, VMware vSphere/vCenter/VCF, Azure and Microsoft 365. Linux across CentOS/RedHat/Ubuntu. PowerShell. EUD provisioning via Autopilot with patching and hardening. Solid SSO knowledge. Comfortable in protectively marked environments.

Desirable skills

Kubernetes (e.g., VMware TKGI), DevSecOps tooling like Elastic and Nessus, application packaging, HashiCorp tools such as Terraform and Vault, and experience working in Agile sprints.

PLEASE NOTE - The nature of this project will require the work to be carried out onsite and successful candidates will be required to be security cleared (SC Level) prior to appointment.

Please apply or get in touch to find out more.

Security Engineer

Outside IR35 Contract | £450 - £500 per day

Hampshire | Onsite

Talent Locker are partnered with a Defence and National Security consultancy operating at the forefront of national security initiatives and are hiring for a Security Engineer.

Please Note – The nature of this project will require the work to be carried out onsite and successful candidates will be required to be security cleared (SC Level) prior to appointment.

Joining a collaborative, multi-disciplinary engineering team, you’ll operate within a high security environment supporting secure systems across the full lifecycle. The role offers a broad technical remit, combining both hands on engineering with operational security support.

You’ll be involved in strengthening the security posture of information systems through the deployment and configuration of security platforms including SIEM and vulnerability management tools. You’ll help shape the detection capability by creating meaningful alerts, dashboards and monitoring views while ensuring security configurations are clearly documented and maintained.

The security engineer will also be responsible for identifying and managing technical risk, supporting the implementation of secure system lockdowns, and working closely with security operations colleagues to support the investigation and escalation of high-priority incidents.

The key experience we are looking for includes:

• Hands on experience working with SIEM technologies and security monitoring
• Awareness of modern threat models (eg. MITRE ATT&CK)
• Understanding of CI/CD pipelines and security controls within DevOps environments
• Building and maintaining SOC detections and use cases
• Working knowledge and understanding of MOD security policies and frameworks
• Outstanding communication and able to effectively work collaboratively
• Previous exposure working in a secure environment (Government, Defence or similar)
• Experience using Elastic Security, Nessus or similar

Please note – This engagement is fully onsite and candidates must hold, or be eligible for, SC clearance prior to starting.

To apply or to find out more information, please send your CV to emma@talentlocker.co.uk

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Programme Manager
£85,000 – £95,000 + bonus + benefits – Home based

Want to work for a partner that is consistently growing, winning enterprise-scale projects, and delivering real value for customers – giving you ownership of complex Dynamics 365 programmes from day one?

This Microsoft Inner Circle partner has won multiple awards for delivery excellence and being a genuinely great place to work. You’ll be joining a business that values its people, trusts its leaders, and invests heavily in long-term relationships, both with clients and employees.

As a Programme Manager, you’ll be responsible for overseeing multiple large-scale D365 CE / CRM programmes, working closely with senior stakeholders, delivery teams, and customers. You’ll operate at a strategic level while still retaining visibility of delivery, ensuring programmes are well governed, commercially sound, and successfully executed using modern Agile delivery methods.

You may have worked somewhere before where development and progression were promised but never materialised. This partner is different. Career paths are real, transparent, and actively supported. You’ll benefit from regular senior-level check-ins, structured L&D, paid Microsoft certifications, lunch & learns, and dedicated time to invest in your own growth.

Why are you needed?
The business continues to win large, complex Dynamics 365 CRM / D365CE programmes and now requires an experienced D365CE Programme Manager to take ownership of multi-workstream deliveries. You’ll play a key role in shaping programme governance, aligning delivery with customer strategy, and ensuring successful outcomes across the full lifecycle.

Experience Required

1. Microsoft Dynamics Partner / Consulting background

2. Proven experience managing large-scale Dynamics 365 CRM / CE programmes

3. Strong Agile delivery and stakeholder management experience at a senior level

The role is home based, with the majority of work delivered remotely. Any occasional client-site travel will be fully expensed.

You’ll receive a strong corporate benefits package, including bonus, private medical, life insurance, generous holiday allowance, and more.

This role is UK-based, and no sponsorship is available.

Senior Navigation Control Engineer – (Future Leader Opportunity)

Circa £80k+, London based

An advanced SME developing real-world autonomous systems is looking to hire a Senior Navigation Control Engineer as a key early addition to its edge autonomy team. This is a high-ownership role where the successful candidate will take responsibility for the navigation control stack, help shape the technical roadmap, and play a key role in scaling the system for live fleet deployment as the company grows.

The role focuses on maintaining and evolving an existing navigation codebase, making it robust, secure, and production-ready for articulated vehicles operating in complex industrial environments such as seaports. Working closely with perception, localisation, and systems engineers, the engineer will ensure safe, efficient, and reliable autonomous navigation from planning through control.

What you’ll do
• Own the design, development, and optimisation of the navigation layer, including path planning, behaviour planning, motion/trajectory planning, and vehicle control.
• Collaborate closely with perception and localisation teams to enable safe, informed decision-making.
• Establish KPIs and testing frameworks for navigation performance in SIL and HIL environments.
• Ensure compliance with safety and performance standards such as SOTIF.
• Translate advances in navigation, motion planning, and control research into deployable production solutions.
• Contribute to engineering standards and best practices as the autonomy team scales.

Experience required
• MSc or PhD in Robotics, Computer Science, Electrical or Mechanical Engineering, or a related field.
• 4–5+ years’ experience working on autonomous vehicles or robotic systems.
• Strong expertise in path planning, behaviour planning, motion/trajectory planning, and control systems.
• Excellent C++ and Python skills with good knowledge of ROS2.
• Strong understanding of vehicle kinematics, dynamics, and control theory.
• Hands-on experience testing navigation algorithms on real robots or autonomous vehicles.

Why join
This role offers the opportunity to own a critical autonomy capability within a growing SME, influence technical direction, work on live industrial deployments, and step into a position with clear scope to expand responsibility and mentor others as the navigation function grows.

Microsoft Power Pages Developer | Outside IR35 | £450-475 per day | Fully Remote | 6 Months initial contract

A large new Microsoft Dynamics 365 CRM project at a Microsoft Gold Partner requires Power Pages Developers on an initial 6 month contract. If you are coming available and experienced with Microsoft dynamics 365 Power Pages development, please apply.

Key points:

• Greenfield long running project, 6-month extendable contract
• Outside IR35
• Fully remote (London office, unlikely to need to attend more than once per 6 months)
• You will need to pass BPSS level during onboarding and then be put through Security Clearance (5 years UK address history)
• 2-4 week notice period to start

Skills Required:

• Power Pages Development experience
• D365 CRM Development skills
• Excellent communication skills

If you are a skilled Power Pages Developer and want to work Outside IR35, Fully Remote (UK based and clearable to BPSS security level) please apply.

Senior Mapping Engineer (Large-Scale HD Mapping) — First Key Hire

Circa £80k+, London based

Want to work for an advanced start up building real-world autonomous systems? We’re looking for a highly skilled Senior Mapping Engineer to become the first dedicated mapping lead. This is a high-ownership role where you’ll take charge of the high-accuracy, large-scale mapping capability, set the technical roadmap, and grow and mentor a mapping team as deployments scale.

You’ll maintain and evolve an existing mapping codebase, enhancing accuracy, stability, and scalability across challenging industrial and autonomous environments. Working closely with perception, localization, and navigation, you’ll ensure themaps are drift-free, up-to-date, and deeply integrated into the autonomy stack—from raw sensor data to validated, deployed map products.

What you’ll do
• Own and advance scalable LiDAR- and vision-based mapping pipelines.
• Build and improve 2D/3D representations: occupancy grids, vector/HD maps, semantic layers, environment models.
• Lead multi-sensor fusion (LiDAR, cameras, radar, GNSS/INS, odometry) into coherent, consistent map outputs.
• Deliver large-scale capabilities like multi-session mapping, fleet workflows, map versioning, delta updates, and distributed map generation.
• Maintain tight integration with SLAM/Localization to ensure stable, drift-free deployment performance.
• Define KPIs and validation frameworks for map accuracy, completeness, and consistency.
• Translate state-of-the-art research (SLAM, semantic mapping, multi-modal reconstruction) into production systems.
• Set best practices and technical standards to support future team growth.

Experience required
• MSc/PhD in Robotics, Computer Vision, Computer Science, or related field.
• 4–5+ years hands-on mapping experience in autonomous systems or robotics.
• Deep expertise in LiDAR/point-cloud processing (PCL, Open3D, custom pipelines).
• Strong background in vision-based mapping / visual SLAM and multi-sensor fusion.
• Proficiency in C++ with strong experience in ROS2.
• Solid grounding in estimation, optimization, geometry, kinematics, and TF2.

Why join
You’ll own a mission-critical autonomy capability, shape the map product and technical direction, work on live deployments, and step into a clear path to build and lead your own mapping team.