Elasticsearch

Janes equips defence, government, and industry leaders with objective, accurate, and shareable data and analysis. Our experts combine advanced technology with proven tradecraft to deliver validated and contextual intelligence to assess threats, accelerate decisions, and anticipate change with confidence. We deliver our intelligence with the flexibility to fuse it with multiple sources in any system, enrich AI solutions, or access it through our portal.    Job purpose:  The Solutions Engineer is a critical member of the Product team, responsible for enabling the integration and optimization of Janes interconnected intelligence capabilities across the customer base. Working within the Product Solutions team, you will support the deployment, configuration, and enhancement of Janes data across a variety of systems, platforms, and mission-critical capabilities. This role focuses on enabling Janes data within individual systems, facilitating interoperability with third-party and customer datasets, and aligning with Customer’s AI, intelligence and data requirements. You will help define and document data standards, technical specifications, and integration pathways to improve customer outcomes and drive innovation. You will contribute to high-impact customer and partner projects across Europe and NATO, helping shape the future of Janes technical estate - including our graph knowledgebase, intelligence products, and supporting infrastructure. Your work will have a direct impact on national security and defence capability.   How you will contribute at Janes:  * System Integration: Support the integration of Janes data and models into customer systems of record, ensuring seamless functionality and operational relevance. * Product Delivery: Assist in the development and delivery of Janes Interconnected Intelligence products, capturing and aligning where possible with standards and technical expectations. * Customer Advisory: Provide remote and on-site technical advisory services to customers, offering guidance on data attributes, integration strategies, and system optimization. * Ontology & Model Development: Advise on the evolution of Janes data models and ontologies to ensure compatibility and seamless integration with customer ecosystems. * Gap Analysis: Identify and prioritize unmet data requirements critical to customer adoption and mission success. * Strategic Expansion: Explore adjacent content and data domains for potential expansion - either organically or via acquisition - to deepen Janes relevance and support for customer missions. * Market Intelligence: Monitor and report on partner and competitor activity within customer to identify opportunities for collaboration, expansion, or risk mitigation. * Presales & Bids: Support technical presales engagements, bid responses, and proposal submissions with subject matter expertise and solution design input.   The ideal skills and experience for this role are:  * Technical Proficiency:  * * Proficient in Python, including SDKs, APIs, and data engineering best practices. * Solid understanding of the Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC). * Familiarity with at least one of the following technologies: ArcGIS, Palantir, RDBMS, Graph Databases.  * Understanding of data models and/or ontologies * Experience in data integration, system interoperability or technical advisory roles—preferably within defence and intelligence sectors.  * Communication:  * Excellent presentation and communication skills, with the ability to engage technical and non-technical stakeholders.  * Mindset & Approach:  * * Passion for solving complex technical challenges. * Innovative, dynamic, and creative approach to problem-solving. * Willingness to learn, grow, and adapt in a fast-paced environment.  * Clearance: * Eligibility to hold security clearance, including willingness to undergo the clearance process with company sponsorship if not already cleared. Desirable Skills & Experience: * Front-End & Web Technologies:  * * Experience with JavaScript libraries (e.g., React) or frameworks (e.g., Vue). * Familiarity with geospatial JavaScript libraries such as ArcGIS Maps SDK, OpenLayers, Leaflet, Cesium etc.  * Back-End & Infrastructure:  * * Experience with Docker, Elasticsearch Palantir graph databases (e.g., Neo4j, ArangoDB, GraphDB). * Hands-on experience with cloud platforms and services, particularly AWS (EC2, Lambda, S3, etc.). * Background in backend or frontend architecture and development.  * Geospatial & Intelligence Tools:  * * Relevant experience using Esri technology and the full ArcGIS Enterprise suite, including ArcGIS Knowledge.  * Security & Clearance:  * * Experience working with national security and defence organizations. * Knowledge of the Intelligence cycle and ability to understand operational requirements and priorities. * Active security clearance is a strong advantage.  Benefits: * 27 days of annual leave   * Healthy half (0.5 day leave every 6 months for wellbeing)   * Leave- study/ volunteer/ reserve forces * Pension plan (6% employer contribution)  * Private medical insurance – BUPA * Maternity (100% of basic salary for the first 26 weeks followed by Statutory Maternity Pay)   * Paternity (100% of basic salary for 6 weeks)  * Life cover   * Access to LinkedIn Learning * Access to an on-site gym   ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------   LIFE AT JANES We believe Janes is truly a great place to work. Our values and leadership code drive everything we do, and we understand that the right behaviours and culture will always result in the best outcomes for our customers, our colleagues, our shareholders, and our business. We provide a supportive, stretching, and dynamic environment with the ability for you to grow rapidly, both personally and professionally. Janes is an inclusive and equal opportunities employer and encourages applications regardless of age, race, disability, religion / belief, sexual orientation, gender reassignment, marriage or civil partnership, pregnancy/maternity, or gender. Although this role is advertised as full time, Janes believed that flexibility at work can provide many significant benefits both to our colleagues and the business. We already work in a hybrid style across all offices and regions and can support different ways of working and offer different flexible working arrangements. So, if you are interested and have any requirements or needs in the way you would like to work, please apply, and speak to us about this.  We will always consider part time or flexible applications Job Applicants - Privacy Policy Know your rights document

Aker Systems was founded in 2017 by a team of experienced technology professionals who recognised an opportunity to provide highly secure enterprise data platforms to large organisations.  We build and operate ground-breaking, ultra-secure, high performance, cloud-based data infrastructure for the enterprise. Our proprietary technology solutions drive performance and reduce costs while helping our clients to improve the management and sharing of data across their organisations. In 2024, Aker Systems won the Breakthrough Culture Awards highlighting growth companies putting culture first. In 2020 Aker Systems was recognised as a ‘One to Watch’ on the Sunday Times Tech Track.  The Company was also recognised at the Thames Valley Tech Awards 2020; winning the Thames Valley Tech Company of the year, the Emerging Tech Company and High Growth Tech Business categories.  We encourage people of all different backgrounds and identities to apply.  We are committed to maintaining an inclusive, and supportive place for you to do your very best work. PRINCIPAL ENGINEER – DATA PLATFORM Location: Remote (UK-based; Security Clearance Required) A UK Government Security Check (SC) clearance is required for this role. If you don’t currently hold SC clearance, we can support you in applying, provided you have lived and worked in the UK for a minimum of 5 years. As a Principal Data Platform Engineer, you will define and drive the technical vision, architecture, and evolution of data platforms for a government client. You will operate at a systems and organisational level, shaping how data is ingested, processed, governed, and consumed across multiple teams and services. This role goes beyond hands-on engineering — it requires deep technical authority, cross-team influence, and strategic decision-making to ensure platforms are secure, scalable, resilient, and aligned to long-term business outcomes. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- KEY RESPONSIBILITIES * Define and own the technical strategy for data platform architecture, balancing short-term delivery with long-term scalability and maintainability. * Lead the design of complex, distributed data systems, including batch and real-time processing at scale. * Establish platform-wide standards, patterns, and best practices for data engineering, reliability, and security. * Act as a technical authority and mentor, guiding senior and lead engineers across teams. * Drive architecture decisions across multiple squads, ensuring alignment with enterprise and government standards. * Partner with architects, product leaders, and stakeholders to translate ambiguous requirements into scalable technical solutions. * Ensure high availability, fault tolerance, and low-latency performance across critical data services. * Champion engineering excellence, including TDD, BDD, observability, and continuous delivery practices. * Oversee data modelling standards and governance, ensuring consistency, lineage, and integrity across systems. * Lead cross-team incident analysis and root cause resolution, driving systemic improvements. * Evaluate and introduce new technologies, tools, and frameworks to evolve platform capabilities. * Provide technical leadership in client engagements, influencing decisions and managing senior stakeholder expectations. * Ensure operational excellence, including resilience planning, cost optimisation, and platform sustainability. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- REQUIRED EXPERIENCE & COMPETENCIES NON-TECHNICAL COMPETENCIES * Operating effectively in high ambiguity and incomplete problem spaces * Influencing senior stakeholders and cross-functional teams * Navigating complex client environments and competing priorities * Leading through technical authority rather than hierarchy * Driving alignment across multiple teams and domains * Continuously evaluating and adopting emerging technologies strategically ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TECHNICAL COMPETENCIES * Extensive experience designing and building large-scale, distributed data platforms * Deep expertise in Java-based systems and modern backend architectures * Strong experience with streaming and event-driven architectures (e.g., Kafka, Kinesis) * Experience with large-scale data processing frameworks (e.g., Spark, Flink, Kafka Streams) * Expertise in cloud-native architectures, ideally on AWS (including Lambda, S3, managed services) * Strong understanding of data pipeline design, orchestration, and optimisation * Experience with data modelling at scale, including schema design and evolution * Expertise in relational and NoSQL database design and performance tuning * Proven track record of implementing CI/CD, observability, and platform reliability practices * Strong experience with DevOps and Infrastructure as Code (IaC) * Ability to define and enforce engineering standards across teams ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- DESIRABLE SKILLS * Advanced expertise in data modelling strategies and trade-offs across systems * Experience with search and indexing platforms (Elasticsearch, OpenSearch, Solr) * Strong knowledge of CI/CD ecosystems (e.g., Jenkins, GitLab CI, Drone) * Experience with infrastructure automation tools (Terraform, Ansible, Packer) * Exposure to data governance, security, and compliance frameworks in regulated environments ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- QUALIFICATIONS * Degree in Computer Science or a related field (or equivalent experience) * Typically 10+ years of experience in software/data engineering, with significant time spent in architecture or principal-level roles Aker Systems Attributes At Aker we work as a team; we are collaborative, hardworking, open, and delivery obsessed. There is no blame culture here: try things, and take responsibility for the outcomes. You are always part of the wider Aker. We help our colleagues and take pride in successfully achieving difficult tasks. We run towards problems and help to solve them. Communicate always, do so accurately and in a timely fashion. In return, we offer a competitive salary, 25 days holiday plus bank holidays, company paid medical insurance and life assurance, pension scheme, annual training allowance, wellbeing allowance, virtual GP, Employee Assistance plan and more. Equal Opportunities Aker Systems fosters a diverse environment that encourages openness in its communications and is committed to providing equal employment opportunity for all people regardless of race, religion, gender or sexual orientation, age, marital status, national origin, citizenship status, disability, veteran status or other personal characteristics. We embrace differences of opinion and diversity because they help challenge us and find new groundbreaking technical solutions.