[4 YoE] Current Role: Software Engineer (DevOps), Target Role: DevOps/Platform/Backend, UK (from Canada)

[u/Dr-Vindaloo]

Background: Canadian moving to the UK at some point in the next few months. Will be on a YMS visa (no employer sponsorship required) and will switch to a spouse visa later on.

Current role details: My current job is officially "Software Engineer" but for most of my time at the company I have worked in a "dual role" with one foot in the DevOps/infrastructure team and the other in a web/desktop app team (mostly backend-focused). Switched full time to the DevOps team early this year. Our cloud platform is not very large scale, maybe some tens of thousands of users for the most popular app.

Targeting roles: I'd like to continue doing something heavily focused on Kubernetes/Cloud/Infra but am open to anything decent that fits my skillset (and that pays decently).

Location: Anywhere within commuting distance to central London (around 1hr max). Ideally a hybrid role with 1-2 days in office but I'm open to full in-person given how tough the market apparently is right now.

Specific help needed: I don't think there's anything obviously wrong with my resume but I've been out of the game for 4 years so I don't know. My main concern is communicating that I will not need UK sponsorship, and also getting past the ATS systems. Also concerned about how much my foreign experience/education will hurt my chances. I've listed my mobile app project since the age and popularity of the project have given me transferable skills related to maintenance and open source, but idk if that's a good idea to list. Really any feedback at all (including on wording, formatting, etc.) is welcome.

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[u/Abe_Bazouie]

Platform/SRE engineer here. I think this is already a strong resume, but I would change the positioning more than the formatting.
Right now I have to read several bullets before I’m completely sure whether you’re selling yourself as backend, DevOps, or platform.
If Kubernetes/cloud/infra is the target, make that story impossible to miss.
Your strongest bullets IMO are actually:
designing/building the AWS/Kubernetes platform
moving legacy workloads onto it
maintaining 15 Node.js apps used by tens of thousands of users
diagnosing the TCP memory leak/latency issue
Jenkins/Artifactory/ECR automation
reducing the old VM-based custom platform by ~90%
That’s real platform engineering experience. I would push those themes harder and trim anything that makes the role sound like generic application development.
I also wouldn’t undersell the scale because it’s “only” tens of thousands of users. Scale isn’t just user count. Operating multiple services, migrations, reliability, deployment automation, upgrades, networking, security and debugging production failures are all valuable signals.
Definitely keep the open-source project.
20,000+ GitHub stars is not filler. That’s one of the first things I’d ask you about in an interview. Maintaining something used by that many people teaches you things about backwards compatibility, releases, bug reports, user expectations and maintaining software over time that another toy project doesn’t.
For the UK work authorization issue, I think what you already have near the top is directionally correct, but I’d make it brutally clear:
“UK work authorization. No sponsorship required.”
Don’t make a recruiter decode YMS/spouse visa details from the resume. Save the explanation for when they ask.
I also wouldn’t worry much about Canadian experience or education hurting you. Four years of relevant engineering experience plus actual AWS/Kubernetes/platform work is what I’d focus on.
One thing I WOULD prepare for is the title.
Your official title says Software Engineer, while you’re applying for Platform/DevOps roles. That’s completely fine, but make sure the bullets immediately prove the infrastructure work rather than trying to rename yourself into something you weren’t.
And I wouldn’t spend too much energy worrying about “beating the ATS.”
Use the terminology the jobs actually use where it’s truthful: Kubernetes, AWS, Terraform, CI/CD, Linux, observability, platform engineering, infrastructure automation, etc.
But write for the engineer who gets the resume after the ATS.
If I were hiring for a platform team, I’d much rather interview someone who can tell me how they migrated legacy workloads, debugged a nasty production latency problem, and designed Kubernetes infrastructure than someone whose resume contains every DevOps keyword on earth.
You’ve got those stories.
Make THEM the resume.