Principal Platform Engineer

Location: UK

Contract Type: Permanent

About The Opportunity

We're looking for a Principal Platform Engineer who will lead enterprise engineering modernisation initiatives for our clients. This role is perfect for a technical leader who thrives on orchestrating complex transformations whilst aligning diverse specialist teams towards common engineering excellence goals.

You'll be a technical architect of change, designing comprehensive modernisation strategies that span infrastructure, security, quality assurance, and governance.

Think of yourself as the conductor of a technical orchestra - you don't need to play every instrument, but you must understand how they harmonise to create transformational outcomes.

What You'll Be Doing

Technical Leadership & Innovation

• Help design and drive enterprise-wide engineering modernisation strategies encompassing automated workflows, CI/CD frameworks, and development lifecycle improvements with MMT and client engineering teams
• Lead aspects of Service Asset and Configuration Management (SACM) initiatives that bring order to complex enterprise estates
• Lead the transformation of secrets management practices across heterogeneous environments, ensuring solutions scale effectively whilst strengthening organisational security posture
• Help define engineering standards, frameworks, and guardrails that accelerate delivery whilst ensuring compliance
• Create technical roadmaps that balance quick wins with long-term architectural sustainability
  
  

Cross-Team Leadership & Alignment

• Orchestrate collaboration between infrastructure, security, quality, and governance teams to deliver cohesive solutions, that exist in silo's around client businesses
• Translate between specialist domains, ensuring each team understands their role in the bigger picture
• Identify and resolve conflicts between competing technical priorities across different teams
• Foster a unified engineering culture whilst respecting domain expertise
• Lead architectural review boards and technical decision forums
  
  

Enterprise Level Transformation Delivery

• Break down complex modernisation programmes into achievable phases with clear success metrics
• Make pragmatic build vs. integrate decisions that prioritise speed vs. value
• Integrate automated testing strategies that span unit, integration, performance, and security testing
• Implement CI/CD framework architecture that works across multiple technology estates, with particular focus on GitHub Actions as the strategic direction
• Design frameworks with reusable patterns and libraries, ensuring each framework/toolkit makes the next one faster and more predictable
• Leverage Data Lake platforms for comprehensive platform observability and compliance auditing
• Ensure solutions consider enterprise constraints like regulatory compliance and legacy system integration
  
  

Client Strategy & Engagement

• Work directly with C-suite executives and key client stakeholders to understand their business goals and technical challenges
• Transform complex technical concepts into clear business narratives that drive decision-making
• Guide clients through their journey with strategic recommendations and practical next steps
• Present technical strategies that clearly articulate business value and risk reduction
• Build trust through early wins whilst maintaining focus on strategic objectives
  
  

Business Growth & Thought Leadership

• Drive the technical aspects of high-value proposal responses and RFP.
• Present technical solutions and demonstrations that showcase our capabilities
• Contribute to thought leadership content (our CTO office) and represent the company at industry events.[AT2]
• Help shape our service offerings based on market trends and client feedback
  
  

What We're Looking For

Core Experience:

• Extensive hands-on engineering and architecture experience - if you're not excited about writing Infrastructure as Code and testing prototypes, this role isn't for you
• Proven ability to lead technical teams and manage complex, multi-stakeholder projects.
• Deep understanding of enterprise constraints and how to navigate them
• History of defining and implementing engineering standards at scale
  
  

Technical Expertise

• Strong background in infrastructure automation, CI/CD, and modern DevOps practices - think turning manual chaos into elegant, self-healing systems that deploy flawlessly
• Solid understanding of AWS and Azure architectures, particularly around identity, security, and secrets management solutions
• In-depth knowledge of Git workflows, branching strategies, and their implementation at enterprise scale
• Knowledge of cloud security frameworks and compliance requirements
• Understanding of cost optimization strategies and cloud financial management
• Familiarity with monitoring, observability, and incident response best practices
• High-level understanding of Service Asset and Configuration Management principles and their practical implementation in enterprise environments
• Understanding of Data Lake solutions (Snowflake, Databricks) for platform telemetry and auditing, plus ETL concepts for operational data pipelines
• Comprehensive knowledge of quality assurance practices and implementing automated quality gates throughout the development lifecycle
• Ability to read and understand Python and other common languages to review architectural decisions and integration points
  
  

Communication & Business Skills

• Excellent presentation skills with experience speaking to technical and executive audiences
• Strong written communication abilities, especially for proposals and technical documentation
• Natural curiosity about business challenges and how technology can solve them
• Collaborative mindset with the ability to work effectively across different teams and disciplines
• Experience managing stakeholder expectations and navigating complex organizational dynamics
• Strong grasp of Agile/Scrum practices and how they integrate with platform engineering initiatives
  
  

Languages:

• Fluency in English (spoken and written) is essential