Senior Platform Engineer (Azure)
Likely
Sponsorship likelihood
This employer has issued visas recently
Not disclosed
Salary
Not disclosed by employer
£54,900
Going rate
Skilled Worker going rate
This role likely qualifies for a Skilled Worker visa
SOC 2133 (64% match) is an eligible occupation, with a going rate of £54,900, and PayPoint plc is a licensed sponsor. That is our reading of the rules. Whether they issue a Certificate of Sponsorship is still their call.
We pick the code from the advert's text, so it is our best guess, not the employer's. Each code it could be has its own likelihood:
- Likely 2133 (IT business analysts, architects and systems designers) · 64% match
- Likely 2134 (Programmers and software development professionals) · 17% match
- Likely 2139 (Information technology professionals not elsewhere classified) · 17% match
New graduate or PhD holder? Pick one of the lower rates.
What each route needs for this job
| Occupation code | New entrant 70% of going rate | STEM PhD 80% of going rate | Relevant PhD 90% of going rate | Standard rate 100% of going rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
2133 IT business analysts, architects and systems designers Most likely code | £38,400 | £43,900 | £49,400 | £54,900 |
2134 Programmers and software development professionals Also possible | £38,300 | £43,700 | £49,200 | £54,700 |
2139 Information technology professionals not elsewhere classified Also possible | £36,600 | £41,800 | £47,100 | £52,300 |
We use the lowest threshold across the plausible codes. Likelihood is Possible at most when the pay clears only a lower rate, or only under a less likely code. How the Home Office picks the code
About the role
What will you be doing?
As a Senior Platform Engineer, you will lead the design, evolution, and reliability of the core platform that underpins our engineering ecosystem. You will set technical direction, define standards, and drive best practices that enable product teams to deliver securely, efficiently, and at scale.
Your role goes beyond implementation, you will shape the platform strategy, influence architectural decisions, and act as a technical leader across teams.
This is a hybrid role with occasional onsite collaboration — typically once every 2–3 months, but you are able to attend our offices as much as you like, — at either our Welwyn Garden City or Liverpool offices. From time to time, you may also travel between sites.
Key responsibilities
- Owning and evolving the core platform infrastructure (e.g. AKS clusters, networking, API gateways), ensuring scalability, resilience, and operational excellence.
- Defining and enforcing platform standards, guardrails, and best practices across areas such as security, cost optimisation, reliability, and performance.
- Driving platform strategy and roadmap in collaboration with engineering leadership, aligning platform capabilities with business objectives.
- Partnering with product and engineering teams to understand pain points, proactively identify opportunities, and prioritise high-impact platform improvements.
- Leading architecture and design discussions, providing expert guidance on cloud-native patterns, distributed systems, and platform capabilities.
- Designing, implementing, and continuously improving CI/CD and GitOps workflows to enable safe, fast, and repeatable delivery.
- Championing DevSecOps principles, embedding security and compliance into the software delivery lifecycle.
- Establishing and improving observability, monitoring, and incident response practices, including vulnerability management and remediation.
What we would like from you
- Strong experience in platform engineering, SRE, or DevOps within a distributed cloud environment.
- Deep expertise in Kubernetes and containerised workloads, ideally in managed environments such as AKS.
- Proven experience designing and operating scalable, highly available cloud infrastructure.
- Strong background in CI/CD, automation, and GitOps practices, including building and evolving pipelines at scale.
- Solid understanding of cloud networking, identity, and security principles, including container and Kubernetes security.
- Experience with infrastructure as code and configuration management.
- Strong Linux systems administration knowledge.
- Demonstrated ability to make pragmatic, risk-based decisions that balance business priorities with technical excellence.
- Experience shaping standards, influencing teams, and driving adoption of platform practices.
- Excellent communication skills, with the ability to engage both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
It would be great if you have the following
- Experience with Helm, Kustomize, and Kubernetes ecosystem tooling.
- Familiarity with Azure and Azure DevOps.
- Experience with observability platforms and Kubernetes policy enforcement tools.
- Proficiency in scripting or programming (e.g. Bash, Python, PowerShell, C#).
- Experience designing multi-region or highly available systems.
- Relevant certifications in Kubernetes, Azure, or cloud-native technologies.
Our benefits if you decide to join us:
- Holiday purchase scheme, with 25 days holiday plus bank holidays as standard.
As a disability-confident committed company, we have a passion for championing equality. We welcome all colleagues into a work environment where success is attainable for everyone, regardless of disability, age, race, religion, gender identity, or sexual orientation. We are committed to ensuring that everyone has equal access to growth and opportunities in our workplace.
This description is the source posting as it read when we added it. We are not affiliated with PayPoint plc, so check their own site for the current details.
Where this offer sits in the market
IT business analysts, architects and systems designers (SOC 2133) · UK · ONS ASHE 2025 · basic pay · ~187k in sample- Middle half £45,136–79,976
- Median £60,216
- Going rate £54,900
- Threshold £41,700
- New entrant £38,400–49,400
Similar sponsored roles
See all UK visa jobsNo close matches live right now.
Browse more sponsored jobs at PayPoint plcAbout sponsorship for this role
Does this job guarantee visa sponsorship?
Not necessarily. PayPoint plc holds a sponsor licence, but sponsorship for a specific hire is always the employer's decision. Be upfront in your application that you'll require it.
What salary is needed for this role to be eligible?
The offer must clear both the general threshold and the SOC 2133 going rate of £54,900. New-entrant and shortage discounts can lower it.