Lead Platform Engineer

AWS · Kubernetes · Terraform · Platform Engineering £90,000–£105,000 depending on experience Midlands and North of England | Hybrid (2-6 days per month) Join a major global technology and engineering organisation delivering some of the UK’s most significant public-sector digital programmes. You will help build, operate and improve the platforms behind critical national services used by millions of people. These are complex, highly regulated environments where security, reliability, resilience and engineering quality genuinely matter. This is not an architecture-only or delivery-management position. We are looking for engineers who still enjoy building, automating, troubleshooting and improving platforms while mentoring others and influencing technical direction. The opportunity You could be involved in: Building secure, multi-account AWS platforms and landing zonesEngineering and operating production Kubernetes and EKS environmentsCreating reusable Terraform modules and automated infrastructure capabilitiesBuilding internal developer platforms, self-service tooling and golden pathsDeveloping shared CI/CD platforms using GitHub Actions, GitLab or JenkinsImplementing GitOps using ArgoCD or FluxImproving observability with OpenTelemetry, Prometheus and GrafanaAutomating security, compliance and operational processesTroubleshooting complex production incidentsImproving platform reliability, resilience and developer experienceSetting engineering standards and helping teams adopt themMentoring engineers while remaining actively involved in technical deliveryYou will work alongside experienced engineers on large-scale programmes, with the opportunity to influence how modern engineering platforms are designed and operated across major government services. What we are looking for You should have strong production experience across several of the following: AWS - Must Terraform, Terragrunt or OpenTofu - MustKubernetes or EKS - MustLinuxCI/CD engineeringGitHub Actions, GitLab CI or JenkinsInfrastructure as CodePython, Go or Bash automationNetworking and IAMPrometheus, Grafana, OpenTelemetry or DatadogProduction support and incident response You do not need experience with every tool listed. What matters is your ability to explain: What you personally builtWhy it was neededHow it workedThe technical decisions and trade-offs involvedHow it performed in productionHow you improved the experience of other engineers Senior / Lead level — £90,000–£100,000 You may already lead engineers, own a platform capability or be progressing toward broader technical leadership. You will bring strong hands-on engineering experience, credible platform ownership and the ability to influence technical decisions beyond your immediate team. Lead / Principal / SME level — £100,000–£105,000 You will already operate as a senior technical authority. You will bring deeper evidence of production ownership, engineering scale, technical decision-making, mentoring and the ability to lead conversations with senior client engineering teams. Why consider the opportunity? Work on critical digital services operating at national scaleSolve complex engineering problems in secure, regulated environmentsBuild modern cloud-native and internal developer platformsInfluence platform strategy, standards and engineering practicesWork alongside a large community of experienced cloud and platform specialistsAccess significant training, certification and career-development opportunitiesProgress toward broader technical leadership, Principal or SME positionsContinue engineering while developing your leadership capability Location and working arrangements We are recruiting across the Midlands and North, including: Manchester, Leeds, Newcastle, Birmingham, Leeds. The role is hybrid, combining home working with office. (2-6 days per month) This is not a fully remote position, and onsite requirements will vary depending on the programme, delivery phase and security environment. Security clearance Candidates must be eligible to complete BPSS checks and obtain UK Security Check clearance. This will normally require a suitable period of UK residency, permanent UK working rights and the ability to complete the relevant background checks. Applying Please submit a CV that clearly describes: A platform or shared engineering capability you personally builtThe scale of the environmentYour individual technical contributionA difficult production problem you helped resolveHow you have mentored or technically influenced other engineers We are particularly interested in engineers who combine strong technical judgement with platform ownership, clear communication and the potential to become future technical leaders.