Principal Platform Engineer

Most companies say they're doing platform engineering. What they're actually doing is managing Kubernetes clusters.

This role is different.

The team is highly regarded and is expanding to help shape and evolve cloud-native platforms that support critical services used at significant scale across the UK. The environment is complex, the technical bar is high, and the expectation is that platform engineers don't just operate infrastructure; they influence how engineering is done.

The successful candidate will be one of the senior technical voices within the platform function, helping define architecture, standards and engineering practices while remaining deeply hands-on. Kubernetes sits at the heart of much of the work, alongside AWS, GitOps, platform automation and modern observability.

The challenge is less about standing up clusters and more about building platforms that engineers genuinely want to use. Secure-by-default environments. Self-service capabilities. Clear golden paths. Strong operational foundations. The kind of engineering that quietly enables hundreds of others to move faster.

Current initiatives include the evolution of large-scale Kubernetes estates, the development of Internal Developer Platforms, cloud-native modernisation programmes, observability transformation, supply-chain security and platform automation. There is genuine scope to influence technical direction, challenge assumptions and leave a lasting mark on how platforms are designed and operated.

They're particularly interested in engineers who have strong opinions on platform engineering, reliability and developer experience. People who enjoy simplifying complexity, raising standards and solving problems that don't have obvious answers.

The technology landscape includes Kubernetes, AWS, Azure, GitOps, OpenTelemetry, Prometheus, Grafana, Infrastructure as Code and modern CI/CD tooling, but this isn't a keyword-matching exercise. Strong engineers who understand platform thinking, distributed systems and operating at scale will stand out quickly.

For someone who enjoys difficult technical challenges, values autonomy, and wants to be surrounded by engineers who care deeply about their craft, this is the sort of role that rarely stays on the market for long.