Principal Platform Engineer

Job title:

Principal Platform Engineer

Company

Instem

Job description

Principal Platform Engineer
Location: Stone, Staffordshire (Hybrid working, 2 days in our Stone office)
Status: Permanent, Full Time
Package: Competitive Salary, Flexible Working (with one-off allowance and 2 Days in the office), Development & Opportunity (Personal & Technical), Private Medical (Optical & Dental options), Matching Contributory Pension, 25 Days Leave + Public Holidays + Buy and Sell Scheme, Life Insurance, Referral Scheme, Employee Assistance Program, Benefits Hub.Why are we hiring an Principal Platform Engineer?We are looking for a talented Principal Platform Engineer to join our growing team. You will play a key role in designing, implementing, and maintaining the platforms that power our applications and services. Your work will ensure the stability, scalability and security of our cloud infrastructure while enabling our development teams to deliver high-quality software at speed.
You will work in a collaborative, agile environment with a focus on automation, performance, and security. Mentoring other platform engineers and departments to ensure we can reach our goals as a team.Who’s Instem?Well, we’re a global provider of bespoke industry-leading software solutions and services, which facilitate the pre-clinical, and clinical phases of the drug discovery process. We have over fifteen products in our portfolio, used by over 700 pharmaceutical clients (including all the top 20!)What’s the culture/environment like? For a global business of over 300 staff, we very much have a family feel. You’ll be part of a friendly, communal, solution based, flexible environment, where you’ll feel empowered, valued and accountable. We’ll invest in you as a person and encourage you to take part in companywide workshops for wellbeing, mental health, critical conversations, and strengths.What are you responsible for?

• Cloud Infrastructure Management

-Design, implement, and manage infrastructure in Azure. You will focus on creating resilient, scalable, and cost-effective cloud infrastructure solutions.

• Platform Automation

-Develop automation frameworks and deploy tools for configuration management, deployment automation, and infrastructure provisioning. Your contributions will ensure seamless scaling, patching, and upgrades in the cloud environment.

• Infrastructure as Code (IaC)

-Use IaC tools like Terraform, Bicep or ARM to automate and manage infrastructure and deployments. Maintain version-controlled infrastructure definitions.

• CI/CD Pipeline Enhancement

-Drive the evolution of continuous integration and continuous delivery pipelines, working with development teams to ensure smooth integration and deployment processes.

• Monitoring & Incident Management

-Ensure proactive monitoring of platform health and system performance, using tools like Datadog, Prometheus or Azure Monitor. Respond to incidents, resolve issues, and implement solutions to prevent future occurrences.

• Security and Compliance

-Implement security best practices across all platforms, ensure compliance with data protection standards, and support audits when necessary. You will be involved in securing both cloud and on-premise infrastructures.

• Collaboration

-Work closely with development, DevOps, and security teams to enhance platform reliability and performance. Provide guidance on architecture design and deployment strategies.

• Modernisation Journey

-Enabling all teams to establish delivery mechanisms in Azure. Moving workloads from managed datacentres to enable better developer experience, observability, and production delivery.

• Quality

-Adherence to the Company’s Quality Management System to ensure that all work is handled Securely, Professionally and DiligentlySkills, Knowledge & Experience:

• Experience

-6+ years in Platform Engineering or a similar role, with proven experience in managing large cloud-based infrastructures.

• Cloud Technologies

-Deep knowledge and hands on experience Azure. Comfortable managing compute, storage, networking and security services on cloud platforms.

• Automation Tools

-Expertise with IaC tools such as Terraform, Bicep or ARM. Automation, configuration management, infrastructure test automation and release automation.

• CI/CD Expertise

-Solid experience with building and managing CI/CD pipelines using Azure DevOps

• Containerization & Orchestration

-Hands-on experience with Docker, Kubernetes, and containerized application deployment.

• Scripting Languages

-Proficiency in Powershell, Bash & Python for automating tasks and managing systems.

• Monitoring and Observability

-Familiarity with monitoring tools like Datadog, Prometheus, Grafana and Azure Application insights. Knowledge of logging, tracing, and alerting mechanisms.

• Security Knowledge

-Understanding of cloud security practices and tools, including identity and access management (IAM), encryption, firewalls and compliance requirements (GDPR, SOC2, etc.).

• Version Control

-Experience with Git for managing code and configuration repositories. Ensuring everything is repeatable and as code.

• Mentoring

-Proven time helping others to learn and upskill in Platform Engineering methodologies and best practice.

• Documentation

-A keen eye for detail and able to create clear, concise and accurate technical diagrams/documentation.

• FinOps

-Experience in managing and optimising cloud spend. Ensuring all designs are costed and align with budgets and forecasting.

• Additional Expertise

-Working Knowledge of Citrix and Oracle advantageous. As are any Azure certifications.An Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, colour, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, or protected veteran status and will not be discriminated against on the basis of disability.Instem stores and processes data using an Applicant Tracking System (ATS). For more information regarding our privacy policy use the following link: http://www.instem.com/about/data-protection.php
#LI-KL #LI-HYBRID

Expected salary

Location

Stone, Staffordshire

Job date

Thu, 20 Feb 2025 07:32:41 GMT

To help us track our recruitment effort, please indicate in your email/cover letter where (hiring-jobs.com) you saw this job posting.