Global Head / VP of Platform Engineering

Gravitas Recruitment Group (Global) Ltd; Greater London; On-site; GBP 180,000 - 220,000; Full time

Job summary

Global Payments Technology is seeking a Global Head / VP of Platform Engineering to lead the next evolution of our engineering infrastructure and developer platform. You will report to the CTO and oversee a distributed team of ~30 Platform Engineers supporting 100+ Product Engineers.

This leadership role drives a technology transformation to build scalable, AI-ready platforms, self-service tooling, and modern CI/CD pipelines.

Qualifications

• Proven leadership across Platform Engineering or Engineering Enablement (high impact).
• Deep technical expertise in cloud-native infra, Kubernetes, AWS, CI/CD and platform architecture.
• Track record transforming platform engineering into a scalable, product-led function.
• Experience building infra and developer capabilities for AI-enabled workflows.

Responsibilities

• Evolve Platform Engineering into a strategic, product-led capability.
• Define AI-ready infrastructure, tooling, and platform capabilities.
• Improve internal developer platforms, self-service infra, and provisioning.
• Modernise CI/CD pipelines and enhance deployment speed and reliability.
• Lead a globally distributed platform engineering organisation.
• Collaborate with CTO and tech leadership to align strategy with priorities.

Skills

Platform engineering

Cloud-native infrastructure

Kubernetes

AWS

CI/CD

DevEx

Executive leadership

Tools

Observability

Job description

London | Up to £200,000 Base + Bonus + Benefits

Global Payments Technology

I'm partnering with a global payments technology business to appoint an exceptional Global Head / VP of Platform Engineering to lead the next evolution of its engineering infrastructure and developer platform.

This is a strategic leadership opportunity, reporting directly to the CTO, with responsibility for a globally distributed Platform Engineering organisation of approximately 30 engineers, supporting 100+ Product Engineers.

The Mission

The business is embarking on a significant technology transformation, with ambitions to enable AI-native software engineering and agentic development workflows at scale.

However, achieving this requires more than simply introducing AI tools.

It requires a modern, scalable and highly automated Platform Engineering function capable of supporting how engineering teams will build, test, deploy and operate software in the future.

We're looking for a technically credible, commercially aware engineering leader who can build the Platform foundations that make this transformation possible.

What You'll Be Responsible For

• Platform Strategy & Transformation – Evolve Platform Engineering from a predominantly operational function into a strategic, product-led capability that accelerates engineering delivery.
• AI-Ready Infrastructure – Define and deliver the infrastructure, tooling and Platform capabilities needed to securely enable AI-assisted development and agentic engineering workflows.
• Developer Experience (DevEx) – Build and improve Internal Developer Platforms, self-service infrastructure, automated provisioning and developer tooling.
• CI/CD & Engineering Productivity – Modernise software delivery pipelines, reduce manual processes and improve deployment speed, reliability and engineering autonomy.
• Cloud-Native Architecture – Lead the evolution of AWS, Kubernetes, infrastructure automation, observability and scalable engineering platforms.
• Global Engineering Leadership – Lead, develop and optimise a distributed Platform Engineering organisation, driving technical excellence, accountability and meaningful organisational change.
• Executive Partnership – Work closely with the CTO and wider technology leadership team to align Platform strategy with business priorities and long-term engineering ambitions.

Who We're Looking For

We're particularly interested in senior engineering leaders who can demonstrate:

• Significant leadership experience across Platform Engineering, Developer Infrastructure, Cloud Platforms or Engineering Enablement.
• Deep technical expertise in modern cloud-native infrastructure, Kubernetes, AWS, CI/CD and Platform architecture.
• A proven track record of transforming Platform Engineering into a scalable, self-service, product-oriented function.
• Experience building infrastructure and developer capabilities that support advanced automation, AI-assisted engineering or agentic workflows.
• Strong architectural judgement, with the credibility to challenge technical decisions and guide senior engineers.
• Experience leading globally distributed engineering teams and delivering complex technical and organisational change.
• The ability to operate strategically at executive level while remaining sufficiently close to the technology.

Payments, FinTech or regulated-industry experience would be advantageous, but we're equally interested in exceptional Platform leaders from other complex technology environments.

Importantly, you don't need to have led an organization-wide AI transformation. We're looking for someone who understands how to build the underlying Platform and infrastructure capabilities that enable one.

The Opportunity

• Base salary up to £200,000 + bonus + benefits
• Direct engagement with the CTO and senior leadership team
• Opportunity to shape the next generation of Platform Engineering and AI-enabled software delivery

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