Google Cloud Platform Tech Lead

PA Consulting; Arkley; On-site; GBP 80,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading consulting firm in the UK seeks a Google Cloud Technical Lead to take ownership of design and delivery in transformative projects. You will guide teams using cutting-edge cloud solutions, lead architectural discussions, and ensure successful project outcomes. Ideal candidates have strong backgrounds in software engineering, experience with Google Cloud products, and a commitment to mentoring others. This role offers opportunity for growth within an innovative consultancy environment, encouraging both individual and team excellence.

Benefits

Private medical insurance

Interest free season ticket loan

25 days annual leave

Company pension scheme

Annual performance-based bonus

Life and Income protection insurance

Qualifications

• Experience in designing and delivering solutions on Google Cloud.
• Strong background in software or DevOps engineering.
• Experience with infrastructure and serverless products.

Responsibilities

• Own design and lead team or effort.
• Set technical direction and achieve deliverables.
• Lead architectural discussions and mentor teams.

Skills

Cloud technologies

Agile methodologies

DevOps practices

Mentoring

Java

Python

Kubernetes

Terraform

Education

Google Certified Cloud Architect

Google Certified Data Engineer

Google Certified Cloud Developer

Tools

Google Cloud SDK

JIRA

CI/CD tools

Docker

Job description

Do you find yourself frustrated working with legacy technology or processes; constantly finding the need to innovate new and fit-for-purpose solutions? These are the problems our clients ask us to solve. You'll also need to be a pragmatist, to understand the design constraints of projects and get the job done. As a technical lead, you may operate solo or within a team, where you and your teammates are responsible for successful delivery of a project release using an agile methodology. We put a lot of trust in you and your team to meet deadlines, and to find the rhythm and ways of working that suits our clients. You get ownership and control of the processes for taking your code into production. Our teams have a mix of technology skills and work collaboratively, following DevOps (we emphasise the Dev in DevOps) and Test Automation practices. We also need you to contribute to developing the team, perhaps by sharing your expertise or mentoring teammates.

Qualifications - What We're Looking For: PA is a Google Cloud Premier Partner and we create innovative solutions using the whole spectrum of Google Cloud products and services, as well as other leading cloud platforms. One project might need you develop cutting edge AI solutions using sound engineering practices and the next might see you designing a secure PB‑scale platform for analytics and AI or building a brand‑new API platform to support future public services. You probably have a background as a software or DevOps engineer using languages and tools such as Java, Python, Kubernetes and Terraform, but it's your understanding of cloud technologies, architectures and techniques that are most important. You probably have experience in designing and delivering solutions on Google Cloud, perhaps using serverless products such as Cloud Run, or infrastructure such as Compute Engine and GKE, AI such as Vertex AI, ADK or Agent Engine, as well as data services such as BigQuery, Spanner, Dataflow, Composer, Bigtable or CloudSQL. Ideally you will be qualified to Google Certified Cloud Architect, Data Engineer or Cloud Developer level, although good hands‑on experience is just as valued. Working in an agile development team is highly sought after, where you are applying design and development practices such as:

• Agile sprints to deliver incremental builds.
• Defining architectural and software design patterns.
• Designing for scalability, high availability and disaster recovery requirements.
• Secure development and architectural practices, as well as knowledge of non‑functional considerations.
• Working alongside others in the team to develop, design, elaborate user stories and deliver estimates during story pointing.
• TDD and/or BDD approaches, considering outcome at design. Knowledge of test automation.
• Developing code and pipelines using CI/CD tools.
• Using tools such as JIRA for tracking progress and traceability.
• Reviewing code with your teammates to provide assurance on a release.
• Resolving root cause analysis and troubleshooting solutions.
• Using fundamental tools and languages E.g. Google Cloud SDK, SQL, Linux, PowerShell, Shell Scripting, HTML and CSS.
• Different types of database, e.g. Google Cloud Spanner, Firestore, Bigtable and BigQuery, as well as MongoDB, MySQL, Flink, Cassandra, SQL Server, Postgres. Developing schema for supporting business logic and data.
• Microservices architecture, including containers and serverless implementation. E.G. Kubernetes, Docker, OpenShift, AWS Lambda, Cloud Functions (GCP).
• Machine learning tools and techniques, e.g. Auto ML, Tensorflow, Natural Language, Vision AI.

PA's common technology components

• Google Cloud
• Cloud Run
• Cloud Functions
• Kubernetes Engine, Compute Engine, VPCs
• Cloud Spanner, Cloud SQL and BigQuery
• Dataflow, Apache Beam
• Vertex AI, DialogFlow, Auto ML

Architecture

• Microservices patterns
• Event‑driven architectures and message queues
• Relational and non‑relational databases

Languages and frameworks

• Java 17+, JavaScript, Python, SQL
• Common frameworks and APIs such as Spring Boot, Guice, Jersey, Node.Js, Flask
• Knowledge of JVM, its limitations, weaknesses, and workarounds
• Building tools such as Maven and Gradle
• CI/CD tools, such as Jenkins and Google Cloud Build
• Using a range of technologies and libraries in the Java ecosystem.

Your Accountability

As a Google Cloud Technical Lead (Principal Consultant), you'll own the design and lead a team or effort. We'll be looking at you to set technical direction and take responsibility for successfully achieving an outcome or deliverable.

• You may have a team of people to support, leading a development team, or else you could be working across multiple teams, providing some centralised expertise necessary for a larger program of work.
• You'll have expertise in architecture and will feel comfortable leading higher level architectural discussions.
• Using your experience of the development process, it's likely you'll own the overall process across a team, or multiple teams, building strong principles and putting robust methods and patterns in place.
• You will be comfortable having conversations with the client regularly, being one of the main points of engagement between the client and the project.
• Coaching and mentoring the team will be important in the role.
• Your involvement in shaping proposals (working with a bid team) will assist to create approaches or solutions, and perhaps you may also add valuable contributions during presentations to clients in a formal selection process.
• You'll play an active role in account management.

We're an innovation and transformation consultancy that believes in the power of ingenuity to build a positive‑human future in a technology‑driven world. Our diverse teams of experts combine innovative thinking with breakthrough‑technologies to progress further, faster.

With a global network of FTSE 100 and Fortune 500 clients, we'll offer you unrivalled opportunities for growth and the freedom to excel. Combining strategies, technologies and innovation, we turn complexity to opportunity and deliver enduring results, enabling you to build a lasting career. Isn't it time you joined us?

Benefits

• Private medical insurance
• Interest free season ticket loan
• 25 days annual leave with the opportunity to buy 5 additional days
• Company pension scheme
• Annual performance‑based bonus
• Life and Income protection insurance
• Tax efficient benefits (cycle to work, give as you earn, childcare benefits)
• Voluntary benefits (Dental, critical illness, spouse/partner life assurance)

PA is committed to building an inclusive and supportive culture where diversity thrives, and all of our people can excel. We believe that greater diversity stimulates innovation, enabling us to fulfil our purpose of ‘Bringing Ingenuity to Life’, supporting the growth of our people, and delivering more enduring results for our clients.