Head of Infrastructure Engineering

AXA; City of Westminster; Hybrid; GBP 150,000 - 200,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading insurance company seeks a Head of Infrastructure Engineering Guild to lead strategies for UK infrastructure engineering. You will be responsible for designing and operating core infrastructure services while driving innovation and automation. The ideal candidate has extensive experience in infrastructure engineering, cloud platforms, and virtualization technologies. Benefits include a competitive salary, annual bonuses, and flexible working arrangements. Join a supportive team that values the balance between work and home.

Benefits

Competitive annual salary

Annual company & performance-based bonus

Contributory pension scheme

Life Assurance

Private medical cover

28 days annual leave plus Bank Holidays

Opportunity to buy/sell annual leave

Wellbeing services & resources

AXA employee discounts

Qualifications

• Extensive experience in infrastructure engineering or technical leadership.
• Deep experience with cloud platforms and cloud-native infrastructure services.
• Strong understanding of virtualization technologies and operational management.
• Proficient in networking fundamentals including routing, DNS, and firewalls.
• Skilled in Linux and Windows Server administration and optimization.
• Expert in infrastructure automation tooling and CI/CD integration.
• Strong knowledge of infrastructure security and vulnerability management.
• Experienced in monitoring solutions and performance tuning.

Responsibilities

• Lead the design, build, and operation of infrastructure services.
• Drive automation across infrastructure provisioning and deployment.
• Ensure infrastructure services meet performance, availability, and security standards.
• Manage the lifecycle of compute, storage, networking, and virtualization platforms.
• Define engineering best practices and guide teams on platform observability.
• Foster strong collaboration across engineering and operations.
• Lead and develop a high-performing infrastructure engineering team.
• Support transformation programs by enabling secure and scalable infrastructure.

Skills

Infrastructure engineering

Cloud platforms (AWS, Azure)

Virtualization technologies (VMware, Hyper-V)

Networking fundamentals

Linux and Windows Server administration

Infrastructure automation tooling (Ansible, Puppet, Terraform)

Infrastructure security

Monitoring and logging solutions (Prometheus, ELK, Datadog)

Job description

The Infrastructure Engineering Guild defines and governs the architectural and engineering approach to core infrastructure. The Guild focuses on scalable, secure, and automation‑first platforms across cloud, on‑premises, and hybrid environments to enable a product‑aligned operating model and resilient delivery. As Head of Infrastructure Engineering Guild, you’ll lead the strategy and execution for UK&I infrastructure engineering. You’ll own the design, build, and operation of core infrastructure services, drive automation and platform innovation, and coach a high‑performing team to deliver secure, scalable foundations that support cross‑functional delivery and business transformation. At AXA we work smart, empowering our people to balance their time between home and the office in a way that works best for them, their team and our customers. You’ll work at least two days a week (40%) away from home, moving to three days a week (60%) in the future. Away from home means either attendance at one of our office locations, visiting clients or attending industry events. We’re also happy to consider flexible working arrangements, which you can discuss with Talent Acquisition.

Responsibilities

• Lead the design, build, and operation of infrastructure services across cloud, on‑premises, and hybrid environments.
• Drive automation across infrastructure provisioning, configuration, and deployment using modern tooling.
• Ensure infrastructure services meet performance, availability, and security standards across all domains.
• Manage the lifecycle of compute, storage, networking, and virtualization platforms, optimising for cost and resilience.
• Define engineering best practices and guide teams on platform observability, monitoring, and incident response.
• Foster strong collaboration across engineering, architecture, and operations to ensure cohesive platform delivery.
• Lead and develop a high‑performing infrastructure engineering team, building technical capability and a culture of continuous improvement.
• Support transformation programmes by enabling secure, scalable, and well‑instrumented infrastructure foundations.

Qualifications

• Extensive experience in infrastructure engineering or related hands‑on technical leadership roles.
• Deep experience with cloud platforms (e.g., AWS, Azure) and cloud‑native infrastructure services.
• Strong understanding of virtualization technologies (e.g., VMware, Hyper‑V) and their operational management.
• Proficient in networking fundamentals including routing, DNS, firewalls, and load balancing.
• Skilled in Linux and Windows Server administration and optimisation.
• Expert in infrastructure automation tooling (e.g., Ansible, Puppet, Terraform) and CI/CD integration.
• Strong knowledge of infrastructure security, access controls, and vulnerability management.
• Experienced in monitoring and logging solutions (e.g., Prometheus, ELK, Datadog) and performance tuning.

As a precondition of employment for this role, you must be eligible and authorised to work in the United Kingdom.

AXA UK Support Functions power AXA's three customer‑facing business units, providing the infrastructure, support and expertise to ensure our customers can always count on us. Whether you've got heaps of experience and qualifications behind you, or you're just starting out, we'll give you the support and opportunities to help you grow and develop with confidence.

Benefits

• Competitive annual salary dependent on experience
• Annual company & performance‑based bonus
• Contributory pension scheme (up to 12% employer contributions)
• Life Assurance (up to 10 x annual salary)
• Private medical cover
• 28 days annual leave plus Bank Holidays
• Opportunity to buy up to 5 extra days leave or sell up to 5 days leave
• Wellbeing services & resources
• AXA employee discounts