Head of Platform Engineering (up to £225k)

Dex; Greater London; On-site; GBP 150,000 - 195,000; Full time

Job summary

Dex collaborates with a trusted partner company to build enterprise AI systems for global financial institutions. You will be the first platform leader, defining cloud strategy, owning architecture, and scaling the Azure/AKS environment.

You will build the platform team from scratch and drive security, governance, and production readiness. Lead CI/CD, observability, on-call rotations, and incident response while guiding audits for SOC 2, ISO 27001, and GDPR.

Qualifications

• 10+ years in infrastructure or platform engineering.
• Deep experience with production Kubernetes and Terraform at scale.
• Proven track record building and scaling platform teams in startups.
• End-to-end ownership from architecture to production support and on-call.
• Security/compliance with SOC 2, ISO 27001, GDPR in regulated environments.

Responsibilities

• Define and drive end-to-end cloud strategy for Azure/AKS deployments.
• Build and lead the platform engineering team from the ground up.
• Own CI/CD across backend, frontend, and data with observability and incident response.
• Lead SOC 2 and ISO 27001 audits, implementing robust security controls.

Skills

Kubernetes

Terraform

Azure

Python

Bash

Platform leadership

CI/CD

Security & compliance

Tools

AKS

PostgreSQL

MySQL

NoSQL

Job description

This role is with one of Dex's trusted partner companies. We work closely with their teams to truly understand their culture, goals, and what they're looking for, so we can match you with the right opportunity and give you context about the role before you commit to a process.

The role

This company builds AI systems that automate how major financial institutions produce and validate client-ready work, turning complex, manual analysis into automated workflows for global banks, private equity, and credit firms. They're backed by leading investors, with significant Series A funding to scale their rapidly growing enterprise AI platform.

This isn't a maintenance role. You're the first platform leader, defining the entire cloud strategy and building the team from scratch. You'll own the architecture, scale their Azure/AKS environment, and implement the security and compliance measures (SOC 2, ISO 27001, GDPR) that enable a product handling sensitive financial data. This is a rare seat: full mandate, significant resources, and no inherited legacy.

The work

• Define and drive the end-to-end cloud strategy, architecting and scaling the Azure/AKS environment for demanding financial‑services deployments.
• Build and lead the platform engineering team from the ground up, setting the technical bar and culture.
• Own CI/CD across all services (backend, frontend, data), establishing product-wide observability, on‑call rotations, and incident response.
• Lead the company through critical SOC 2 and ISO 27001 audits, implementing robust security, secrets management, and compliance measures (GDPR, FCA).

What You Bring

• 10+ years in infrastructure or platform engineering, with deep experience architecting and operating production Kubernetes and Terraform at scale.
• Proven track record building, leading, and scaling high‑performing platform teams in fast‑growth startup environments.
• End‑to‑end ownership of critical infrastructure, from initial architecture and deployment through production support, observability, and on‑call.
• Expertise implementing and navigating security and compliance frameworks (SOC 2, ISO 27001, GDPR) for regulated environments.
• Hands‑on proficiency with Azure cloud networking, production databases (PostgreSQL, MySQL, NoSQL), and automation scripting (Python, Bash).