Lead Hosting Platform Engineer

United Utilities; Warrington; Hybrid; GBP 85,000 - 110,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

26 days holiday

Up to 14% pension contribution

Up to 10.5% annual bonus

Private healthcare

Enhanced parental leave

Wellbeing support

Flexible benefits

Voluntary share scheme

Job summary

United Utilities is recruiting a Lead Hosting Platform Engineer to drive enterprise Linux hosting platforms across on‑premise and hybrid cloud environments.

Based at Lingley Mere, Warrington with hybrid working (3 days onsite), the role focuses on security, resilience and continuous improvement of critical infrastructure services.

Qualifications

• Experience with enterprise Linux hosting platforms across on‑prem and hybrid environments.
• Expertise in automation, lifecycle management and security hardening.
• Experience with upgrades, implementations and new technologies in hosting platforms.

Responsibilities

• Lead the support, optimisation and continuous improvement of enterprise hosting platforms.
• Ensure highly available, secure and resilient infrastructure services across on‑premise and hybrid cloud environments.
• Drive platform automation, lifecycle management, patching and security hardening.
• Provide technical leadership on upgrades, implementations and new technologies.
• Troubleshoot and resolve complex platform issues.
• Mentor engineers and develop technical capability within the team.
• Support a culture of continuous improvement through monitoring and automation.

Skills

RHEL administration

Linux/Unix enterprise hosting

Ansible Automation

Red Hat Satellite

Scripting Bash/PowerShell/Perl

VMware/virtualisation

High-availability hosting

Security hardening

Azure Cloud / Hybrid Infra

Enterprise storage & backups

Education

RHCSA/RHCE/ITIL certifications ideal

Job description

Lingley Mere, Warrington (Hybrid, 3 days onsite) 1 in 6 standby rota Competitive Salary + Bonus + Excellent Benefits

Drive the platforms that power critical services

At United Utilities, technology is at the heart of delivering essential services to millions of customers. We're looking for an experienced Lead Hosting Platform Engineer to join our Hosting Platform Services team and play a key role in ensuring our enterprise hosting environments remain secure, resilient and available 24/7.

This is a fantastic opportunity for a senior infrastructure professional with deep expertise in Linux platforms, automation, virtualisation and enterprise hosting technologies to lead the evolution of our critical infrastructure estate.

What you’ll be doing

As a technical lead and subject matter expert, you’s will:

• Lead the support, optimisation and continuous improvement of enterprise hosting platforms
• Ensure highly available, secure and resilient infrastructure services across on‑premise and hybrid cloud environments
• Drive platform automation, lifecycle management, patching and security hardening
• Provide technical leadership on upgrades, implementations and new technologies
• Troubleshoot and resolve complex platform issues
• Work closely with Security, Architecture and Operational teams to maintain best practice standards
• Mentor engineers and help develop technical capability across the team
• Support a culture of continuous improvement through monitoring, reporting and automation

What we’re looking for

We're particularly interested in candidates with strong enterprise Linux/Unix hosting platform experience, including:

• Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) administration and lifecycle management
• Linux/Unix platforms within large-scale enterprise environments
• Automation and configuration management using Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform
• Red Hat Satellite and OS lifecycle management
• Scripting skills including Bash, PowerShell, Perl or similar
• VMware and virtualisation technologies
• High‑availability hosting platforms and infrastructure
• Security hardening, SELinux, TLS, SSL and PKI
• Azure Cloud and Hybrid Infrastructure environments - Including Windows Server
• Enterprise storage and backup technologies including Veeam, SAN, HPE Alletra or Dell PowerStore

Ideally, you’ll also hold (or be working towards) RHCSA, RHCE and/or ITIL certifications.

Why join United Utilities?

You’ll be joining a highly respected team responsible for maintaining and evolving critical infrastructure services across an organisation managing over 50,000 technology assets.

In return, we offer:

• 26 days holiday, rising to 30 with service, plus bank holidays
• Up to 14% employer pension contribution
• Up to 10.5% annual bonus
• Private healthcare
• Enhanced parental leave and flexible working options
• Wellbeing support programmes
• Flexible benefits package
• Voluntary share scheme

Ready to make an impact?

If you’re a senior Linux and Hosting Platform specialist looking to influence enterprise-scale infrastructure, drive technical innovation and lead platform excellence within a critical-services environment, we’ll love to hear from you.