Platform Desktop Engineer

G-Research; Greater London; On-site; GBP 85,000 - 110,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Lunch provided

Barista bar

30 days annual leave

9% pension contributions

Healthcare and life assurance

Job summary

G-Research is seeking a Platform Desktop Engineer in London to own and operate the Linux image build pipeline and provisioning tooling. You will work with OpenStack and Ironic to scale bare metal and VM provisioning, while maintaining security, monitoring, and incident response across the estate.

You will collaborate with Linux Engineering, Security and Infrastructure teams, contributing to capacity planning and tooling improvements in a collaborative environment that values thoughtful action

Qualifications

• Strong Linux administration skills and networking knowledge.
• Understanding of CI/CD pipelines for OS image creation.
• Python scripting with safe changes to internal tooling.
• Experience with OpenStack and Ironic for bare metal and VM provisioning at scale.

Responsibilities

• Maintain the OS image build pipeline using Dagger, Packer, Jenkins and Bash.
• Develop Python-based provisioning tooling across OpenStack and Ironic.
• Manage estate security, including certificate lifecycle, vulnerability remediation and patching.
• Coordinate changes with testing, staged rollouts and rollback.
• Monitor estate health and maintain dashboards.

Skills

Linux administration

CI/CD pipelines

Python scripting

OpenStack

Ironic

Troubleshooting

Monitoring and dashboards

Security best practices

Hardware provisioning

Communication

Tools

Jenkins

Packer

Dagger

Bash

OpenStack

Ironic

Job description

We tackle the most complex problems in quantitative finance, by bringing scientific clarity to financial complexity.

From our London HQ, we unite world-class researchers and engineers in an environment that values deep exploration and methodical execution — because the best ideas take time to evolve. Together we’re building a world-class platform to amplify our teams’ most powerful ideas.

As part of our engineering team, you’ll shape the platforms and tools that drive high-impact research – designing systems that scale, accelerate discovery and support innovation across the firm.

Take the next step in your career.

The role

Platform Desktop Engineering is a new team within Core Infrastructure, responsible for the platform desktop.

As a Platform Desktop Engineer, you will be responsible for the Linux image used across the estate, the pipeline that builds it and the tooling that provisions it. You will also support the day-to-day health of the machines it runs on.

You will bring strong Linux skills, a pragmatic approach to automation and the ability to work directly with the teams who depend on the desktop.

This is a small, newly formed team with a broad remit spanning image builds, provisioning, security, monitoring and hardware. You will have the opportunity to grow across these areas, working closely with Linux Engineering, Security and wider infrastructure teams in a collaborative environment where engineers are encouraged to contribute ideas and act on them.

Key responsibilities of the role include:

• Maintaining the OS image build pipeline using Dagger, Packer, Jenkins and Bash
• Operating and developing Python-based provisioning tooling across OpenStack and Ironic, troubleshooting bare metal and VM provisioning issues
• Managing estate security, including certificate lifecycle, vulnerability remediation and patching
• Managing changes through testing, staged rollouts, communications and rollback where required
• Monitoring estate health, availability and patching, maintaining dashboards and resolving configuration issues
• Providing user support, resolving requests and incidents escalated from first line
• Supporting joiner, mover and leaver processes in partnership with HR and hiring managers
• Managing hardware provisioning and lifecycle, including diagnostics, firmware, warranties and RMAs
• Contributing to capacity planning across physical and virtual resources
• Supporting incident response and driving remedial actions through to completion
• Escalating complex issues to Linux Engineering and other teams with a clear technical diagnosis

Who are we looking for?

The ideal candidate will have the following skills and experience:

• Strong Linux administration skills, including package management, filesystems, permissions, and networking
• Strong troubleshooting skills across logs, CPU, memory, I/O and network performance
• Understanding of CI/CD pipelines for OS image creation
• Python scripting skills, with the ability to make safe changes to internal tooling
• Strong understanding of security best practice, with judgement to balance risk and practical requirements
• Experience with monitoring and dashboards, using data to assess system health
• Experience with OpenStack and Ironic for bare metal and VM provisioning at scale
• Understanding of hardware provisioning and lifecycle, including BMC and lights-out management
• Experience supporting technical users in a live environment
• Excellent communication skills, with ability to set expectations and explain technical trade-offs
• A calm, methodical approach to incidents and escalation
• Highly competitive compensation plus annual discretionary bonus
• Lunch provided (via Just Eat for Business) and dedicated barista bar
• 30 days’ annual leave
• 9% company pension contributions
• Informal dress code and excellent work/life balance
• Comprehensive healthcare and life assurance