Platform Desktop Engineer

Barlowe LLP; Greater London; On-site; GBP 70,000 - 90,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Lunch provided

30 days annual leave

9% pension contributions

Informal dress code

Healthcare and life assurance

Cycle-to-work

Monthly company events

Job summary

G-Research in London is seeking a Platform Desktop Engineer to own the Linux image build, provisioning tooling and day-to-day health of desktops across the estate. You will contribute to CI/CD for OS image creation and work with OpenStack/Ironic for bare metal and VM provisioning at scale.

You will partner with Linux Engineering, Security and wider infra teams in a collaborative environment where ideas are valued and responsible automation is encouraged.

Qualifications

• Strong Linux administration, including package management, filesystems, permissions and networking.
• Troubleshooting experience across logs, CPU, memory, I/O and network performance.
• Experience with OpenStack and Ironic for bare metal and VM provisioning at scale.

Responsibilities

• Maintain 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 and patching.
• Monitor estate health, dashboards and configuration issues.
• Provide user support and resolve incidents escalated from first line.
• Support joiner/mover/leaver processes with HR and hiring managers.
• Manage hardware provisioning and lifecycle, diagnostics and RMAs.
• Contribute to capacity planning across resources.
• Drive incident remediation to completion and escalate where needed.

Skills

Linux admin

CI/CD pipelines

Python scripting

Security best practices

Monitoring dashboards

OpenStack

Ironic

Hardware provisioning

Incident management

Communication skills

Tools

BMC

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 judgment 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

Why join us?

• 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
• Cycle-to-work scheme
• Monthly company events

G-Research is committed to cultivating and preserving an inclusive work environment. We are an ideas-driven business and we place great value on diversity of experience and opinions. We want to ensure that applicants receive a recruitment experience that enables them to perform at their best.

If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation please let us know in the relevant section.

At G-Research, we are passionate about the intersection of finance, technology, and the future. We offer a dynamic, flexible and highly stimulating culture where world-beating ideas are cultivated and rewarded. We are proud to employ some of the best people in their field and to nurture their talent in our collaborative working environment.