Platform Engineer

QinetiQ Group plc; Salford; Hybrid; GBP 80,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job summary

An innovative tech company based in Salford is searching for a Platform Engineer to drive complex platform initiatives and improve team efficiency. This role combines technical leadership with mentorship, addressing significant challenges from conception to deployment. The ideal candidate will excel in an Agile environment, actively contribute to process enhancements, and help build a supportive team culture. The position offers competitive salary, flexible working hours, and a range of benefits, while contributing to the safety of the UK.

Benefits

Flexible/Hybrid working options

Performance bonus

Company bonus

Pension matched 1.5x up to 10.5%

Medical cover

Holiday purchase/buy-back scheme

Cycle to work scheme

Car benefit scheme

Qualifications

• Experience driving complex platform projects from design to production.
• Strong knowledge of CI/CD pipelines and DevOps practices.
• Ability to mentor junior team members and support delivery teams.

Responsibilities

• Implement complex platform features and own projects from start to finish.
• Monitor and improve platform environments continuously.
• Coach teams on best practices and document procedures.

Skills

Problem ownership

Process improvement

Complex problem solving

Mentorship

Agile methodologies

Tools

Kubernetes

GitLab

ElasticSearch

Job description

Culture and Values

A Culture of Enablement: Our goal is to remove blockers. You'll be empowered to make decisions and given the tools you need to get things done.

Focus on Quality: We take pride in our work. You'll be part of a culture that values well‑written, maintainable code, and your work will serve as a "definitive example" for others.

Active Collaboration: You'll work closely with Software Engineers, Delivery Leads, and Product Owners, helping to manage and maintain your own infrastructure (e.g., Kubernetes) and build automated delivery pipelines (using GitLab).

Projects We Build

At Naimuri, we work on a variety of projects that range in length from a few weeks to 5+ years. Some recent work:

• Building a data analytics tool using a Neo4J graph database.
• A DevOps platform to support 3000 users.
• Processing digital forensic data to enable search and insight generation.
• A search and reporting system backed by an ElasticSearch cluster.
• A custom workflow tool using Camunda, with a React/TS front‑end.
• An AI assurance capability.
• Orchestrating a data pipeline and designing specialist metrics for the evaluation of the performance of LLMs in different contexts.

About the Role

As a Platform Engineer at Naimuri, you will be a key enabler for your team, driving efficiency and applying in‑depth knowledge to complex platform challenges. You will work on large tasks and projects, acting as a technical leader and mentor.

Responsibilities

• Drive the implementation of complex platform features and projects, taking full ownership from design to production. Apply in‑depth knowledge of tools and methodologies to make pragmatic design choices.
• Deliver reusable infrastructure modules and CI/CD pipelines (using GitLab or other DevOps platforms) to support consistent and secure deployments.
• Proactively monitor, troubleshoot, and continuously improve platform environments using appropriate logging, monitoring, and analytics tools. Lead on and contribute heavily to resolving difficult issues and major incidents.
• Embed secure design principles into everything you build, proactively seeking security advice. Implement and maintain governance approaches (e.g., Role‑Based Access Control, policies, and cost control measures), supporting identity, access management, and vulnerability management.
• Work with delivery teams to support their use of the platform, coach on best practices, and define "golden paths" and documentation that lower the barrier to adoption. Actively support and provide guidance to junior team members.
• Stay up to date with new platform capabilities and actively suggest improvements or new services that align with company strategy (e.g., enabling AI/ML or hybrid connectivity). Represent the team to the rest of the company, co‑authoring bid documentation for new customer work.

What We’re Looking For

• You thrive on owning a complex problem from the whiteboard to production.
• You enjoy breaking down large, ambiguous problems into concrete, deliverable steps.
• You are comfortable challenging the status quo and actively look for ways to improve processes, codebases, and team efficiency.
• You are comfortable considering the "big picture," including cost‑efficiency, scalability, and performance in your designs.

This Might Not Be the Role for You

• You prefer a well‑defined ticket queue where you can focus purely on implementation.
• You’re not interested in mentoring other engineers or participating in wider team leadership.
• You’re uncomfortable with the ambiguity that comes from working on novel challenges.

Pay and Benefits

Naimuri pays competitively within the industry based on your role’s base location rates. The salary for this position is dependent on your experience. We assess seniority relative to the team at Naimuri during the interviewing process. A full‑time working week is 37.5 hours and you have flexibility over when you give that time. We also offer part‑time working which can be discussed during the recruitment process. Our core hours are 10:00 am – 3:00 pm and our office is open between 7:30 – 18:00, Monday to Friday. Most teams have agreed "in office" days to enable collaboration. Depending on the project, you may also be required to travel to a local customer site or occasionally to other locations in the UK.

Company Overview

We’ve just had our tenth birthday, having grown from a little‑known tech start‑up into a community of 180 people, mostly based in Salford, Greater Manchester. We also have a significant presence in Cheltenham and London. Our name was chosen as an amalgamation of two Japanese words, to reflect our ethos: this principle applies to every aspect of our organisation from technology, process and infrastructure, through to people, culture and leadership. People and culture are at the heart of Naimuri, so that collectively, we can realise our mission of making the UK a safer place to be. We work in an Agile‑first environment that values transparency, collaboration, and continuous improvement. While every team has its own rhythm, you can expect…

Benefits

• Flexible/Hybrid working options
• Performance bonus
• Company bonus
• Pension matched 1.5x up to 10.5%
• AXA group 1 medical cover
• Holiday purchase/buy‑back scheme
• Cycle to work scheme
• Car benefit scheme