Platform Engineer

Vertical Aerospace; United Kingdom; On-site; GBP 50,000 - 70,000; Full time

Job summary

An innovative company in aviation is looking for a Platform Engineer to build and operate the digital foundations of advanced eVTOL aircraft systems. You will manage and modernize hybrid infrastructures, ensuring security and resilience, while leveraging Azure cloud services and Terraform for automation. This role demands strong technical skills, a mindset for continuous improvement, and offers various company benefits including a generous holiday allowance and a performance-based bonus.

Benefits

26 days holiday plus bank holidays

5 extra days to buy or sell

4% additional salary for benefits

Company performance based bonus

Company Share Scheme

Company Pension Scheme matching 5%

Daily breakfast provided

Qualifications

• Strong experience with Azure cloud services including VM Scale Sets and Azure Databases.
• Experience with administering Hyper-V and Active Directory environments.
• Hands-on experience with Terraform and Azure DevOps.

Responsibilities

• Take ownership of security posture and reliability of platforms.
• Maintain hybrid infrastructure including Azure and on-premise servers.
• Design and operate cloud services using Terraform and Azure DevOps.

Skills

Azure cloud services

Infrastructure management

Observability tools

Terraform

Azure DevOps

Script usage (PowerShell, Python, Bash)

Vulnerability mitigation

Security best practices

Tools

DataDog

Grafana

Prometheus

Job description

Our Mission

At Vertical Aerospace, we are pioneering the way for electric aviation. The VX4, our eVTOL (‘electric vertical take-off and landing’) zero-emissions aircraft, will set a new safety standard for how we navigate the sky.

We won’t realise our mission following the same legacy processes and traditions our predecessors followed; instead, we want redefine aerospace best practices.

We are growing quickly from a prototype business to a scaling SME, and the next few years will be critical to our success and our ambitious goals of having the VX4 in service by 2030.

What to Expect

As a Platform Engineer, you will join a team dedicated to building and operating the digital foundations that underpin our aircraft, engineering platforms, and business systems.

A typical day could range from designing and automating cloud infrastructure in Azure, to improving the reliability and resilience of our hybrid environment, to enhancing our security posture through vulnerability mitigation and compliance activities. You may be developing infrastructure-as-code in Terraform, performing disaster recovery testing, working with Active Directory and Hyper‑V teams, or collaborating with engineering functions to support their compute and platform needs.

Your ability to move fast, solve complex systems challenges, and continuously improve infrastructure reliability will be crucial to the impact you make in this role.

What You’ll Do

• Take ownership of the security posture, resilience, and reliability of our platforms, including vulnerability mitigation, configuration hardening, and monitoring.
• Maintain and modernise our hybrid infrastructure spanning Azure cloud services, on‑premise Hyper‑V servers, and Microsoft Active Directory.
• Manage and regularly test our backup, disaster recovery (DR), and business continuity (BCP) processes.
• Design, automate, and operate cloud services across Azure (and future AWS workloads) using Terraform, Azure DevOps, and scripting languages.
• Develop observability and monitoring standards using tools such as DataDog, Grafana, and Prometheus.
• Support container‑based workloads through Azure Container Apps, AKS, and related services.
• Ensure operational excellence and continuous improvement aligned with frameworks such as ISO 27001.
• Partner with engineering, security, and cross‑functional teams to build scalable, reliable, secure systems.
• Contribute to the development of a modern, multi‑cloud, hybrid platform strategy.

What You’ll Bring

• Strong experience with Azure cloud services and infrastructure management, including Virtual Machines, VM Scale Sets, Container Apps/Instances, AKS, Azure Storage, and Azure Databases (PostgreSQL, MySQL, MSSQL).
• Experience administering Hyper‑V, Linux, and Microsoft Active Directory environments.
• Solid grounding in observability tools (DataDog / Grafana / Prometheus).
• Hands‑on experience with Terraform, Azure DevOps, and scripting (PowerShell, Python, Bash).
• Proven experience in vulnerability mitigation, security best practices, and ISO 27001 compliance.
• Experience with backup, recovery, and DR/BCP testing.
• Track record of automating, scaling, and supporting production platforms.
• A mindset centred on automation, resilience, and continuous improvement.

Desired

• Experience with Azure High Performance Compute (HPC) or Slurm workload scheduling.
• Experience with Kubernetes, Flux, Helm, and GitOps principles.
• Experience building or supporting developer platforms (CI/CD tooling, environment automation, internal developer portals).
• Database experience (MySQL, MSSQL, PostgreSQL).
• Strong understanding of network fundamentals (TCP/IP, DNS, VPNs, VLANs, routing).
• Familiarity with AWS or multi‑cloud architectures.

What can you expect from us?

We're on a mission. Where others see limits, we see opportunity, and we work at pace. Working at Vertical isn't your average role but for those seeking a challenge, a flexible, supportive organisation and an incredible team; working here is an opportunity to do the best work of your career.

Our approach promotes ingenuity and courage, while our environment builds success through diligence in safety and being open in the way we work. The only way we're going to assure the next chapter of aviation history is by working as a team, relentlessly, towards our goal.

Our benefits

• 26 days holiday, plus bank holiday

• 5 extra days per year to buy (or sell)

• 5 extra days holiday when you get married or enter a civil partnership

• Additional 4% of your salary to spend on extra benefits

• Award‑winning digital health and wellbeing service (Help@Hand)

• Company performance based bonus - rewarding company and individual performance

• Company Share Scheme - open to every Vertical employee

• Company Pension Scheme - 5% and we match it

• Breakfast on us, every day

We may just be the hardest job you've ever had, but we're confident it will be the most rewarding. Join the team today and help us shape the future of Advanced Air Mobility.

Disclaimer Statement

We encourage you to apply even if you may not have all the experience listed in the advert. We recognise that talent comes in various forms and we are committed to providing opportunities that create an environment of growth, diversity, and inclusion for everyone. As part of our desire to review and make our processes fair, we may ask you questions related to these aspects during the application process. For more information on how we will use your data, see our Legal section.