Platform Engineer in R&D

Darktrace Ltd; Hartford; Hybrid; GBP 75,000 - 105,000; Full time

Job summary

Darktrace Ltd. is seeking a Platform Engineer in R&D to design, build, and maintain foundational infrastructure, tooling and automation that enables product teams to develop software efficiently.

The role focuses on Kubernetes-based infrastructure with hybrid work requiring 2 days per week in the Cambridge office. You will run and evolve our Kubernetes platform, support production deployments, and advance CI/CD pipelines while embedding security into platform design and coaching teams on best

Qualifications

• 2+ years operating Kubernetes clusters in production environments.
• Experience building and maintaining CI/CD pipelines.
• Strong English communication and collaboration skills.

Responsibilities

• Run and evolve Kubernetes platform across environments.
• Maintain reliability, observability, and performance of clusters.
• Build and maintain CI/CD pipelines to accelerate delivery.
• Drive infrastructure-as-code using Terraform or CloudFormation.
• Promote cloud-native practices and automate operational tasks.
• Embed security into platform design and educate teams on best practices.
• Coordinate changes across components with other teams.

Skills

Kubernetes

CI/CD pipelines

Terraform

CloudFormation

GitHub Actions

GitLab CI

Jenkins

Networking

Observability

Security principles

Scripting

Tools

Terraform

CloudFormation

Job description

As a Platform Engineer in R&D, you\'ll join the Platform Team to design, build, and maintain the foundational infrastructure, tooling, and automation that product teams rely on to develop and deliver software efficiently. This is a hands‑on role, if you enjoy making developers\' lives easier through great tooling, automation, and rock-solid Kubernetes-based infrastructure, we\'d love to hear from you. Please note this is a hybrid positions, and would require 2 days per week in the Cambridge office. What will I be doing: You will be responsible for running and evolving our Kubernetes platform across multiple environments, ensuring applications are deployed reliably at scale. Your deep experience with container orchestration and cloud-native tooling will be central to everything you do. You will support development teams in optimising their use of public cloud resources and assist with the transition of new applications to production. Additionally, you will be responsible for:

• Collaborating with development teams to ensure infrastructure meets their requirements while promoting scalable, cloud-native application practices,
• Operating and improving Kubernetes clusters day-to-day, with a focus on reliability, observability, and performance,
• Building and maintaining CI/CD pipelines to accelerate software delivery,
• Driving infrastructure-as-code practices using tools like Terraform or CloudFormation,
• Staying current with the cloud-native ecosystem, introducing pragmatic solutions to the team, and addressing operational challenges through automation,
• Embedding security into platform design and coaching other teams on best practices,
• Designing solutions and services with security controls engineered to mitigate threats,
• Managing service components to ensure they meet business needs and key performance indicators,
• Liaising with other team members to coordinate changes across components

You should have strong Kubernetes experience, at least two years operating, troubleshooting, and scaling clusters in production environments. You should be comfortable with networking, storage, RBAC, and workload scheduling. Familiarity with infrastructure provisioning tools such as Terraform and CloudFormation, along with Infrastructure as Code methodologies, is important. A good understanding of networking and security principles is crucial, as is the ability to solve problems and analyse patterns in behaviour and logs.

Additional qualifications

• Experience with continuous integration systems such as GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, and Jenkins,
• Proficiency in working with source control systems,
• Strong communication and interpersonal skills, with fluency in English both in written and verbal forms.

Nice to have

• Scripting or programming ability (Python, Bash, Go, or similar) - useful for building tooling and automation but not a prerequisite,
• Experience with observability stacks (Prometheus, Grafana, OpenTelemetry),
• Familiarity with service mesh, GitOps workflows, or platform-as-a-product thinking.,

As a growing business strengthening its governance and controls, this role plays a part in supporting high standards of integrity and accountability.

Darktrace is a global leader in AI-driven cybersecurity, helping organizations stay ahead of evolving threats every day.

Darktrace was built on a genuinely differentiated idea: that Adaptive AI could detect and respond to novel, real-time cyber threats. That approach matters more than ever in the era of AI. Today, our customers depend on us to stay ahead. At Darktrace, we are energized by that responsibility. We work across teams and rally around a shared goal. We own outcomes end to end - step in, step up and see things through without waiting to be asked. We make decisions with urgency, say the hard thing, and hold each other to high standards with care and directness. We move first and learn fast anticipating where our customers are going next, continuously challenging ourselves. We invest in the skills, learning and opportunities that help people deliver at the level their roles demand, and reward the aptitude and curiosity to grow beyond them.

Our Values: Own It | Win as One | Raise Our Bar | Move First. Learn Fast