Platform Engineering Manager

IBM SiXworks; Farnborough; On-site; GBP 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

25 days annual leave

Private Medical cover

Life Assurance

Generous pension

Bonus

Professional development

On-site gym and restaurant

Job summary

SiXworks seeks a Platform Engineering Manager to lead a large team across Cloud, Developer Platforms, IaC, and CI/CD. You will balance people leadership with hands-on delivery, ensuring engineers are aligned to business priorities and skills are developed for successful BAU work and project delivery.

Your role blends strategic staffing, capacity planning, and technical credibility in infrastructure-as-code, containerisation, automation and scripting, with UK security clearance eligibility a

Qualifications

• Background in Platform Engineering
• ITIL Foundation (desirable)
• Certifications in Azure, Terraform, Kubernetes or Linux beneficial
• Experience in offline environments is advantageous

Responsibilities

• Lead and develop a large engineering team; conduct 1:1s and performance reviews
• Mentor, coach, and drive skills development aligned to strategy
• Provide direction, influence morale, and manage recruitment/onboarding
• Contribute to technical problem solving, architectural reviews and hands-on delivery
• Promote engineering processes and ensure high-quality delivery
• Act as a liaison between project managers, operations and service leadership

Skills

Team leadership

Mentoring engineers

Agile Scrum ITIL SDLC

Communication skills

Organizational skills

Data-driven decisions

Calm under pressure

Education

ITIL Foundation

Tools

Azure

Terraform

Kubernetes

Linux

Job description

Work on Technology That Protects What Matters

At SiXworks, we build secure digital solutions that support Defence and National Security missions. Our teams work on complex problems where reliability, security, and speed of innovation matter.

We’re looking for a Platform Engineering Manager who enjoys solving difficult technical challenges and wants their work to have real operational impact.

What You’ll Do

This role is a balance of team management and project delivery and requires a solid understanding of platform engineering domains across multiple projects in: Cloud Platforms (Azure/Google), Developer Platforms, GitOps, Platforms & Servers, Infrastructure-as-Code (Terraform), Scripting & Automation (Python, Ansible), Containerisation (Kubernetes, Docker, Podman) and Service Management (ITIL).

Responsible for line managing engineers and their skills; ensure skills are developed and aligned to business strategy and needs. This role blends strong people management capability with good technical understanding of platform engineering technologies, ensuring the right engineers with the right skills are assigned to projects, BAU activities and operational priorities. Together with our Operations team, drive & support capacity planning, workforce optimisation and skills development, ensuring high‑quality delivery across platform engineering such as infrastructure-as-code, containerisation, CI/CD, automation and scripting.

Your work may include:

People Leadership:

• Manage a large team of engineers; holding 1:1s, supporting career development, setting objectives and managing performance.
• Lead on mentoring, coaching, and skills development of team members
• Lead the team; support wellbeing, provide clear guidance/direction, influence team morale.
• Take ownership for recruitment and onboarding of new team members.

Technical Contribution:

• Contribute towards technical problem solving, architectural reviews, and hands‑on delivery to maintain technical excellence and team credibility.
• Writing/maintaining/promoting engineering processes.

Stakeholder Management:

• Act as a contact for project managers, operations team and service leadership.
• Communicate resource constraints, risks, and priorities clearly.
• Build strong relationships across technical teams.

What We’re Looking For

We value people who take ownership, think critically, and enjoy working as part of a collaborative team tackling complex challenges. You don’t need to tick every box, but we’re particularly interested in people with skills/experience in:

• Demonstrated success in managing technical teams, mentoring engineers, and delivering solutions aligned to Agile, Scrum, ITIL, and SDLC best practices.
• Good leadership and communication skills.
• Strong organisational and planning skills
• Excellent people-management skills
• Familiarity with complex multi‑discipline IT environments
• Data‑driven decision‑making
• Calm under operational pressure

Qualifications / Technical Experience

• Background in Platform Engineering
• ITIL Foundation (desired)
• Technical certification (Azure, Terraform, Kubernetes, Linux) beneficial
• Experience working in offline environments beneficial

Just as important are curiosity, strong problem solving ability, and the motivation to continuously improve how technology is designed and delivered.

About SiXworks

SiXworks is a specialist digital innovation partner delivering secure, mission‑critical technology to Defence and National Security organisations. We focus on digital experimentation, secure‑by‑design architecture, cloud technologies, and rapid application development to help our customers move faster and stay ahead of evolving challenges.

Our team combines expertise from across technology, business, and operational backgrounds including the armed forces creating a collaborative environment where practical thinking and innovation thrive.

Why Join Us

Our culture is guided by six principles: Agility, Security, Innovation, Quality, Collaboration and Inclusivity our North Star for how we work. SiXworks is a leading provider of secure digital solutions, specialising in digital experimentation and focused on fail‑safe‑fast cutting‑edge technology solutions deployed in highly secure environments.

As an end‑to‑end digital innovation and delivery partner, we turn complex challenges into mission‑critical digital advantages. This is a thrilling time for us, with ambitious plans for growth. We are looking for brilliant, experienced, driven and self‑motivated people to join the team on our journey.

We offer competitive salaries and a package that supports your wellbeing and development, including 25 days annual leave + bank holidays, free Private Medical cover and Life Assurance, Generous pension (10% employer, 5% employee contribution), Bonus and Professional development and training support. In addition to secure parking, gym, café & restaurant on site and lots of open break out spaces.

A word on UK Security Clearance

Due to the secure nature of the position and working environment, you must have or be eligible to obtain Security Clearance. More details relating to UK Security Clearance can be found here:

United Kingdom Security Vetting: clearance levels - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)