Principal Platform Engineer

MMT; London; On-site; GBP 80,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading technology consulting firm in London seeks a Principal Platform Engineer to spearhead enterprise engineering modernization initiatives. This role requires a technical leader skilled in orchestrating complex transformations, aligning diverse teams, and driving significant improvements in infrastructure, security, and governance. The ideal candidate will have extensive experience in automation, cloud architectures, and stakeholder management, with a focus on delivering impactful business outcomes.

Qualifications

• Extensive hands-on engineering and architecture experience.
• Proven ability to lead technical teams and manage multi-stakeholder projects.
• Strong background in infrastructure automation and CI/CD.

Responsibilities

• Design and drive enterprise-wide engineering modernisation strategies.
• Lead the transformation of secrets management practices.
• Orchestrate collaboration between different technical teams.

Skills

Infrastructure automation

CI/CD

DevOps practices

Cloud security

Stakeholder management

Technical leadership

Tools

AWS

Azure

GitHub

Snowflake

Databricks

Job description

Location: UK

Contract Type: Permanent

About the Opportunity

We're looking for a Principal Platform Engineer who will lead enterprise engineering modernisation initiatives for our clients. This role is perfect for a technical leader who thrives on orchestrating complex transformations whilst aligning diverse specialist teams towards common engineering excellence goals.

You'll be a technical architect of change, designing comprehensive modernisation strategies that span infrastructure, security, quality assurance, and governance.

Think of yourself as the conductor of a technical orchestra - you don't need to play every instrument, but you must understand how they harmonise to create transformational outcomes.

What You'll Be Doing

Technical Leadership & Innovation

• Help design and drive enterprise-wide engineering modernisation strategies encompassing automated workflows, CI/CD frameworks, and development lifecycle improvements with MMT and client engineering teams.
• Lead aspects of Service Asset and Configuration Management (SACM) initiatives that bring order to complex enterprise estates.
• Lead the transformation of secrets management practices across heterogeneous environments, ensuring solutions scale effectively whilst strengthening organisational security posture
• Help define engineering standards, frameworks, and guardrails that accelerate delivery whilst ensuring compliance.
• Create technical roadmaps that balance quick wins with long-term architectural sustainability.

Cross-Team Leadership & Alignment

• Orchestrate collaboration between infrastructure, security, quality, and governance teams to deliver cohesive solutions, that exist in silo's around client businesses.
• Translate between specialist domains, ensuring each team understands their role in the bigger picture.
• Identify and resolve conflicts between competing technical priorities across different teams.
• Foster a unified engineering culture whilst respecting domain expertise.
• Lead architectural review boards and technical decision forums.

Enterprise Level Transformation Delivery

• Break down complex modernisation programmes into achievable phases with clear success metrics
• Make pragmatic build vs. integrate decisions that prioritise speed vs. value
• Integrate automated testing strategies that span unit, integration, performance, and security testing
• Implement CI/CD framework architecture that works across multiple technology estates, with particular focus on GitHub Actions as the strategic direction.
• Design frameworks with reusable patterns and libraries, ensuring each framework/toolkit makes the next one faster and more predictable.
• Leverage Data Lake platforms for comprehensive platform observability and compliance auditing.
• Ensure solutions consider enterprise constraints like regulatory compliance and legacy system integration.

Client Strategy & Engagement

• Work directly with C-suite executives and key client stakeholders to understand their business goals and technical challenges
• Transform complex technical concepts into clear business narratives that drive decision-making.
• Guide clients through their journey with strategic recommendations and practical next steps.
• Present technical strategies that clearly articulate business value and risk reduction.
• Build trust through early wins whilst maintaining focus on strategic objectives.

Business Growth & Thought Leadership

• Drive the technical aspects of high-value proposal responses and RFP.
• Present technical solutions and demonstrations that showcase our capabilities.
• Contribute to thought leadership content (our CTO office) and represent the company at industry events.[AT2]
• Help shape our service offerings based on market trends and client feedback.

What We're Looking For

Core Experience:

• Extensive hands-on engineering and architecture experience - if you're not excited about writing Infrastructure as Code and testing prototypes, this role isn't for you.
• Proven ability to lead technical teams and manage complex, multi-stakeholder projects.
• Deep understanding of enterprise constraints and how to navigate them.
• History of defining and implementing engineering standards at scale

Technical Expertise

• Strong background in infrastructure automation, CI/CD, and modern DevOps practices - think turning manual chaos into elegant, self-healing systems that deploy flawlessly
• Solid understanding of AWS and Azure architectures, particularly around identity, security, and secrets management solutions
• In-depth knowledge of Git workflows, branching strategies, and their implementation at enterprise scale
• Knowledge of cloud security frameworks and compliance requirements
• Understanding of cost optimization strategies and cloud financial management
• Familiarity with monitoring, observability, and incident response best practices
• High-level understanding of Service Asset and Configuration Management principles and their practical implementation in enterprise environments
• Understanding of Data Lake solutions (Snowflake, Databricks) for platform telemetry and auditing, plus ETL concepts for operational data pipelines
• Comprehensive knowledge of quality assurance practices and implementing automated quality gates throughout the development lifecycle
• Ability to read and understand Python and other common languages to review architectural decisions and integration points

Communication & Business Skills

• Excellent presentation skills with experience speaking to technical and executive audiences
• Strong written communication abilities, especially for proposals and technical documentation
• Natural curiosity about business challenges and how technology can solve them
• Collaborative mindset with the ability to work effectively across different teams and disciplines
• Experience managing stakeholder expectations and navigating complex organizational dynamics
• Strong grasp of Agile/Scrum practices and how they integrate with platform engineering initiatives

Languages:

• Fluency in English (spoken and written) is essential