Private Cloud Platform Lead Engineer

Synechron; Sheffield; On-site; GBP 90,000 - 140,000; Full time

Job summary

Synechron is seeking a Principal Engineer - Private Cloud to provide technical leadership across virtualization, Kubernetes, container orchestration, Kafka and microservices. Reporting to the Head of Private Cloud, you will shape platform roadmaps, ensure secure, resilient and scalable private cloud capabilities within a highly regulated environment.

You will collaborate with product owners, architects and security teams to translate strategy into practical technology outcomes, establish

Qualifications

• Experience as a Principal Engineer or equivalent.
• Proven experience in large-scale enterprise or regulated environments.
• Strong private cloud or platform engineering background.
• Expertise in at least two of: VMware/virtualisation, Kubernetes, Kafka or container platforms, distributed systems.

Responsibilities

• Define technical direction for private cloud, Kubernetes, container, virtualisation and Kafka platforms.
• Lead the architecture and evolution of compute, storage, networking, orchestration and platform services.
• Establish reference architectures, engineering standards, reusable patterns and platform guardrails.
• Own Kubernetes platform decisions covering cluster architecture, networking, multi-tenancy, security, policy, secrets, observability and upgrades.
• Define Kafka standards for topic design, partitioning, resiliency, schema governance, security, monitoring and capacity planning.
• Promote automation-first delivery through Infrastructure as Code, GitOps, CI/CD and configuration management.
• Improve developer experience through golden paths, templates, self-service capabilities and clear documentation.
• Review technical designs and ensure solutions are secure, supportable, resilient, cost-effective and production-ready.
• Coach engineering teams on microservices, APIs, event-driven architecture and operational resilience.
• Drive security-by-design, vulnerability management, access controls, data protection and auditability.
• Support multi-region, active-active, resilience testing, capacity planning and incident improvement initiatives.
• Communicate complex technical concepts clearly and influence decisions across architecture, product and engineering forums.

Skills

Virtualisation

Kubernetes

Kafka

Microservices

Infrastructure as Code

CI/CD

Security by design

Distributed systems

Platform engineering

Cloud platforms

Job description

Synechron is seeking a Principal Engineer - Private Cloud to provide technical leadership across virtualization, Kubernetes, container orchestration, Kafka and microservices. Reporting to the Head of Private Cloud, you will shape platform roadmaps, ensure secure, resilient and scalable private cloud capabilities within a highly regulated environment.

You will collaborate with product owners, architects and security teams to translate strategy into practical technology outcomes, establish