Senior Cloud Engineer I

Checkout.com; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

Checkout.com is hiring a Senior Cloud Engineer in London to own the cloud platform that underpins a global payments network. You will design, implement, and automate across AWS and Azure, treating infrastructure as software and delivering secure, scalable capabilities.

You will lead cross-functional delivery, mentor peers, and shape the platform's direction with a pragmatic, data-driven mindset. This hybrid role requires strong coding, security, and networking skills.

Qualifications

• Advanced, hands-on experience designing and operating production infrastructure in AWS at enterprise scale.
• Real production experience with Azure: landing zones, VNet architectures, Entra ID, governance.
• Expert-level Terraform: reusable modules, secure state management, and disciplined code review.
• Strong cloud networking skills: VPC/VNet design, hub-and-spoke, routing and private connectivity.
• Kubernetes experience: production workloads on EKS/AKS, cluster lifecycle and reliability.
• Security/compliance in regulated environments; PCI DSS familiarity is a plus.
• Observability and data-driven operations; instrument and measure everything.
• Leadership and mentorship to guide peers and raise code quality.
• Balance between fast delivery and technical debt reduction; incident response and RCAs.

Responsibilities

• Lead design and delivery of large-scale platform projects from architecture to production.
• Build platform primitives that simplify product development and enforce secure defaults.
• Shape technical direction with managers and architects; document significant decisions.
• Act as a senior SME for services, ensuring high availability of global payments systems.
• Promote best practices and standards across the group through code and docs.
• Navigate dependencies across pillars to optimize speed and outcomes.
• Champion Checkout operating principles and professional excellence.
• Explore AI-driven automation to boost infrastructure efficiency.

Skills

AWS

Azure

Terraform

CI/CD

Python

Kubernetes

Networking

Security & compliance

Observability

Leadership

Problem solving

5+ years experience

Education

Degree in Computer Science or related field

Tools

Terraform

Spacelift

Git

Job description

Company Description

We’re Checkout.com. You might not know our name, but companies like eBay, Spotify, Klarna, Uber, and Sony do, because we’re behind many of the digital experiences you use every day.

We are where the world checks out, enabling over 10 billion transactions yearly for more than one billion global shoppers. Whether you want to book a holiday, order food, renew a subscription, or check out online, there’s a good chance our tech powers the payments behind the scenes. Our platform helps the most ambitious businesses deliver effortless digital experiences, at scale.

If you want to do career-defining work, you’ve come to the right place. We move fast, think globally, and believe great teams are built by hiring exceptional people with conviction, curiosity, and the desire to make an impact.

With 20 offices across six continents and London as our HQ, we’re shaping the future of fintech – and we’re just getting started.

The Role

Every payment we process runs on infrastructure we built. At Checkout.com, the Cloud Platform team owns the cloud foundations that global payments depend on: a large multi-account AWS estate, a growing Azure platform, and the networking and connectivity that reaches card schemes and banks worldwide. We are genuinely multi-cloud, and we are looking for a Senior Cloud Engineer who is too - a strong generalist who treats infrastructure as a software problem and can deliver from week one.

This is a hands‑on senior role in an established, fast‑moving team. Everything we run is defined in code, deployed through pipelines, and reviewed like software. You will bring deep cloud expertise across AWS and Azure and pair it with a genuine software engineering mindset: you write Terraform modules others build on, you automate away toil rather than documenting it, and you treat the platform as a product with users, SLOs, and a roadmap.

As a Senior Cloud Engineer, you are responsible for the technical delivery of your team's services. You will work closely with your Engineering Manager to shape direction, manage dependencies across pillars, and ensure our platform meets the standards a regulated payments business demands.

What we are looking for

• Deep AWS expertise: Advanced, hands‑on experience designing and operating production infrastructure in AWS at enterprise scale: multi‑account architectures (Control Tower, Organizations, SCPs), IAM, KMS, and the core compute, storage, and security services that a large regulated estate runs on. You should have a proven track record of delivering resilient, multi‑region architectures.
• Azure experience: Real production experience with Azure alongside AWS: landing zones, VNet architectures, Entra ID, and the Azure resource and governance model. You understand where the two clouds differ and can design well for both rather than forcing one cloud's patterns onto the other.
• Software engineering mindset: You treat infrastructure as software. Expert‑level Terraform: reusable modules, secure state management, and disciplined code review. You are comfortable in a Git‑based workflow with CI/CD (we use Spacelift), and you reach for Python or similar to automate what others would handle with a runbook. No ClickOps.
• Strong cloud networking: Confident designing and debugging in a complex network estate: VPC and VNet design, hub‑and‑spoke and Transit Gateway or Cloud WAN architectures, DNS, private connectivity (PrivateLink, Private Link), and enough routing knowledge to own connectivity issues end to end rather than upscale them.
• Kubernetes: Solid experience running containerised workloads in production, ideally on EKS/AKS: cluster lifecycle, workload deployment patterns, and the operational realities of keeping Kubernetes healthy at scale.
• Security and compliance awareness: Experience operating in regulated environments. You understand why change control, least privilege, and auditability matter, and you design controls in rather than bolting them on. Familiarity with PCI DSS is a strong plus.
• Engineering excellence: A focus on observability and measurement: you instrument what you build and answer operational questions with data rather than opinion.
• Leadership and mentorship: A natural ability to guide and mentor peers, translate ambiguous problem definitions into actionable technical plans, and raise the bar through your code and your reviews.
• Pragmatic problem solver: You understand when to move fast (creating tech debt) and when to move right (paying it off). You are a cornerstone in incident resolution and root‑cause analysis.
• Experience: 5+ years in cloud engineering roles with significant AWS depth. We need someone who can hit the ground running: comfortable joining a complex, established estate and delivering meaningful work in their first weeks, not their first quarter. A degree in Computer Science or a related field is useful but not required; we care about what you can build.

How you’ll make an impact

• Lead Design & Delivery: Take ownership of large‑scale platform projects end to end, from architecture through Terraform to production, ensuring they are scalable, secure, and cost‑optimised.
• Build the paved road: Design the platform primitives that every product team at Checkout.com builds on, so that the secure path is also the easy path.
• Architectural Influence: Work with Engineering Managers and architects to refine requirements and shape the technical direction of the platform, documenting significant decisions as ADRs.
• Operational SME: Act as the Subject Matter Expert for numerous team‑owned services, providing advanced operational support and ensuring high availability for our global payment systems.
• Evangelise Best Practices: Produce exemplary code and documentation that inspires others. You will be responsible for spreading best practices and standards across your group.
• Manage Dependencies: Navigate the organisation to manage technical dependencies inside and outside your pillar, optimising for both delivery speed and business outcomes.
• Foster Culture: Embody Checkout Operating Principles, using them to shape the group’s culture and acting as an example of efficiency and professional excellence.
• AI Integration: Proactively explore and implement AI‑driven automation to enhance infrastructure efficiency and team productivity.

Additional Information

Bring all of you to work

We create the conditions for high performers to thrive, through real ownership, fewer blockers, and work that makes a difference from day one.

Here, you’ll move fast, take on meaningful challenges, and be recognized for the impact you deliver. It’s a place where ambition gets met with opportunity, and where your growth is in your hands.

We work as one team, and we back each other to succeed. So whatever your background or identity, if you’re ready to grow and make a difference, you’ll be right at home here.

It’s important we set you up for success and make our process as accessible as possible. So let us know in your application, or tell your recruiter directly, if you need anything to make your experience or working environment more comfortable.

Life at Checkout.com

We understand that work is just one part of your life. Our hybrid working model offers flexibility, with three days per week in the office to support collaboration and connection.

Curious about what it’s like to be part of our team? Visit our Careers Page to learn more about our culture, open roles, and what drives us.

For a closer look at daily life at Checkout.com, follow us on LinkedIn and Instagram.

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