Senior Platform Engineer

Ellison Institute of Technology Oxford; Oxford; On-site; GBP 85,000 - 110,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Enhanced holiday pay

Pension

Life Assurance

Income Protection

Private Medical Insurance

Hospital Cash Plan

Therapy Services

Perk Box

Electric Car Scheme

Job summary

A leading technology institute in Oxford seeks a Cloud Platform Engineer to architect and operate their cloud infrastructure. You will drive the implementation of automated delivery pipelines and governance controls, collaborate with research teams, and ensure resilient operational processes. Ideal candidates will have a strong background in platform engineering, cloud providers, and Kubernetes management. This role offers excellent benefits and a supportive work environment.

Qualifications

• Proven experience in platform engineering with a track record of architecting and automating operational processes.
• Highly proactive attitude with passion for automation.
• Expertise with at least one major cloud provider.
• Proficiency with Terraform for declarative, large-scale infrastructure provisioning.
• Comfortable operating and managing large-scale, resilient Kubernetes clusters.
• Proficiency in at least one major system-language (Python, Go, or Java) with scripting experience.

Responsibilities

• Architect, build, and operate our cloud platform.
• Drive the implementation of CI/CD/GitOps pipelines.
• Design and deploy automated governance and security controls.
• Establish the foundational monitoring, alerting, and telemetry framework for robust operations, defining clear SLOs and guiding future SRE work.
• Partner with Research and Data teams to build self-service capabilities that support diverse workloads, from Python notebooks to distributed clusters.

Skills

Platform engineering experience

Cloud provider expertise (OCI, AWS, GCP, Azure)

Terraform proficiency

Kubernetes management

System-level programming (Python, Go, Java)

Python/Go/Java

CI/CD/GitOps

Tools

Kubernetes

Terraform

Policy-as-Code tooling

Job description

The Ellison Institute of Technology (EIT) Oxford is devoted to creating a global impact by reimagining science and technology so that they translate into end‑to‑end solutions and programs that address society’s most pressing challenges.

EIT Oxford will turn scientific discoveries into products that serve society, enabling commercialisation and long‑term sustainability. Guided by four humane endeavours—Health & Medical Science & Generative Biology, Food Security & Sustainable Agriculture, Climate Change & Managing Atmospheric CO₂, and Artificial Intelligence & Robotics—EIT aims to deliver commercially sustainable solutions.

Responsibilities

• Architect, build, and operate our cloud platform, moving infrastructure beyond initial setup to deliver resilient compute, network, and storage, including full‑sized GPU clusters.
• Drive the implementation of highly structured, auditable delivery pipelines (CI/CD/GitOps) to enforce automated, repeatable infrastructure changes.
• Design and deploy automated governance and security controls using Policy‑as‑Code (e.g., Kyverno and YAML) to ensure strong isolation, protect data, and meet internal audit standards.
• Establish the foundational monitoring, alerting, and telemetry framework required for robust operations, defining clear SLOs and setting the course for future SRE work.
• Partner with Research and Data teams to build self‑service capabilities that efficiently support diverse workloads, from Python notebooks to distributed clusters.

Qualifications

• Proven experience in platform engineering with a demonstrable track record of architecting and automating operational processes.
• Highly proactive attitude and passion for introducing and automating operational structure.
• Expertise with at least one major cloud provider (OCI, AWS, GCP, or Azure).
• Proficiency with Terraform for declarative, large‑scale infrastructure provisioning.
• Comfortable operating and managing large‑scale, resilient Kubernetes clusters.
• Proficiency in at least one major system‑level language (Python, Go, or Java) with scripting experience.

Nice to have

• Familiarity with modern Policy‑as‑Code tooling.
• Passion for introducing and automating operational rigour and structure.
• Experience supporting ML and Data Engineering workloads.

Benefits

• Enhanced holiday pay
• Pension
• Life Assurance
• Income Protection
• Private Medical Insurance
• Hospital Cash Plan
• Therapy Services
• Perk Box
• Electric Car Scheme

Why work for EIT

At the Ellison Institute, we foster a collaborative, inclusive team that encourages creative risks and values emotional intelligence, empathy, respect, and resilience. We build a supportive environment where curiosity is rewarded and a shared commitment to excellence propels our impact.