Senior Platform Engineer

UK Atomic Energy Authority; South Oxfordshire; On-site; GBP 51,000 - 63,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Corporate bonus

Pension scheme

Annual leave 25 days

Site closure Christmas

Flexible working

Job summary

UK Atomic Energy Authority is seeking a Senior Platform Engineer within the Computing Division to lead delivery of secure, production-grade platforms and infrastructure, collaborating with scientists and engineers.

You will design resilient cloud/DevSecOps/MLOps solutions, mentor colleagues, and promote modern software-engineering practices across UKAEA projects.

Qualifications

• Technical qualification or equivalent experience in a scientific, engineering or technical environment.
• Hands-on experience developing, deploying and maintaining production-grade systems or platforms.
• Demonstrated expertise in modern software engineering and DevSecOps/MLOps practices, including Git, automated testing, CI/CD, containers, infrastructure as code, across Linux and Windows environments.
• Experience delivering software projects and managing the software lifecycle, with strong communication and collaboration skills.
• Ability to learn and apply new technologies, with mentoring or leadership experience.

Responsibilities

• Lead significant technical projects and work packages, delivering secure, reliable and sustainable platforms and infrastructure.
• Design and improve resilient solutions across cloud, DevSecOps, MLOps, software delivery and data workflows, identifying opportunities for automation.
• Collaborate with scientists and engineers to understand needs, provide technical advice and deliver solutions that improve efficiency.
• Develop the Software Operations team by shaping best practices, mentoring colleagues, improving processes and supporting growth.
• Drive continuous improvement and operational excellence, manage stakeholders, promote secure-by-design and SRE practices.

Skills

DevSecOps

MLOps

Python/Bash/Go/C++

Git

CI/CD

Linux/Windows

Mentoring

Education

Scientific/engineering/technical background

Tools

Git

CI/CD tooling

Containers

Infrastructure as Code

Linux/Windows

Job description

• Salary: £57,117 (inclusive of Specialist Allowance) + excellent benefits including outstanding pension
• Division: Computing
• Department: Integrated Software Solutions

Job Description

About us

Fusion, the process that powers the sun and stars, is one of the most promising options for generating the cleaner, carbon-free energy that our worldbadly needs. UKAEA leads the way in realizing fusion energy, partnering with industryand research organisations to achieveground-breaking advancements. Our goal is to bring fusion electricity to the gridby developing the power stations of tomorrow and the skilled workforce to deliver them.

About the job

UKAEA’s mission is to deliver sustainable fusion energy and maximise its scientific and economic impact. The Computing Division supports this through digital capabilities spanning research, simulation, data, engineering, business systems and communications.

The Software Operations Group (SORG) provides the infrastructure and expertise needed for secure software development and operations, promoting DevSecOps and MLOps practices across UKAEA.

As a Senior Platform Engineer, you will work closely with scientists and engineers across UKAEA to deliver secure, robust and sustainable software and platforms. You will lead technical delivery, contribute to work planning and help modernise software operations through improved engineering processes and practices.

Working within the growing Software Operations Group, you will collaborate with Platform Engineers specialising in secure software delivery, DevSecOps and MLOps. You will share your expertise, mentor colleagues and help develop and embed modern software-engineering practices across UKAEA.

As part of a small team with a broad organisational reach, you will have the opportunity to influence how SORG develops, while delivering solutions that support some of UKAEA’s most complex projects.

What You’ll Be Doing

• Lead significant technical projects and work packages, delivering secure, reliable and sustainable platforms and infrastructure.
• Design and improve resilient solutions across cloud, DevSecOps, MLOps, software delivery and data workflows, while identifying opportunities for innovation and automation.
• Collaborate with scientists and engineers to understand their needs, provide technical advice and deliver solutions that improve efficiency, reproducibility and delivery.
• Develop the Software Operations team by shaping best practices, mentoring colleagues, improving processes and supporting the growth of technical capabilities.
• Drive continuous improvement and operational excellence across UKAEA, managing stakeholders, promoting secure-by-design and SRE practices, and maintaining high standards of safety and quality.

What You’ll Bring

• Technical qualification or equivalent experience in a scientific, engineering or technical environment, such as research, HPC or cloud infrastructure.
• Substantial hands‑on experience developing, deploying and maintaining production‑grade systems or platforms, with proficiency in at least two programming or scripting languages such as Python, Bash, Go or C++.
• Demonstrated expertise in modern software engineering and DevSecOps/MLOps practices, including Git, automated testing, CI/CD, containers, infrastructure as code and technical documentation, with experience working across Linux and/or Windows environments.
• Experience delivering software projects and managing the software lifecycle, with the ability to communicate effectively, collaborate and influence people from a range of technical and non-technical backgrounds.
• Ability to learn and apply new technologies, with experience mentoring or supervising others and the motivation to develop leadership and people‑management skills.

Desirable– expertise & experience in any of the following:

• Working knowledge of NIST frameworks (e.g. SP 800-53, SSDF) or equivalent (SoftwareCyber,AI Cyber Security Code of Practice,ISO 27001, CIS, OWASP) and their application within software development andDevSecOpspractices
• Familiarity with scientific, engineering, or technical domains relevant to UKAEA’s mission, particularly where computing infrastructure plays a critical role in research and experimentation.
• Experience with data pipeline engineering, developing tools for data visualisation ormonitoringdashboards.
• Knowledge of UI/UX principles and development of web‑based or GUI tools, particularly for internal platforms, observability systems, or scientific workflow interfaces.
• Exposure to modern or emerging programming languages and ecosystems such as Rust, Julia, or SYCL, and interest in evaluating new tools for infrastructure or high‑performance computing.
• Experience with mentoring, coaching, or managing technical colleagues, and enthusiasm for contributing to a collaborative, high‑performing engineering culture.
• Practical knowledge of deploying and optimising workloads across scientific computing platforms, includingon‑premiseclusters, HPC environments, public cloud platforms, or hybrid architectures.
• LeadingSORG‑related initiatives (e.g., teaching & training, community, outreach, or policy work)

UKAEA is an onsite organisation, and this role requires regular onsite presence (usually between 3-5 days in any given week) in line with business needs. We actively support flexible working arrangements where this is compatible with the role

Please be aware that this role issubject to achieving a UK Security Vetting (UKSV)(must haveresidedin the UK for the last 4- 5 years) including The Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) checks for criminal convictions and possibly asearch of open‑source data.

We have a generous range of benefits (see the full listhere ) and highlights include:

• A salary of£57,117(inclusive ofa £5,800 specialist allowance)
• Up to 7% corporate performance bonus
• Final salary defined benefits pension scheme with an equivalent of21.5% employer pension contribution
• 25 days annual leave plus2.5 privilege days;8 Bank Holidays
• 3 days of site closure over Christmas break
• Flexible working options plus family-friendly leave provisions

Our commitment to ED&I

UKAEA's mission is clean energy for all, and we welcome talented people from all backgrounds to help us achieve this goal. We are committed to equality, diversity,inclusionand accessibility, and strive to ensure fair representation across our workforce.

Please email [emailprotected] if you have any questions or require adjustments to help youparticipatefairly in our recruitment process, for example changes to the way we interview or share information. As a Disability Confident Employer, we are committed to providing an inclusive and accessible recruitment experience for all candidates.

We particularly encourage applications from groups currently underrepresented in STEM, including women and people from diverse ethnic backgrounds. All appointments are made onmeritand further information can be foundhere .