Senior Platform Engineer — Linux, Automation & Security

National Physical Laboratory (NPL); Teddington; On-site; GBP 75,000 - 95,000; Full time

Job summary

National Physical Laboratory (NPL) in the United Kingdom seeks a Senior Platform Engineer to lead Linux, tooling and security across enterprise platforms. The role focuses on automation, DevOps practices, PKI, and identity/security services, with travel to sites as required.

Fixed-term 12-month contract, with emphasis on resilience and secure infrastructure. You will work within the Time & Frequency department, contributing to critical national digital infrastructure and ensuring robust,

Qualifications

• Strong experience administering Linux server environments in enterprise organisations.
• Experience administering, maintaining, and supporting VMware environments.
• Strong automation and scripting experience using Bash, Ansible, Terraform, Python, and other enterprise automation frameworks.
• Experience designing, implementing, maintaining, and supporting secure, resilient, and highly available systems.
• Experience producing technical documentation, operational procedures/runbooks, and implementation plans.
• Strong stakeholder management, communication, and engagement skills.
• Demonstrable experience in a senior infrastructure/platform engineering, systems administration, or technical consultancy role.
• Relevant Linux, security, infrastructure, or automation certifications are desirable.

Responsibilities

• Administer, maintain, and secure Linux environments across enterprise systems.
• Assist with administration, maintenance, and optimisation of VMware vCenter and vSAN.
• Support management and usage of PKI and certificate services.
• Design, implement, and support resilient, highly available infrastructure solutions; troubleshoot complex issues.
• Deliver upgrades, migrations, patching, and lifecycle management activities.
• Develop and maintain automation and orchestration using scripting and IaC.
• Support enterprise security initiatives including privileged access management, monitoring, logging and data protection.
• Produce technical documentation and runbooks; contribute to disaster recovery and business continuity planning.
• Travel to sites as required to support deployment and operations.

Skills

Linux administration

VMware

Automation

Security

DevOps

Scripting

PKI

Tools

Bash

Ansible

Terraform

Python

Job description

National Physical Laboratory (NPL) in the United Kingdom seeks a Senior Platform Engineer to lead Linux, tooling and security across enterprise platforms. The role focuses on automation, DevOps practices, PKI, and identity/security services, with travel to sites as required.

Fixed-term 12-month contract, with emphasis on resilience and secure infrastructure. You will work within the Time & Frequency department, contributing to critical national digital infrastructure and ensuring robust,