Platform Engineer - Secure Operations

Description

The company is a global aerospace, defence and security business headquartered in Italy, with over 53,000 staff worldwide and 8,500 across 9 UK sites. Its platform engineers keep critical customer services secure, available and fit for purpose through hands-on engineering and operational support.

This is an operational role in highly controlled environments, supporting defence, government and public sector services. You will solve problems in an agile, team-based way alongside senior engineers, service management, security and customer teams.

The role sits in the Cyber & Security Solutions Division at the UK business. The focus is running, maintaining and improving the platform and systems engineering that underpins these services.

Responsibilities

• Run, maintain and support secure Windows and Red Hat Enterprise Linux platforms, plus virtualised estates, inside tightly controlled environments.
• Carry out assigned engineering tasks such as deployments, configuration changes, monitoring, patching, upgrades, backups and service improvements.
• Take part in incident, problem and change work. Investigate technical faults, help restore service and contribute to root-cause analysis.
• Keep secure configurations, platform baselines, support documents, runbooks and knowledge articles up to date.
• Diagnose platform, network, integration and service faults, and escalate complex issues where needed.
• Help produce low-level designs, implementation plans, test results, technical evidence and operational documentation.
• Work with Senior and Principal Engineers on operational readiness, service acceptance and handover into business-as-usual support.
• Improve operations through automation, reusable engineering patterns and better support processes.
• Share your knowledge with colleagues and help grow the wider team's skills.

Requirements

• Build a solid base in IT infrastructure through hands-on work in system administration, engineering or technical support.
• Work on defined tasks independently when needed, and collaborate well within a wider operational engineering team.
• Bring a disciplined, service-focused approach, careful attention to detail, and readiness to own assigned issues and tasks.
• Keep learning new technologies and widen your platform engineering skills.
• Explain things clearly to technical staff, service managers, security teams and customers.
• Must have: hands-on experience administering and supporting Windows Server and/or Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
• Must have: experience with enterprise virtualisation such as VMware or Hyper-V.
• Must have: working knowledge of networking fundamentals, including TCP/IP, DNS, DHCP, routing and firewalls.
• Must have: experience supporting infrastructure or platforms in a controlled, regulated or secure environment.
• Must have: experience across the infrastructure lifecycle, covering deployment, configuration, monitoring, patching, upgrades, backup and sustainment.
• Must have: understanding of incident, problem, change and configuration management in an ITIL-aligned service environment.
• Must have: awareness of cyber security controls, system hardening and vulnerability remediation.
• Must have: troubleshooting and fault-finding across integrated infrastructure and platform services.
• Must have: experience writing and maintaining technical documents such as support guides, runbooks and configuration records.
• Desirable: experience with VMware Cloud Foundation, including vSphere, vSAN, NSX or VMware Aria.
• Desirable: automation or scripting in PowerShell, Bash, Python, Ansible or Terraform.
• Desirable: Privileged Access Management, such as CyberArk or comparable tools.
• Desirable: Public Key Infrastructure, certificate lifecycle management or trust services.
• Desirable: cross-domain solutions, secure data transfer or controlled data flows across trust boundaries.
• Desirable: DevOps, DevSecOps, CI/CD pipelines or Infrastructure as Code.
• Desirable: Active Directory, identity services and wider enterprise integrations.
• Desirable: security monitoring, SIEM, endpoint security or integration with SOC tooling.
• Desirable: cloud platforms such as Microsoft Azure or Amazon Web Services.
• Desirable: containerisation platforms such as Kubernetes or Docker.
• Desirable: relevant Microsoft, Red Hat, VMware, ITIL, cyber security or cloud certifications.
• Candidates do not need experience in every area. The company wants capable operational platform engineers with a sound technical foundation, experience in one or more relevant domains, and a wish to grow across the wider secure-service environment.

Conditions

Based at the Yeovil site on Lysander Road. Regular onsite attendance is required; this is not a traditional hybrid role because of the secure customer environments supported.

Permanent contract.

Applicants who would need to move to the Yeovil area are welcome. Relocation support is available, subject to policy and eligibility, and can be discussed during recruitment.

Pre-employment screening follows the UK Government Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS). National Security Vetting (NSV) also applies, and Developed Vetting (DV) clearance is required before you start.

Pay follows a grade-based framework with broad bands. The advertised range is the approved grade band or a narrower hiring range within it, benchmarked against the external market. Pay above the standard range is handled through governance controls to protect internal equity.

Any accessibility needs during recruitment can be raised with the team.

Benefits

• Company-funded benefits package.
• Up to 12 additional flexi-days each year, on top of generous leave.
• Pension with up to 15% employer contribution.
• Free access to mental health support, financial advice and employee-led networks.
• Free access to over 4,000 online courses through Coursera and LinkedIn Learning.
• Up to £500 a year in flexible benefits, such as private healthcare, lifestyle discounts and gym memberships.
• Flexible hours. The benefits list also mentions hybrid working options, but this role is onsite.
• The full benefits list is available on the company website.