Senior Platform Engineer - Secure Operations

Description

Take the next step in your engineering career by helping run, maintain and improve secure platforms that guard national security.

Senior Platform Engineers here combine hands-on technical work with leadership, service ownership and ongoing improvement, keeping customer platforms secure, available and fit for their purpose.

The work is operational, in tightly controlled environments. You will resolve customer and service problems in a team-focused, agile and inventive way, working closely with engineering, service management, security and customer teams.

The role sits in the Cyber & Security Solutions Division of the UK business. It covers running, maintaining, assuring and improving platform and systems engineering that supports critical defence, government and public sector services.

The company is a global aerospace, defence and security group headquartered in Italy, with over 53,000 staff worldwide, including 8,500 across 9 UK sites.

You do not need to be a specialist in everything. The team wants broadly capable operational platform engineers with real depth in one or more areas, who can work across a multidisciplinary secure-service setting.

Responsibilities

• Run, keep up to date and improve secure Windows, Red Hat Enterprise Linux and virtualised platforms in highly controlled settings.
• Lead the technical side of incidents, problems and changes, coordinating investigation, recovery and root-cause work where needed.
• Own operational engineering tasks and defined work packages, covering planning, estimating, delivery, risk handling and progress reporting.
• Troubleshoot complicated platform, network, integration and service faults with engineering, cyber security, service management and customer teams.
• Carry out lifecycle work: deployment, monitoring, patching, upgrades, vulnerability fixes, backup and service continuity.
• Maintain secure configurations, platform baselines, support guides, runbooks and knowledge articles.
• Build, review and sign off low-level designs, implementation plans, test evidence and technical documents.
• Mentor and guide Platform Engineers and Technicians, sharing knowledge to grow the team's capability.
• Prepare services for operation and acceptance, and move them from project delivery into business-as-usual support.
• Find and deliver improvements through automation, reusable engineering patterns and better support processes.
• Help with technical recruitment, interviews and onboarding when asked.

Requirements

• Strong hands-on experience operating and supporting complex secure platforms.
• Ability to balance engineering delivery with technical leadership, mentoring and operational ownership.
• A service-minded approach, willing to own problems and speak for engineering in technical and operational discussions.
• Ability to work with technical, security, service management and customer stakeholders to keep services intact.
• Wide platform engineering skills, with deeper experience in one or more relevant technology areas.
• Administering and engineering Windows Server and Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
• Virtualisation at enterprise scale on VMware or Hyper-V.
• Networking knowledge covering TCP/IP, DNS, DHCP, routing and firewalls.
• Running platforms in highly controlled, regulated or secure settings such as defence or air-gapped systems.
• Lifecycle management: deployment, configuration, monitoring, patching, upgrades, backup and sustainment.
• Incident, problem, change and configuration management in an ITIL-aligned service.
• Cyber security controls, hardening, vulnerability remediation and secure-by-design principles.
• Diagnosing faults and finding root causes across linked infrastructure and platform services.
• Technical documentation: support guides, runbooks, configuration baselines and low-level designs.
• Automation or scripting with PowerShell, Bash, Python, Ansible or Terraform.
• Coordinating engineering work while leading technically and mentoring others.
• Desirable: VMware Cloud Foundation, including vSphere, vSAN, NSX and VMware Aria.
• Desirable: Privileged Access Management, such as CyberArk or comparable technologies.
• Desirable: Public Key Infrastructure, certificate lifecycle management and trust services.
• Desirable: cross-domain solutions, secure data transfer and controlled data flows across trust boundaries.
• Desirable: DevOps, DevSecOps, CI/CD pipelines and Infrastructure as Code.
• Desirable: Ansible, Terraform and platform automation.
• Desirable: Active Directory, identity services and wider enterprise integrations.
• Desirable: security monitoring, SIEM, endpoint security and integration with SOC tooling.
• Desirable: Microsoft Azure or Amazon Web Services.
• Desirable: Kubernetes or Docker.
• Desirable: relevant Microsoft, Red Hat, VMware, ITIL, cyber security or cloud certifications.

Conditions

Based at the Yeovil site on Lysander Road, on a permanent contract.

Regular on-site attendance is required because of the service and systems supported. This is not a traditional hybrid role.

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

Applications from people who would need to relocate to Yeovil are welcome. Relocation support is available, subject to policy and eligibility, and can be discussed during recruitment.

Pay is set by a grade-based band, with the advertised range covering the approved band or a narrower range within it, benchmarked against the external market. Pay above the standard range is only approved through governance controls.

Reasonable adjustments for the recruitment process are available on request.

Benefits

• Generous leave, plus up to 12 additional flexi-days each year.
• 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 on flexible benefits such as private healthcare, lifestyle discounts and gym memberships.
• Flexible hours, with hybrid working options.
• A full list of company benefits is on the company website.