Principal Infrastructure Engineer

Location: Basingstoke (Hybrid)
Salary: Up to £95K plus benefits
Security Clearance: Active UK DV required
Travel Required:Travel expected to client offices

We are seeking a Principal Infrastructure Engineer to lead the technical evolution and delivery of our modern, high-security hybrid cloud ecosystem. Operating across both internal R&D and mission-critical customer delivery projects, you will act as a key technical authority and leader.

You are more than an infrastructure specialist; you bring a software engineering mindset to platforms and systems, treating infrastructure as software and leveraging modern Infrastructure as Code (IaC), automation and declarative CI/CD pipelines. As a principal, you will own complex technical initiatives from whiteboard architecture through to production rollout: directing teams, mentoring engineers, and steering cross-functional initiatives across platforms.

End-to-End Technical Leadership: Take complete technical ownership of complex, multi-domain infrastructure initiatives from initial architecture through to production deployment. Direct and guide engineering teams, assigning deliverables and maintaining technical standards throughout the delivery lifecycle.

Infrastructure Software Engineering: Architect and write high-quality, production-readycode.

Build custom tooling,orchestrationsand integration scripts to automate operations across modern platforms.

Continuous Integration & Delivery (CI/CD): Design, build andmaintainrobust automated CI/CD pipelines for infrastructure validation, automatedtestingand zero-downtime deployments.

Multi-Domain & Hybrid Ecosystems: Direct the strategy,designand integration across diverse platforms,combining deep Linux and Windows environments, software-defined networking, and cloud/virtualisationtechnologies.

Escalation & Engineering Forensics: Act asthe technical authority and escalation point for major systemic incidents,applyingdeep-level diagnostics across software, physicalhardwareand high-security networks.

Technical Strategy & R&D: Drive innovation within internal R&D streams, evaluate emerging technologies, champion engineering best practice and setting standards for continuous improvement across the engineering organisation.

Software & Automation Rigor: Extensive, hands-on experience designing and delivering software artifacts, withproficiencyacrossmultiple coding languages(e.gPython,Java, Rust).

CI/CD Platform Mastery: Proven track recordimplementing continuous integration and deployment pipelines for platform configurations and infrastructure testing.

Multi-Domain Leadership: Demonstrated experience leading multi-disciplinaryengineering projects start-to-finish, coordinating work across teams (systems, network, security, and cloud).

Broad Hybrid Platform Expertise: Deep engineeringexpertisespanning Linux systems (RHEL/Ubuntu), Enterprise Windows/Active Directory environments and

Kubernetesplatforms.

Delivery & Mentorship: Ability to mentor mid-level and senior engineers, articulate architectural visions tointernalstakeholders and external clients, andmaintainclear technical roadmaps.

Requirement: An active DV Clearance is essential due to the sensitive nature of the environments you will support.

Security: Full-time, permanent role within a stable, high-growth sector.

Balance: A genuine hybrid working model based in Basingstoke and the Southeast. Potential for international travel.

Perks: 25 days leave, private medical cover and acompetitivepension.