Lead Infrastructure Engineer

Apply now Job no: 495167
Work type: Full time
Location: Woodgate, Birmingham
Categories: Information Technology

The Lead Infrastructure Engineer is the senior technical authority within the infrastructure function, responsible for defining technical standards, assuring solution design, and leading the delivery of complex changes while remaining hands‑on. The role will provide deep technical expertise and leadership while being responsible for the guidance and management of one other team member.

The successful candidate will shape the technical direction of the infrastructure estate, ensuring performance, security, resilience and scalability across all Ishida Europe environments. This includes LAN/WAN, server platforms, hybrid cloud services, storage, virtualisation, cybersecurity controls, and enterprise applications.

The postholder acts as the final technical escalation point for major incidents, supports project delivery, ensures infrastructure is secure‑by‑design, and elevates engineering capability across the team.

The role will be responsible for the line management of one team member, encompassing performance management, delivery of objectives, ongoing training and skills development, structured knowledge transfer, career growth, and the provision of regular coaching, feedback, and support.

• Act as technical authority for all infrastructure services, patterns and standards.
• Define, maintain, and communicate reference architectures and engineering best practices.
• Translate high‑level requirements into detailed technical designs.
• Review, challenge and assure designs produced by engineers and partners.
• Make technology recommendations aligned to business needs, security, and lifecycle strategy.

• Lead delivery of complex, high‑risk or cross‑platform infrastructure changes.
• Act as final technical escalation point for infrastructure and enterprise platform issues.
• Troubleshoot systemic performance, reliability and interoperability issues.
• Support major incident management, service restoration and root‑cause analysis.

• Provide day‑to‑day technical leadership, coaching and mentoring to engineers.
• Set technical direction and priorities for infrastructure work streams.
• Review work quality, ensuring adherence to engineering standards.
• Drive knowledge‑sharing, capability development and improved operational maturity.
• Responsible for at least one other team member
• Implement and maintain hardening standards, security baselines and technical controls.
• Lead vulnerability remediation across infrastructure platforms.
• Work closely with security teams to meet compliance requirements (e.g., ISO
  27001, GDPR, NIS2, Cyber Essentials).
• Lead infrastructure work streams in major projects and transformation programmes.
• Coordinate technical delivery across internal teams and external suppliers.
• Ensure changes are implemented safely, reliably and documented effectively.
• Support service transition, handover and operational readiness.

• Own and maintain core infrastructure documentation and diagrams.
• Create and maintain operational procedures, runbooks and support documentation.
• Standardise repeatable processes to reduce fragility and reliance on individuals.

• Provide 3rd‑line technical escalation to the IT Support Team.
• Support Ishida Europe offices across EMEA; travel will be required.
• Work closely with WAN providers, hardware vendors and cloud partners.
• Support other areas of the business where required.
• Undertake additional responsibilities and projects to meet evolving business needs.
• Work overtime and outside usual business hours where required
• Promote and uphold company values in all interactions.
• Take reasonable care of own health and safety and that of others.

The successful candidate must have a Level 3 IT qualification or equivalent experience, supported by certifications in VMware, Veeam, Microsoft, Fortinet, ITIL, and Networking. You must demonstrate strong technical leadership with the ability to…