Principal Cloud Engineer

At Places for People, we hire People, not numbers! If you resonate with our People Promises—doing the right thing, enthusiasm, growth mindset, community spirit, respect, and enjoyment of work—you may be the right fit for our Social Enterprise committed to creating inclusive and thriving communities for both customers and employees.

We are recruiting a Principal Cloud Engineer on a permanent basis, reporting to the Head of Cloud Services. You will provide technical leadership to the Cloud Engineering team, own the Cloud infrastructure solutions portfolio, set and drive technical standards, and create and maintain the long‑term technology roadmap.

The role leads the development and enhancement of infrastructure through code, ensuring services are resilient, visible, scalable, repeatable and transportable. All solutions must meet prescribed standards, align with best‑practice cloud engineering, and satisfy performance requirements.

While the position is remote, you will attend face‑to‑face meetings in Preston roughly once a month. A basic DBS check is mandatory. The interview process consists of two stages: an online first stage and a face‑to‑face second stage in Preston (travel costs covered).

You will have the flexibility to discuss reduced hours, flexible start and finish times, or compressed hours as part of our commitment to work‑life balance.

• Proven track record as a Principal Cloud/Dev Ops Engineer.
• Experience with Azure or GCP and Terraform.
• Expertise in Terraform, GIT, Ansible and Puppet.
• Strong understanding of CI/CD processes.

• Competitive salary with yearly review.
• Pension with matched contributions up to 7%.
• Excellent holiday package – 35 days annual leave with option to buy or sell leave.
• Cashback plan for healthcare costs – up to £500 saving per year.
• Bonus scheme for all colleagues at 2%.
• Training and development.
• Extra perks including discounts and offers from shops, cinemas and more.

If you meet the essential criteria, apply through our simple five‑minute process by uploading a CV and a supporting statement that demonstrates how you meet the requirements. For questions, email the recruitment team.

We offer a guaranteed interview to candidates who are disabled, neurodiverse, or have served in the Armed Forces, provided they meet essential criteria. Please indicate the scheme in your application. We commit to providing reasonable adjustments to support your application or interview experience.

All employees must uphold our safeguarding policies, and pre‑employment DBS checks are part of the recruitment process.

We guarantee interviews for anyone serving or formerly served in the Armed Forces, who is disabled, or who is neurodivergent, as long as they meet the essential criteria for the vacancy.