Senior Platform Automation Engineer

Job title:

Senior Platform Automation Engineer

Location:

Stoke-on-Trent, Permanent Onsite

Salary: £75,000 – £85,000 (DOE) + benefits

• Contribute to strategic direction for on‑premise platform automation
• Define automation standards, patterns, and reference architectures for secure on‑premise infrastructure
• Shape the long‑term roadmap for Infrastructure as Code adoption, modernising traditional infrastructure practices safely within defence environments
• Act as a technical authority and decision maker for platform automation approaches, tools, and designs
• Influence senior stakeholders, architects, security teams, and delivery leads on platform strategy, risk, and investment priorities

• Design, build, and maintain Infrastructure as Code (IaC) for the automated provisioning and lifecycle management of on‑premise CWEs
• Develop reusable, version‑controlled automation artefacts to standardise infrastructure builds across environments
• Lead the transition from manual and bespoke builds to repeatable, code‑driven infrastructure delivery
• Ensure all infrastructure changes are auditable, reproducible, and aligned with secure delivery practices

• Embed defence‑grade security controls, identity integration, and configuration hardening into all automation
• Design infrastructure automation to support accreditation, assurance, and audit requirements
• Work closely with security and compliance teams to ensure platforms meet customer and regulatory expectations

• Integrate Infrastructure as Code into CI/CD pipelines to support controlled, repeatable platform changes
• Define and implement safe promotion models across development, test, and production environments
• Automate environment provisioning, modification, and decommissioning to support customer lifecycle needs

• Improve reliability and reduce operational risk by identifying automation gaps and replacing manual processes
• Support incident analysis and drive preventative improvement through enhanced automation
• Actively manage technical debt within platform automation codebases
• Continuously refine automation to improve efficiency, quality, and resilience Leadership, Coaching & Enablement
  • Provide senior technical leadership and mentoring to Junior and Graduate engineers
  • Set expectations for coding quality, automation practices, and operational ownership
  • Enable delivery and operations teams to safely consume platform automation through clear guidance and tooling
  • Contribute to engineering culture, promoting automation‑first, code‑driven delivery
  Education and Experience Requirements Essential Experience
  • Significant, hands‑on experience designing, building, and operating on‑premise infrastructure platforms within enterprise or highly regulated environments
  • Proven experience delivering Infrastructure as Code (IaC) to automate the provisioning and lifecycle management of infrastructure
  • Demonstrable experience working in security‑constrained or regulated environments, such as defence, government, or critical national infrastructure
  • Experience contributing to or establishing technical standards, automation patterns, and strategic direction for platform engineering
  Technical Experience
  • Strong experience with Nutanix hyperconverged infrastructure, including cluster design, operation, and automation
  • Experience supporting or automating Citrix platforms (e.g. virtual apps and desktops) within secure enterprise environments
  • Solid understanding of traditional data‑centre technologies including compute, storage, networking, and identity services
  • Hands‑on experience building, configuring, and automating SQL Server platforms
  • Experience supporting multi‑tier enterprise applications hosted on on‑premise infrastructure
  • Understanding of how collaboration platforms are underpinned by identity, database, and application services
  Automation & Infrastructure as Code
  • Strong practical experience with Infrastructure as Code tools (e.g. Terraform, Ansible, Power Shell DSC, or equivalent)
  • Proven ability to create reusable, version‑controlled…