Senior Platform Engineer

Position: Senior Platform Engineer (12 month Fixed Term Contract)
Fixed Term Contract for 12 months
Our world-leading Time & Frequency department are seeking a  Senior Platform Engineer  with expertise in Microsoft infrastructure, Linux system administration, automation, security and operational support, with particular focus on Active Directory, PKI, automation, security technologies, and operational support.
This is an exceptional opportunity to join the global authority in  precision timing  at a defining moment for UK digital infrastructure.
Backed by a government investment of £180 million in the National Timing Centre (NTC) programme, we are developing a world-first resilient time distribution capability that will provide industry with a robust complement to satellite systems (such as GPS) – which are increasingly vulnerable to disruption from solar storms, jamming and spoofing. This will underpin essential services, including
Telecommunications,
Online banking,
Emergency response,
Transport networks, and
Wider digital and data-driven operations.
Together, these services form the backbone of modern society - and your leadership will help ensure they remain secure, reliable and robust even if global navigation satellite systems fail.

Key Responsibilities
As a  Senior Platform Engineer specialising in Linux, Tooling, and Security , you will help design, deliver, and support secure infrastructure services across complex enterprise and customer environments, with a strong focus on automation and Dev Ops practices. Working as part of a specialist team, you will implement, harden, automate, and support core identity, security, messaging, and infrastructure platforms, including orchestration services (Kubernetes) running on virtual platforms.
Administering, maintaining, and securing Linux environments, including Linux/Dev Ops tooling and open-source Linux databases.
Assisting with the administration, maintenance, and optimisation of VMware vCenter and vSAN environments.
Supporting the management and utilisation of Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) and certificate services.
Designing, implementing, and supporting resilient, highly available infrastructure solutions, while troubleshooting complex infrastructure, platform, and network issues.
Delivering upgrades, migrations, patching, and lifecycle management activities.
Developing and maintaining automation and orchestration capabilities using scripting and Infrastructure as Code (IaC).
Supporting enterprise security initiatives, including privileged access management, monitoring, logging, and data protection solutions.
Producing technical documentation, operational procedures, and support runbooks.
Contributing to disaster recovery, business continuity, and redundancy planning.
Travelling to sites as required to support deployment, implementation, and operational activities.
About You

Essential Criteria
To be successful in this role, you will have:
Strong experience administering Linux Server environments within enterprise organisations, including the design, implementation, and support of Linux services.
Experience administering, maintaining, and supporting VMware environments.
Strong automation and scripting experience using tools such as Bash, Ansible, Terraform, Python, and other enterprise automation frameworks.
Experience designing, implementing, maintaining, and supporting secure, resilient, and highly available systems.
Experience producing technical documentation, operational procedures/runbooks, and implementation plans.
Strong stakeholder management, communication, and engagement skills.
Demonstrable experience in a senior infrastructure, platform engineering, systems administration, or technical consultancy role.
Relevant Linux, security, infrastructure, or automation certifications are desirable.
Desirable Criteria
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