Principal Platform Engineer

Entrepreneur First; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 130,000 - GBP 170,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading technology firm in London seeks a Principal Platform Engineer to take ownership of platform architecture and lead a team of senior engineers. This role emphasizes automation, reliability, and operational excellence with a strong focus on security and compliance. The ideal candidate has substantial experience in platform engineering with proven success in 24/7 systems. This position offers a hybrid model, competitive salary, and opportunities for growth into higher-level roles.

Benefits

Performance-based bonus

Professional development opportunities

Collaborative team environment

Qualifications

• Proven experience in platform, infrastructure, or SRE-focused engineering roles.
• Experience operating mission-critical, 24/7 systems with strict uptime.
• Strong hands-on experience with Kubernetes and containerisation.

Responsibilities

• Define and own the unified cloud + on-prem platform architecture.
• Adopt Infrastructure as Code and ensure environments are reproducible.
• Own availability targets across clusters and regions.

Skills

Platform leadership

Operational excellence

Automation

Security mindset

Communication

Kubernetes

CI/CD

Tools

AWS

Infrastructure as Code

GitOps

Job description

Automata is transforming the way labs work with open, integrated automation. Our mission is to unlock the potential of labs and the potential of the people who work in them.

We usually respond within three days.

Level: 6
Salary band: £130,000 - £170,000 depending on experience
Bonus: 15% performance‑based, discretionary
Location: Hybrid – 3 days per week on site in London (Angel)

About the Role

We are looking for a Principal Platform Engineer who will take full ownership of our platform foundations across cloud and on‑prem, with a mandate to unify, simplify, automate, and harden everything that sits underneath our products. This is a top‑end role with final authority over platform architecture, tooling, and standards. You will lead a small group of highly senior platform engineers, shape platform culture and execution, and ensure our infrastructure operates with 99.99% uptime, at scale, in highly constrained and regulated environments.

Why Work at Automata?

Impact: Your work will directly contribute to advancements in science and medicine, supporting labs around the globe as they push boundaries in research and innovation.

Innovation: You’ll be part of a team solving complex problems (seriously, no one else has figured out how to do this yet), using cutting‑edge technology (we have robots).

Growth: We invest in our people. Whether through hands‑on experience, professional development, or collaborative projects, you’ll grow both professionally and personally.

Community: Join a diverse, passionate team that values collaboration (golf on a Thursday, soccer once a month, movie nights whenever we fancy).

Who you are

• An outcome‑driven platform leader.
• You obsess over reliability, automation, and operational excellence.
• You believe the best platform is often the simplest possible one – fewer tools, fewer vendors, fewer moving parts.
• You are calm under pressure and experienced running systems that must be available 24/7.
• You are opinionated, but grounded in evidence, trade‑offs, and real‑world constraints.
• You communicate clearly and regularly, providing visibility into platform health, risks, and progress.
• You enjoy leading senior engineers, setting high standards, and building a culture of ownership and accountability.
• You are comfortable working across start‑ups, scale‑ups, and enterprise contexts – and know which practices belong where.
• You take pride in building platforms that are secure, cost‑efficient, low‑latency, and boring in the best possible way.

What you will do

• Own platform architecture and unification: define and own the unified cloud + on‑prem platform architecture, spanning AWS and customer‑hosted environments; design systems that operate reliably across hybrid, semi‑air‑gapped, and regulated deployments; act as the final decision‑maker on platform architecture, tooling, and vendors.
• Lead full automation: adopt Infrastructure as Code, GitOps, and CI/CD; ensure environments are reproducible, auditable, and recoverable by design; eliminate manual operations wherever possible.
• Reliability, uptime & operational excellence: own availability targets across 20+ clusters, 4 regions, and environments; design and operate systems targeting 99.99% uptime with clear SLOs, SLIs, and incident processes; improve observability, alerting, incident response, and post‑mortem culture.
• Security & compliance by design: embed security deeply into platform architecture and delivery pipelines; own platform alignment with ISO 27001 and GxP requirements; reduce attack surface through simplification, standardisation, and automation.
• Cost optimisation & platform efficiency: continuously optimise infrastructure cost without compromising reliability or security; make cost trade‑offs visible and intentional; remove wasteful tooling, over‑provisioning, and unnecessary platform complexity.
• Data & ML platform enablement: support reliable execution of data pipelines and ML workflows within the platform; partner with data and ML teams to ensure pipelines are scalable, secure, and operationally sound.
• Lead and inspire staff‑level platform engineers: set execution standards, delivery cadence, and technical expectations; improve platform engineering culture, visibility, and predictability.
• Partner with product and engineering leadership: translate product intent and operational requirements into platform architecture, roadmaps, and timelines; operate as an execution partner to product teams and an advisory partner where appropriate; provide clear, regular visibility into platform health, risks, and progress.

Your background

• Significant years of proven experience in platform, infrastructure, or SRE‑focused engineering roles.
• Deep experience operating mission‑critical, 24/7 systems with strict uptime requirements.
• Strong hands‑on experience with Kubernetes, containerisation, CI/CD, IaC, and GitOps.
• Proven track record running hybrid cloud + on‑prem platforms.
• Strong understanding of cloud economics and cost optimisation.
• Solid security mindset, including experience with regulated environments.
• Experience leading or heavily influencing senior platform engineers.
• Background across both start‑ups/scale‑ups and enterprise environments.

Growth & impact

This role offers real ownership today and meaningful growth tomorrow. You will define the foundations that every product and engineering team depends on, shape how the platform operates at scale, and build a culture of reliability and execution excellence. For the right person, this role naturally grows into VP‑level ownership of Platform and Infrastructure.

We are an equal‑opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. Discrimination of any kind based on race, colour, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, age, genetic information, disability, or veteran status is strictly prohibited.