Lead IT Platform Engineer

This job is with Autolus Therapeutics, an inclusive employer and a member of myGwork – the largest global platform for the LGBTQ+ business community. Please do not contact the recruiter directly.

Reports to: Senior Manager IT Infrastructure

Department: IT Operations

Hours: Monday – Friday (Core office hours)

Location: Stevenage, UK

About Autolus: Autolus is a biopharmaceutical company, advancing innovative therapies at both clinical and commercial stages of development, focused on next-generation, programmed T cell therapies for the treatment of cancer. Using a broad suite of proprietary and modular T cell programming technologies, the company is engineering precisely targeted, controlled, and highly active T cell therapies designed to better recognize cancer cells, break down their defence mechanisms, and eliminate these cells. Autolus has a pipeline of product candidates in development for the treatment of haematological malignancies, solid tumours, and autoimmune diseases.

Why Autolus: Our team is passionate in the pursuit of excellence and in pushing the boundaries of cancer therapy and autoimmune diseases to deliver life-changing treatments to patients. Whilst working at Autolus you will enjoy a flexible, diverse, and dynamic working environment which actively promotes creativity, leadership and teamwork. In addition to this Autolus is proud to offer a competitive salary, performance related bonus as well as private medical insurance, life assurance, and pension.

Our Promise: Autolus is developing complex, breakthrough therapies for a globally diverse market and equally recognises that diversity amongst our people is critical to our mission. As we draw on our differences, what we’ve experienced, and how we work, we celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees.

Role Summary: As Lead Hosting and Identity Engineer, you will provide strategic and technical leadership for the organisation’s core infrastructure platforms, spanning cloud (Azure), on-premises HCI, virtualisation, and identity services. You will ensure the reliable, secure, and compliant operation of critical compute and authentication environments across both IT and OT domains. A key focus of the role is the direction and accountability of third-party suppliers – you will act as the organisation’s technical authority in supplier engagements, ensuring external delivery aligns with architectural standards, performance expectations, and business outcomes. Beyond delivery oversight, you will drive platform strategy, lifecycle management, and service improvement, while mentoring internal teams and contributing to governance at enterprise level.

Key Responsibilities:

• Provide end-to-end oversight of infrastructure services spanning Microsoft Azure, Azure Stack HCI, and hybrid IT/OT platforms, ensuring solutions are fit for purpose, secure, and resilient.
• Act as the technical lead and oversight authority in supplier engagements, leading technical design reviews, challenging assumptions, and ensuring that partner-delivered services meet defined quality, security, and operational standards.
• Drive accountability and own the delivery outcomes of third-party vendors and service providers, from project execution through to BAU support.
• Act as SME (Subject Matter Expert) for Azure services including Virtual Networks, Availability Zones, Azure Local, and hybrid connectivity (ExpressRoute, VPN Gateway, Azure Arc).
• Lead technical ownership of identity platforms, including Entra ID, Conditional Access, and Active Directory, ensuring secure and seamless user and workload access.
• Lead the configuration and lifecycle management of core virtualisation and storage technologies, particularly Hyper-V clusters, SAN/NAS solutions, and software-defined storage.
• Own the implementation and optimisation of backup and patching strategies using Veeam, Azure Backup, Azure Update Manager, and WSUS (for patch management in isolated OT environments), with a focus on recovery assurance, compliance, and risk mitigation.
• Lead the implementation and operational oversight of comprehensive infrastructure monitoring and observability, leveraging tools such as LogicMonitor, Azure Monitor, Log Analytics and other telemetry platforms to ensure proactive incident detection, capacity planning, and performance tuning.
• Ensure platform compliance with regulatory, security, and operational policies through robust design and proactive risk mitigation.
• Lead technical due diligence and engagement with third-party service providers, from technical evaluation and SOW review to onboarding and performance management.
• Own capacity planning, monitoring, and lifecycle management of all compute and platform infrastructure components, ensuring high availability and optimal performance.
• Drive automation and efficiency improvements through Infrastructure as Code (IaC), scripting and platform service integration.
• Lead major incident response and problem management efforts, performing root cause analysis and implementing preventative controls.
• Provide expert mentorship and escalation support to infrastructure and support teams, fostering a high-performance, knowledge-sharing culture.
• Maintain technical design artefacts, including HLDs, LLDs, SOPs, and architecture decisions, ensuring they are version-controlled and audit-ready.
• Represent the platform domain in governance boards, such as Technical Design Authority (TDA), Change Advisory Board (CAB), and service reviews, providing authoritative input on design and risk.

Demonstrated skills and competencies:

• E – Essential
• P – Preferred
• Extensive expertise in IT Infrastructure roles, with significant hands-on leadership in architecting, deploying, and managing both Microsoft Azure cloud services and on-premises hyperconverged infrastructure (e.g., Azure Local). (E)
• Deep technical proficiency across core infrastructure technologies, including PKI, Active Directory, file services, Windows and Linux servers, enterprise backup and recovery solutions (e.g., Veeam, Azure Backup), patch and vulnerability management, remote access platforms, and key network protocols (e.g., DNS, NTP, SMTP). (E)
• Working knowledge of Microsoft Intune and endpoint management solutions in hybrid identity environments. (E)
• Willingness to remain hands-on when necessary, including supporting complex escalations, while maintaining strategic oversight. (E)
• Proven experience leading infrastructure teams, providing technical direction, coaching, and mentoring to junior engineers, and raising overall team capability. (E)
• Able to translate complex technical concepts into business-relevant language, confidently presenting solutions to non-technical stakeholders and influencing senior leadership. (E)
• Demonstrates a proactive leadership style, with the ability to set and communicate a clear technical vision aligned to organisational goals. (P)
• Demonstrable experience managing strategic relationships with third-party vendors and service providers, including performance reviews, contract alignment, and service delivery oversight. (E)
• Strong stakeholder engagement skills, with a track record of working closely with business units to understand requirements, shape solutions, and drive value through IT. (E)
• Experienced in leading transformational change initiatives, including process redesign, technology refreshes, and service maturity uplift in complex infrastructure environments. (P)
• Strong analytical and systems thinking capability, with the ability to identify technical inefficiencies, assess risk, and lead structured continuous improvement initiatives. (E)
• Highly detail-oriented, ensuring that engineering artefacts, operational processes, and implemented changes meet stringent quality, performance, and security standards. (E)
• Familiarity with operating in highly regulated environments (e.g., pharmaceutical, financial services, or critical infrastructure), including awareness of compliance, validation, and audit frameworks. (P)
• Experience identifying and managing technical debt, developing remediation strategies, and integrating risk management into infrastructure lifecycle and change processes. (P)
• Understanding of ISA-95 / Purdue Framework and its application to IT/OT segmentation and industrial network design. (P)

Qualifications:

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or a related discipline. (Preferred) or equivalent technical hands-on experience.

Autolus Core Competencies:

• Focus on Results: Works to meet business goals set by management and leaders
• Builds Trust and Relationships: Ensures trust with internal and external partners by delivering on commitments
• Resilience: Has the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness
• Communicates and Collaborates: Builds partnerships and works collaboratively with others to meet objectives

Autolus is committed to the protection of the personal information that we collect & process and we are fully compliant with General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR)