Senior Platform Engineer | S4 | Chief Information & Resilience Office | Milton Keynes & Glasgow

Santander is evolving from a global, high-impact brand into a technology-driven organisation, and our people are at the heart of this journey. Together, we are driving a customer-centric transformation that values bold thinking, innovation, and the courage to challenge what’s possible.

Our mission is to contribute to help more people and businesses prosper. We embrace a strong risk culture and all our professionals at all levels are expected to take a proactive and responsible approach toward risk management.

Santander Digital Services is the team of technology and operations at Santander. We are convinced of the importance of technology that is aligned with the requirements of the business and that our work not only brings value to users, people and communities but also fosters individual creativity.

The purpose of this role is responsibility for leading the design, implementation, optimisation, and maintenance of complex technology platforms within the organisation. They provide technical leadership to a team of platform engineers, guiding them in designing, implementing, and troubleshooting platform solutions, collaborating with cross-functional teams to ensure the successful delivery of platform projects.

To succeed in this role, you will be responsible for:

• Leading and managing IT infrastructure work and resource demands supplying necessary resources for new projects and work requests, ensuring that solutions proposed are aligned with the applications strategy.
• Consulting with leadership in IT providing high level advice on the strategic direction and priorities for the infrastructure function that underpins the IT estate.
• Strategic planning, day to day operations, delivery of new services and solutions and capacity planning to ensure IT infrastructure meets the current and future requirements of the organisation.
• Participating in incident response efforts, diagnosing, and resolving platform related issues and implementing preventative measures to minimise downtime.
• Full-service delivery. Undertakes structure planning to ensure sufficient system capacity is made available, that renewal plans to replace obsolete or at-risk technologies are timely and that SLAs are being met and/or exceeded.
• Resolving complex technical issues and provide senior technical leadership in response to performance bottlenecks in the platform infrastructure and applications to enhance efficiency and user experience.
• Communicating platform related updates, recommendations and roadmap plans to stakeholders, including leadership, product managers and other teams.
• Actively managing relationships with vendors acting as the liaison between the business, IT Senior Management team and key vendors, and maintain key relationships.
• Proving technical leadership, mentoring, and promoting a culture of innovation, collaboration, and accountability within the platform engineering team.
• Manage appropriate contracts and monitor the performance of third-party contractors.
• Internal budget management responsibilities.
• Managing teams tasked with developing and maintaining the significant estate of IT infrastructure that underpins IT services across Santander.
• Promotes and encourages good culture and behaviours personally and across the Team, in line with I AM Risk.
• Identifies, assesses, manages, and reports risks, taking initiative-taking personal responsibility for ‘doing the right thing’ in compliance with regulatory requirements and our frameworks and policies.
• Proactively supports the bank in meeting its business, legal, regulatory and stakeholder obligations in respect of Financial Crime Compliance.

The following requirements represent the knowledge, skills, and abilities essential for success in this role:

• Extensive experience in designing, implementing, and supporting large-scale IT infrastructure and platform environments.
• Proven track record of leading complex technology projects and platform engineering initiatives.
• Strong experience in incident management, including ownership of major incidents and driving root cause resolution.
• Demonstrated experience in capacity planning, performance optimisation, and infrastructure scalability.
• Experience providing technical leadership, mentoring engineers, and guiding engineering best practices.
• Solid background in server operating systems, distributed systems, and platform architecture.
• Experience working with cross-functional teams to deliver technology solutions aligned to business strategy.
• Proven ability to manage and prioritise competing workloads and resource demands in a fast-paced environment.
• Experience engaging with senior stakeholders, translating complex technical concepts into business language.
• Strong experience in vendor and third-party management, including performance oversight and contract engagement.
• Experience contributing to strategic planning, roadmaps, and transformation programmes.
• Working knowledge of Agile delivery methodologies and technology development lifecycles.
• Demonstrated experience in driving process improvement and operational efficiency within platform teams.
• Experience operating within regulated environments, with awareness of risk, compliance, and governance requirements.

Education: Bachelor’s degree in computer science or a related field, or equivalent and relevant work experience supported by professional certifications/licences.

Languages: English (Required)

Hard Skills:

• Experience managing large-scale technology deployments and incident management.
• Understanding of technology development lifecycle and of agile methodologies.
• Ability to explain to senior management complex technical concepts.
• Broad and comprehensive understanding of the concepts and principles within systems infrastructure and platforms.
• Knowledge of tools, approaches, and practices for determining production demand; ability to plan and manage resources needed to provide satisfactory levels of service.
• Knowledge of computer architecture and system software interaction; ability to design and build a fundamental architecture of operating systems, database management systems, communications protocols, compilers, and other development tools.
• Knowledge of server operating systems and platforms; ability to develop and support software for a distributed environment.
• Knowledge of effective planning techniques and ability to contribute to operational tactical and strategic planning in support of the overall business plan.

Soft Skills:

• Strong leadership and mentoring skills, with the ability to guide and develop engineering teams.
• Excellent communication skills, able to clearly convey complex technical concepts to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Effective stakeholder management, with the ability to build relationships and influence at all levels of the organisation.
• Strong decision-making and critical thinking, particularly in high-pressure or ambiguous situations.
• High level of problem-solving ability, with a proactive and solution-oriented mindset.
• Ability to collaborate across teams, breaking down silos and driving cross-functional alignment.
• Strong planning and organisational skills, managing multiple priorities and deadlines effectively.
• Adaptability and comfort with change, supporting transformation and continuous improvement initiatives.
• Attention to detail combined with the ability to maintain a strategic, big-picture perspective.
• Strong accountability and ownership, taking responsibility for outcomes and delivering results.

At Santander, your contribution matters. We recognise the difference you make every day, and we make sure you feel valued, supported and rewarded in return.

Salary Range: £80,000.00 - £120,000.00 per annum (depending on experience).

30 days’ holiday plus bank holidays, which increases to 31 days after 5 years service, with the option to purchase up to 5 contractual days per year.

Company funded individual private medical insurance.

Protection for you and your family, with company-funded death-in-service benefit and income protection insurance.

Support for every life stage — from menopause and pregnancy to parenthood and beyond, with enhanced family leave, childcare options and tailored wellbeing support.

Global growth opportunities to shape your career, learn new skills and explore what’s possible across our international network.

We’re committed to creating a recruitment experience that’s accessible, fair and welcoming for all candidates.

Right to work in the UK: All candidates must have the right to work in the UK to commence employment with Santander.

If this sounds like a role you are interested in, then please apply.