Lead Platform Operations Engineer

BigHand offers technology solutions for busy legal professionals that provide data and insights to increase value and profits. Through our expert knowledge and innovative technology, we enable our customers to achieve enhanced efficiency, better decision-making and harness their competitive edge.

We build with tomorrow in mind, transforming ideas into action and empowering our customers to succeed in a world of constant change. We make big happen for our customers.

We are a business driven by our values and have these at the centre of everything we do. Our BigHanders are dedicated to building a culture where We Win Together, We Love to Learn, We Do the Right Thing, We Own It and We Find the Fun.

About the role

Join BigHand to lead the evolution of our cloud-native SaaS platforms, combining hands-on engineering with team leadership to deliver secure, scalable, and high-performing solutions on Azure. This is a high-impact role where you will shape platform strategy, drive reliability, and enable faster innovation across the business.

What you'll do

As a Lead Platform Operations Engineer, you will combine hands-on engineering with leadership to drive the evolution, reliability, and security of our SaaS platforms.

You will:

Lead & Develop High-Performing Teams

Lead, mentor, and grow a team of Platform Operations engineers

Drive a culture of continuous learning, accountability, and DevOps best practice

Manage performance, capacity planning, and team development

Lead the transition of on-prem systems to Azure (IaaS, PaaS)

Architect and evolve container-based platforms using Kubernetes and Docker

Define and maintain platform standards, patterns, and best practices

Own Platform Reliability, Security & Performance

Lead incident response, root cause analysis, and platform improvements

Implement robust monitoring, observability, and alerting strategies

Drive security improvements aligned to ISO27001, SOC2, and modern SDLC practices

Ensure strong governance across infrastructure, applications, and data

Deliver Scalable & Secure Platform Operations

Build and enhance Infrastructure as Code (Terraform, PowerShell)

Drive CI/CD maturity using Azure DevOps and integrated security tooling

Implement SRE principles, BCP/DR strategies, and resilience engineering

Eliminate manual processes through automation

Partner Across the Business

Collaborate closely with Product, Engineering, Architecture, and Customer teams

Influence platform strategy balancing speed, cost, risk, and compliance

Support customer onboarding and improve deployment processes

Manage vendor relationships and identify optimisation opportunities

Track and prioritise technical debt

Optimise cloud cost and capacity

Bring emerging cloud, security, and AI knowledge into the organisation

Champion DevOps and modern engineering practices across teams

What we're looking for

You are a technically strong, hands-on leader with a passion for building scalable cloud platforms and developing high-performing teams.

Technical Expertise

Deep experience with Microsoft Azure (Compute, Networking, Security, Data)

Strong hands-on experience with Kubernetes, Docker, and container orchestration

Expertise in Infrastructure as Code (Terraform) and scripting (PowerShell, Bash, SQL, KQL)

Proven delivery of CI/CD pipelines (Azure DevOps YAML essential)

Experience implementing security tooling (SAST, DAST, container scanning, WAF)

Strong knowledge of cloud security, encryption, TLS/SSL, certificates, and access control

Experience with observability, monitoring, and alerting tools

Security & Compliance

Practical experience implementing ISO27001 and SOC2 controls

Knowledge of OWASP methodologies and secure development lifecycle practices

Experience with vulnerability management, PAM, secrets management, and secure access

Platform & Operations Excellence

Experience running and scaling highly available SaaS platforms

Strong understanding of SRE, incident management, and operational best practices

Experience implementing BCP/DR solutions across cloud and on-prem

Leadership & Delivery

Proven leadership experience managing technical teams (5+ years)

Ability to lead multiple complex initiatives end-to-end

Strong stakeholder management and communication skills

Ability to balance business priorities with engineering excellence

Mindset & Approach

Curious, growth-oriented, and continuously learning

Analytical problem-solver with strong attention to detail

Comfortable challenging the status quo while driving pragmatic change

Collaborative, positive, and team-focused

What we offer

25 days holiday (exc. bank holidays) + 3 BigHand days off between Christmas & New Year

Various wellbeing benefits including private medical, vision, online wellbeing programs & webinars, access to online therapy and Employee Resource Groups (ERG)

Company-wide Wellness day, for our teams all across the globe to switch off and spend the day doing something to nourish their mental health

Opportunities to give back with company volunteer events and individual volunteer days

Career growth opportunities and study leave allowance

Family benefits including enhanced parental leave, secondary caregiver leave and fertility support

Financial benefits including pension scheme, life assurance, and salary sacrificing

Cycle to Work Scheme and Tech Scheme

Growing business with a global presence, flexible working, modern offices, and remote work options

We welcome the unique value and individuality that you can bring to BigHand. We are an equal opportunity employer and are dedicated to recruiting solely based on capability and potential regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, educational background, national origin, religion, military status or physical ability. Our BigHanders are dedicated to advancing our culture of belonging by embracing differing viewpoints, opinions, thoughts, and ideas. #LI-OT1

Lead Platform Operations Engineer London, England, United Kingdom