Platform Lead in London

Platform Lead in London

London Full-Time 70000 - 90000 ÂŁ / year (est.) Home office (partial)
Blue Light Card

At a Glance

  • Tasks: Lead and develop the Platform Engineering team, shaping its direction and impact.
  • Company: Join Blue Light Card, a dynamic team where individual strengths create unstoppable synergy.
  • Benefits: Enjoy hybrid working, 25 days holiday, company bonuses, and health perks.
  • Other info: Modern office with gym access and great social events for a vibrant work culture.
  • Why this job: Make a real impact by owning platform engineering and enabling product teams to thrive.
  • Qualifications: Proven experience in leading platform functions and deep AWS expertise required.

The predicted salary is between 70000 - 90000 ÂŁ per year.

We’re looking for a Platform Lead to join our Engineering team at Blue Light Card at a pivotal moment. This is a foundational role, with the platform function just getting started and a real opportunity to shape its direction, culture, and impact from the ground up. As Platform Lead, you’ll own platform engineering end to end, setting the strategy, building the team, and ensuring product squads have the tooling, infrastructure, and paved roads they need to deliver with confidence. You’ll define what “production ready” means across the organization and work closely with Staff Engineers and Engineering Managers to make the right technical choices the easiest ones to make. This is a hands‑on leadership role that balances deep technical involvement with organizational impact. You’ll stay close to the technology and the challenges teams face, while owning the platform roadmap, influencing technical direction, and building a platform team that product squads trust and rely on.

What you’ll do

  • Lead and develop the Platform Engineering team, creating an environment where engineers and squads can thrive
  • Own the platform roadmap, ensuring it delivers clear value to product teams and supports business growth
  • Act as the trusted technical authority for platform and infrastructure decisions across engineering
  • Set clear, practical production readiness standards covering reliability, observability, security, scalability, and cost
  • Build and evolve paved‑road platform solutions, reference architectures, and reusable tooling
  • Embed strong operational practices, including SLOs, alerting, and effective incident management
  • Use operational data and insights to continuously improve platform reliability, performance, and efficiency
  • Enable product teams to be increasingly self‑sufficient through great documentation, collaboration, and thoughtful use of automation and AI

What you’ll bring

  • Proven experience leading a Platform, Infrastructure, or SRE function in a product led engineering organization
  • Deep, hands‑on AWS expertise across compute, networking, storage, serverless, and security
  • Strong Terraform experience, building reusable infrastructure‑as‑code that teams actively adopt
  • Experience defining and operating SLOs, observability standards, and incident management at scale
  • Ability to set technical direction and communicate it clearly to both technical and non‑technical stakeholders
  • A strong people focus, with a track record of mentoring engineers and building high performing teams
  • Experience with CI/CD pipelines, monitoring and logging platforms, and modern platform engineering practices
  • A commercial mindset, connecting platform investment to delivery speed, cost efficiency, and positive business outcomes

What We Offer

  • Hybrid working
  • 25 days plus public holidays, buy and sell and an additional day off for your birthday
  • A company bonus scheme
  • Great social events e.g., Christmas party, family fun day, summer party, sports matches
  • Learning and development opportunities
  • Group auto‑enrolment pension plan
  • Enhanced maternity, paternity, sick pay
  • Company funded private medical insurance
  • Healthcare cashback plan
  • Employee assistance programme (including mental health support)
  • Modern office space with onsite gym including access to free HIIT & stretch classes, games area, chill-out areas, book club, and more, when you visit our HQ in Cossington

Platform Lead in London employer: Blue Light Card

At Blue Light Card, we pride ourselves on being an exceptional employer that fosters a collaborative and innovative work culture. As a Platform Lead, you'll have the unique opportunity to shape our platform engineering function while enjoying a range of benefits including hybrid working, generous leave policies, and a supportive environment for personal and professional growth. Our modern office in Cossington features fantastic amenities such as an onsite gym and social events, making it an ideal place for you to thrive both personally and professionally.
Blue Light Card

Contact Detail:

Blue Light Card Recruiting Team

StudySmarter Expert Advice 🤫

We think this is how you could land Platform Lead in London

✨Tip Number 1

Network like a pro! Reach out to folks in the industry, attend meetups, and connect with current employees at Blue Light Card. A friendly chat can sometimes lead to opportunities that aren’t even advertised.

✨Tip Number 2

Show off your skills! If you’ve got a portfolio or any projects that highlight your platform engineering expertise, make sure to share them during interviews. It’s a great way to demonstrate your hands-on experience.

✨Tip Number 3

Prepare for those technical questions! Brush up on your AWS, Terraform, and incident management knowledge. We want to see how you think through problems and make decisions under pressure.

✨Tip Number 4

Don’t forget to apply through our website! It’s the best way to ensure your application gets seen by the right people. Plus, it shows you’re genuinely interested in joining our team at Blue Light Card.

We think you need these skills to ace Platform Lead in London

Platform Engineering
Infrastructure Management
AWS Expertise
Terraform
SLO Definition and Operation
Observability Standards
Incident Management
Technical Direction Setting
CI/CD Pipelines
Monitoring and Logging Platforms
Team Leadership
Mentoring
Automation
Documentation Skills
Collaboration

Some tips for your application 🫡

Tailor Your CV: Make sure your CV speaks directly to the role of Platform Lead. Highlight your experience in platform engineering, AWS expertise, and any leadership roles you've held. We want to see how your skills align with what we're looking for!

Craft a Compelling Cover Letter: Your cover letter is your chance to shine! Use it to tell us why you're passionate about this role and how you can shape our platform function. Be genuine and let your personality come through – we love seeing the real you!

Showcase Your Technical Skills: Don’t hold back on showcasing your technical prowess! Mention your hands-on experience with Terraform, CI/CD pipelines, and any relevant projects. We’re keen to see how you’ve tackled challenges and made an impact in previous roles.

Apply Through Our Website: We encourage you to apply through our website for a smoother process. It helps us keep track of applications and ensures you get all the updates. Plus, it’s super easy – just follow the prompts and let us know why you’d be a great fit!

How to prepare for a job interview at Blue Light Card

✨Know Your Platform Inside Out

Before the interview, dive deep into platform engineering concepts, especially around AWS and Terraform. Be ready to discuss your hands-on experience and how you've tackled challenges in previous roles. This will show that you’re not just a leader but also technically savvy.

✨Showcase Your Leadership Style

Prepare examples of how you've built and developed high-performing teams. Talk about your mentoring experiences and how you create an environment where engineers thrive. This is crucial for a role that requires both technical authority and people management.

✨Understand Business Impact

Be ready to connect your technical decisions to business outcomes. Discuss how your platform strategies have improved delivery speed or cost efficiency in past projects. This will demonstrate your commercial mindset and ability to align technical goals with business growth.

✨Communicate Clearly with All Stakeholders

Practice explaining complex technical concepts in simple terms. You’ll need to communicate effectively with both technical and non-technical stakeholders, so think of examples where you’ve successfully bridged that gap in the past.

Platform Lead in London
Blue Light Card
Location: London

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