At a Glance
- Tasks: Design and maintain platforms that enhance product delivery and user experience.
- Company: Join the Financial Times, a leading news organisation with a collaborative culture.
- Benefits: Enjoy generous leave, medical cover, gym memberships, and flexible working options.
- Other info: Diverse team environment with opportunities for growth and mentorship.
- Why this job: Make a real impact in journalism while working with cutting-edge technology.
- Qualifications: 4+ years in software engineering, strong JavaScript/TypeScript skills, and cloud platform experience.
The predicted salary is between 60000 - 80000 £ per year.
About Us
The Financial Times is one of the world’s leading news organisations, globally recognised for its authority, integrity and accuracy, with a mission to deliver quality information and services worldwide. At the FT, curiosity thrives and ambitious thinking is rewarded. Here, you’re given the chance to reach millions, create work that matters and deliver impartial journalism in a polarised world. In our warm, collaborative culture, you’ll connect with a diverse community of experts who support your growth, career aspirations and wellbeing. Your future at the FT will be filled with opportunities that challenge and inspire you. With no fixed path, you’ll discover new skills and forge a career that can take you anywhere.
Our Commitment to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
We believe in the power of unique perspectives and want all voices in our organisation to be heard, respected and valued. A supportive workplace is one where employees feel they can be themselves and operate to their full potential. We are committed to removing barriers for everyone, with a focus on addressing those faced by underrepresented groups.
The Role
The Customer Products group works on our award winning website, iOS and Android apps. We are a multi-disciplinary team based in London, UK and Sofia, Bulgaria. We value transparency, accountability, shared responsibility and teamwork. We’re focused on our users and the FT’s mission to provide engaging, world-class journalism. Most Engineers work across the entire stack, although many have expertise with particular technologies and domains, for example, client-side, performance, accessibility, building APIs, security and integration. We deploy to production many times a day and have full ownership of releases, the tools we use and site reliability.
What you’ll work on:
- Define and maintain service templates, golden paths, and internal developer tooling that reduce cognitive load and accelerate product delivery.
- Design, build, and operate shared platforms and services that product teams depend on (e.g. CI/CD pipelines, deployment infrastructure, observability, service meshes, feature flagging).
- Partner closely with product engineering teams to understand their pain points, gather requirements, and deliver platform capabilities that solve real problems.
- Own the reliability and scalability of platform services, including on-call responsibilities, incident response, and capacity planning.
- Establish and champion engineering standards for infrastructure-as-code, configuration management, security, and cost optimisation.
- Evaluate and integrate third-party tools and cloud services, making pragmatic build-vs-buy decisions.
- Contribute to platform roadmap planning and communicate trade-offs clearly to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
- Mentor junior and mid-level engineers, conducting code reviews and fostering a culture of operational excellence.
Our technology
Here’s a list of things we use a lot. It’s not exhaustive, but gives you a taste of what our stack and tools look like: Typescript; Node.js; AWS ECS; AWS Lambda, Kinesis, and DynamoDB Elasticache; GraphQL Handlebars; Sass; Webpack; Preact Cloudflare Workers; Terraform Github; CircleCI; Cloudsmith OpenTelemetry; Grafana; Splunk. We don’t expect you to have worked with all of these; it will be a bonus for us if you have worked with some of them.
About you
- 4+ years of professional software engineering experience across the stack.
- Some experience in a platform, infrastructure, or DevOps-focused role is a bonus.
- Strong proficiency in JavaScript and/or TypeScript.
- Deep experience with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, or Azure), including networking, IAM, compute, and managed services.
- Hands-on experience with containers, infrastructure-as-code (Terraform, Pulumi, or similar), and CI/CD tooling.
- Solid understanding of distributed systems concepts: service discovery, load balancing, message queues, caching, and observability (metrics, logs, traces).
- A product mindset: you think of other engineers as your customers and obsess over developer experience.
- Excellent communication skills with the ability to influence across teams without direct authority.
- A bias towards automation, self-service, and reducing toil.
- A willingness to leverage advancements in AI-assisted coding to improve personal productivity and operational toil.
Our ideal candidate will bring a unique point of view to the work that we do. We firmly believe that diverse perspectives help us create a great product and enhance the team.
Characteristics we value:
- Action-oriented and pragmatic
- Strong problem-solving skills
- Attention to detail
- Being collaborative
- Enjoy learning
What’s in it for you?
Our benefits vary by location but we are committed to providing best-in-class perks across all our offices. These include generous annual leave, medical cover, inclusive parental leave packages, subsidised gym memberships and opportunities to give back to the community. Full details of our benefits are available here.
We’ve embraced a 50% hybrid working model (averaging two to three days onsite) that fosters trust and remote adaptability while encouraging in-person camaraderie and peer learning. Additionally, we are open to accommodating specific flexible working pattern requests for all roles where feasible.
Accessibility
We are a disability confident employer and Valuable 500 signatory. Please let us know if you require any reasonable adjustments/personalisation as part of the application process or to enable you to attend an interview. If you would like to discuss your requirements or have any questions, email talent@ft.com and a member of our team will be happy to help.
Further information
At the FT, we embrace innovation and the use of technology and appreciate that individuals may leverage AI tools as part of their job application process. Whilst we are happy for you to use AI to assist with your application, it is essential that all information provided is authentic and accurately represents your skills, experience, and qualifications. Candidates should be aware that the use of AI throughout the application process may be monitored to ensure a fair and transparent hiring process for all.
Required skills: DynamoDB, JavaScript, Networking, Sass, CI/CD, Distributed Systems, TypeScript, Terraform, Azure, Grafana, GCP, Splunk, Observability, Node.js, Containers, Infrastructure-as-Code, GraphQL.
Required languages: English.
Senior Platform Engineer: Cloud, CI/CD & Observability employer: Financial Times
The Financial Times is an exceptional employer that fosters a warm and collaborative culture, where curiosity and ambitious thinking are not just encouraged but rewarded. With a commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion, employees are supported in their growth and career aspirations while enjoying a flexible hybrid working model and a range of best-in-class benefits. Working in London, you'll be part of a diverse community dedicated to delivering world-class journalism and innovative technology solutions, providing you with meaningful opportunities to make a real impact.
StudySmarter Expert Advice🤫
We think this is how you could land Senior Platform Engineer: Cloud, CI/CD & Observability
✨Tip Number 1
Network like a pro! Reach out to current or former employees at the Financial Times on LinkedIn. A friendly chat can give you insider info and maybe even a referral, which can really boost your chances.
✨Tip Number 2
Prepare for the interview by diving deep into their tech stack. Familiarise yourself with tools like AWS, Terraform, and CI/CD processes. Show them you’re not just a fit for the role but also genuinely interested in what they do.
✨Tip Number 3
Practice your problem-solving skills! You might face technical challenges during interviews, so brush up on distributed systems concepts and coding exercises. The more comfortable you are, the better you'll perform.
✨Tip Number 4
Don’t forget to showcase your soft skills! Communication and collaboration are key at the FT. Be ready to share examples of how you've worked well in teams and tackled challenges together.
We think you need these skills to ace Senior Platform Engineer: Cloud, CI/CD & Observability
Some tips for your application 🫡
Tailor Your CV:Make sure your CV reflects the skills and experiences that align with the Senior Platform Engineer role. Highlight your cloud, CI/CD, and observability expertise, and don’t forget to sprinkle in some of those technologies we love like TypeScript and AWS!
Craft a Compelling Cover Letter:Your cover letter is your chance to shine! Use it to tell us why you’re passionate about the role and how your unique perspective can contribute to our mission at the FT. Keep it engaging and personal – we want to get to know the real you!
Showcase Your Projects:If you've worked on any relevant projects, whether personal or professional, make sure to mention them. We love seeing practical examples of your work, especially if they involve the tech stack we use. It gives us insight into your hands-on experience!
Apply Through Our Website:We encourage you to apply directly through our website. It’s the best way to ensure your application gets to the right people. Plus, you’ll find all the details you need about the role and our culture there!
How to prepare for a job interview at Financial Times
✨Know Your Tech Stack
Familiarise yourself with the technologies mentioned in the job description, especially JavaScript, TypeScript, and AWS services. Be ready to discuss your experience with these tools and how you've used them in past projects.
✨Showcase Your Problem-Solving Skills
Prepare examples of how you've tackled complex problems in previous roles. The Financial Times values strong problem-solving skills, so think about specific challenges you faced and how you approached them.
✨Emphasise Collaboration
Since the role involves working closely with product engineering teams, be prepared to discuss your experience in collaborative environments. Share examples of how you've successfully partnered with others to achieve common goals.
✨Demonstrate a Product Mindset
Highlight your understanding of developer experience and how you’ve improved it in your previous roles. The Financial Times is looking for someone who thinks of engineers as customers, so be ready to share your insights on enhancing their experience.
