At a Glance
- Tasks: Lead a team to enhance cloud-native platforms and drive innovative engineering solutions.
- Company: Join a not-for-profit charity making a real difference in scientific development.
- Benefits: Enjoy 34 days holiday, generous pension, healthcare cashback, and more!
- Other info: Collaborative environment with opportunities for personal and professional growth.
- Why this job: Shape the future of SaaS products while mentoring the next generation of engineers.
- Qualifications: 5+ years in cloud infrastructure, Kubernetes expertise, and strong leadership skills.
The predicted salary is between 48000 - 72000 £ per year.
The Lead Platform Engineer provides strategic technical leadership for Lhasa's cloud-native platform engineering initiatives, establishing architectural standards and operational practices that enable scalable SaaS product delivery. They drive the evolution of developer experience through self-service platforms, GitOps workflows, and comprehensive observability solutions.
Leading a team of platform engineers, they mentor technical talent whilst collaborating with stakeholders across the organisation to align platform capabilities with business objectives. The Lead Platform Engineer owns service production reliability, implements DORA and Core 4 metrics for continuous improvement, and ensures compliance with security standards in high-value data environments. They balance strategic cloud platform planning with hands-on technical execution to deliver world-class engineering platforms.
We are a successful not-for-profit company and educational charity, with a great reputation for collaborative scientific development. We develop meaningful science and software that supports the delivery of life-enhancing solutions including the development of safe chemicals to market including drugs and cosmetics as well as making a positive contribution to reducing animal testing. Our charitable status enables us to make altruistic decisions for the public benefit and to work with some of the leading organisations in the world to really make a difference. Our salaries are competitive dependent upon skills and experience. We also offer fantastic personal benefits including (but not limited to); 34 days holiday plus bank holidays, a generous pension scheme, healthcare cashback, PMI, free car parking at our office in Leeds City Centre and much more!
Main Responsibilities include but are not limited to:
- Leadership
- Strategic leadership of the platform engineering team, developing talent at all levels.
- Lead the team's vision, strategy and roadmap for platform engineering initiatives, ensuring they are aligned with broader organisational goals.
- Foster a culture of innovation, collaboration, and continuous improvement within the platform engineering team and across tech teams.
- Manage team capacity planning and resource allocation, balancing feature delivery with operational excellence and technical debt reduction.
- Collaborate with stakeholders to drive organisational change management for platform adoption.
- Technical Leadership & Cloud Platform Strategy
- Lead implementation of DORA and Core 4 metrics whilst establishing operating models for SaaS product delivery.
- Coach and mentor engineers on Kubernetes, Docker, Helm, and GitOps good practices whilst reviewing infrastructure changes.
- Design GitOps workflows using ArgoCD and architect self-service capabilities through Backstage portal.
- Plan cloud platform (internally and AWS), managing cost optimisation and infrastructure budgets.
- Establish platform standards for cloud, containerisation, orchestration, observability, security, and CI/CD practices.
- Developer Experience & Service Management
- Enhance Backstage portal with personalised dashboards and Software Templates for common patterns.
- Own production SaaS infrastructure reliability, providing third-line support for escalations.
- Design robust CI/CD pipelines in Jenkins whilst managing multi-cluster Kubernetes environments.
- Implement security good practices (RBAC, network policies) and disaster recovery strategies.
- Partner with Product Teams and Member Services to understand customer requirements and address platform needs.
- Observability & Continuous Improvement
- Maintain observability stack (Prometheus, Grafana, Loki) with comprehensive SLIs/SLOs and alerting.
- Create runbooks and incident response procedures.
- Drive cost optimisation strategies for internal cloud and AWS infrastructure.
- Eliminate toil through automation and optimise deployment pipelines for reliability improvements.
- Research new technologies and evolve platform based on industry good practices.
- Partner with security teams on compliance in high-value data environments.
- Facilitate platform engineering community of practice and coordinate with product teams on planning.
- Document architectural decisions and ensure consistent tool adoption across teams.
- Mentor and coach engineers on platform technologies and best practices.
- Review code and infrastructure changes from team members.
Skills and Knowledge
- 5+ years designing cloud infrastructure with proven track record of owning production SaaS platforms.
- Expert Kubernetes orchestration including multi-cluster management and resource optimisation.
- Experience architecting cloud infrastructure across multiple providers with cost management ownership.
- Hands-on GitOps experience with ArgoCD and Helm for continuous deployment.
- Proficiency in IaC tools (CDK, Terraform, Ansible) and observability platforms.
- Knowledge of security standards and compliance in high-value data environments.
- Strong stakeholder management with ability to influence across organisational boundaries.
- Experience with developer portal platforms for self-service capabilities.
- AWS or Kubernetes certifications (CKA, CKAD).
- DORA/Core 4 metrics implementation.
- Experience evolving platforms based on industry good practices.
- TypeScript/React for portal customisation.
Lead Platform Engineer in Leeds employer: Lhasa Limited
Lhasa Limited is an exceptional employer located in the vibrant city of Leeds, offering a collaborative and innovative work culture that prioritises scientific development for the public good. With a generous benefits package including 34 days of holiday, private medical insurance, and a strong commitment to employee growth through mentorship and strategic leadership opportunities, Lhasa empowers its team to make meaningful contributions to chemical safety and reduce animal testing. Join us in a role that not only advances your career but also supports life-enhancing solutions globally.
StudySmarter Expert Advice🤫
We think this is how you could land Lead Platform Engineer in Leeds
✨Join Local Tech Meetups
Get out there and mingle with fellow developers by joining local tech meetups. It’s a fantastic way to meet people who might be working at Lhasa Limited or know someone who does. Plus, you can pick up some trendy tech skills and trends while you're at it!
✨Contribute to Open Source Projects
Show off your coding chops by jumping into open-source projects. Not only does this give you practical experience, but it also gets you noticed in the dev community. You'll create a killer portfolio that speaks volumes about your skills to Lhasa Limited.
✨Tap into Online Developer Communities
Don’t underestimate the power of online developer communities like GitHub, Stack Overflow, and even Reddit. Participate in discussions, share your projects, and build your visibility. We can often find opportunities through these channels that can lead to a full-time gig at companies like Lhasa Limited.
✨Explore Job Boards Specifically for Tech Roles
Keep your eyes peeled on job boards that focus on tech roles. Sites like TechCareers or Stack Overflow Jobs can often have listings for companies like Lhasa Limited that might not show up on broader job sites. Make it a habit to check these regularly, and don’t hesitate to apply directly through our website!
We think you need these skills to ace Lead Platform Engineer in Leeds
Some tips for your application 🫡
Show off your coding skills:When applying for a software engineering role, it's super important to showcase your coding skills. Make sure your CV includes your tech stack, any relevant programming languages you’re comfortable with, and examples of projects you've worked on. If you have a GitHub profile, link it up! We love to see code in action.
Tailor your portfolio:For a full-time role, we’d expect to see some solid examples of your work in your portfolio. Make sure to include at least two or three projects that highlight your problem-solving skills and your ability to work with different technologies. Focus on the projects that are most relevant to the position at Lhasa Limited.
Craft a killer cover letter:Your cover letter is your chance to stand out—make it personal! Explain why you want to work at Lhasa Limited and how your skills align with the role. Show us your passion for software development. We dig enthusiastic candidates who understand the value of collaboration and continuous learning!
Be clear and concise:When it comes to writing your CV and cover letter, clarity is key. Avoid jargon that could confuse us and stick to simple, direct language. Highlight your achievements with quantifiable results where possible, and keep everything easy to read. A well-organised application goes a long way!
How to prepare for a job interview at Lhasa Limited
✨Brush Up on Your Coding Skills
For a full-time software engineering role, it's crucial that we stay sharp with our coding abilities. Expect technical questions that might involve solving problems on the spot or discussing algorithms. Practise on platforms like LeetCode or HackerRank to get comfortable with the types of questions that often come up.
✨Know Your Tools and Frameworks
Make sure we’re well-acquainted with the tools and technologies listed in the job description. Familiarise ourselves with any specific frameworks or programming languages mentioned. If Lhasa Limited uses React or Node.js, for instance, be ready to discuss how we’ve used them in previous projects or coursework.
✨Showcase Your Projects
Bring along a portfolio that highlights our best work. This could be code samples, GitHub repositories, or any side projects we’ve built. Make sure we can talk through our thought process for each project, especially the challenges we faced and how we solved them—this shows our problem-solving skills in action.
✨Prepare for Behavioural Questions
While technical skills are key, full-time positions also require cultural fit. Be ready to discuss our previous experiences and how we handle teamwork, conflict, and deadlines. Brush up on the STAR method—Situation, Task, Action, Result—to clearly articulate our past experiences when discussing how we've contributed to a team.
