At a Glance
- Tasks: Join our Platform Engineering team to build and improve our trading platform's infrastructure.
- Company: Sparta, a next-gen commodity trading platform with a collaborative culture.
- Benefits: Competitive salary, growth opportunities, and a supportive team environment.
- Other info: Exciting career growth in a dynamic, innovative company.
- Why this job: Make a real impact in the fast-paced world of commodity trading.
- Qualifications: Familiarity with AWS, cloud concepts, and a passion for automation.
The predicted salary is between 63000 - 77000 £ per year.
Sparta is the next-generation commodity trading platform. We give trading desks the clarity, control, and collaboration they need to move faster and trade smarter. In February 2025, we secured $42 million in Series B funding. Now we’re scaling up across the business, and it’s an exciting time to join.
Our people are the driving force behind everything we do. At Sparta, you’ll be trusted to take ownership, backed by a team who wants you to succeed. You’ll be challenged, supported, and given room to grow. Because building something this ambitious takes everyone at their best.
At Sparta, your work has reach. From improving our platform, to powering smarter decisions for our customers, to changing how commodity trading is done around the world. And because we’re growing fast, you won’t just build your career. You’ll accelerate it, with a level of ownership and impact you simply don’t get at bigger, more bureaucratic companies.
About the role
You will join our Platform Engineering team, which owns the tooling, automation and infrastructure that our development teams use to build, deploy and run their software. The role covers the full lifecycle. You'll help build the self-service platform that lets teams ship easily, work on the deployment tooling and pipelines that get their code into production, and help operate and support the infrastructure on which it all runs.
You will need a solid grounding in AWS and cloud infrastructure concepts. It's a good fit for someone early in their career who wants to grow their platform, cloud, and Kubernetes skills while working on systems that every developer in the company depends on.
What you'll do
- Contribute to the internal platform, tooling and automation that development teams use to build, deploy and operate their applications.
- Develop and maintain infrastructure as code in AWS CDK, so our AWS environment is provisioned and managed in a repeatable, reviewable way.
- Extend our CI/CD pipelines, including our ongoing migration from CircleCI to GitHub Actions.
- Support the runtime across Lambda, ECS and EKS, and help move more of our workloads onto our Kubernetes-based platform (EKS).
- Operate and support data and streaming infrastructure, including Redshift, RDS, Kafka, Flink and Redis/Valkey.
- Support development teams in resolving incidents, helping diagnose and fix infrastructure-related issues.
- Improve observability, monitoring and alerting in Datadog so problems are caught early.
- Document platform capabilities and help developers adopt them.
What we're looking for
- A strong urge to own and improve things - to look for things that aren’t working and make them better.
- A good working understanding of AWS and core cloud infrastructure concepts such as compute, networking, storage and IAM.
- Hands-on experience with infrastructure as code, whether AWS CDK, Terraform, CloudFormation or something similar.
- A working knowledge of Kubernetes and container-based workloads.
- Familiarity with CI/CD tooling and the software delivery lifecycle.
- Comfort with at least one programming or scripting language (for example, TypeScript, Java/Kotlin, Python or Bash) and an interest in automating things.
- Comfort working with agent-based development tools. We use Claude Code, but experience with any comparable AI coding agent is fine.
- A collaborative, developer-focused mindset, and an interest in making other engineers' lives easier.
- A willingness to learn, get stuck in, and take part in incident response.
- Clear communication and a pragmatic approach to problem-solving.
Nice to have
- Experience building or operating a platform on Kubernetes, EKS, especially.
- Experience with observability tooling, particularly Datadog.
- Familiarity with data or streaming systems such as Redshift, RDS, Kafka or Flink.
- Understanding of security and compliance best practices in cloud environments.
Sparta Commodities is proud to be an equal opportunity employer and promotes diversity within its workforce. We are determined that no-one will ever receive less favourable treatment on the grounds of gender, age, disability, religion, belief, sexual orientation, marital status, race, veteran status or any basis covered by appropriate law.
Platform Engineer in London employer: Sparta
At Sparta, we pride ourselves on being a dynamic and innovative employer that empowers our team members to take ownership of their work while fostering a collaborative and supportive environment. As the Head of Research, you will not only have the opportunity to shape the future of commodity trading but also benefit from accelerated career growth in a fast-paced, VC-backed setting. Our commitment to diversity and inclusion ensures that every voice is valued, making Sparta an exceptional place to build a meaningful and rewarding career.
StudySmarter Expert Advice🤫
We think this is how you could land Platform Engineer in London
✨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 Sparta 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 Sparta.
✨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 Sparta.
✨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 Sparta 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 Platform Engineer in London
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 Sparta.
Craft a killer cover letter:Your cover letter is your chance to stand out—make it personal! Explain why you want to work at Sparta 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 Sparta
✨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 Sparta 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.
