Senior Platform Engineer

About us

Fusion, the process that powers the sun and stars, is one of the most promising options for generating the cleaner, carbon-free energy that our world badly needs. UKAEA leads the way in realizing fusion energy, partnering with industry and research organisations to achieve ground-breaking advancements. Our goal is to bring fusion electricity to the grid by developing the power stations of tomorrow and the skilled workforce to deliver them.

About the job

UKAEA’s mission is to deliver sustainable fusion energy and maximise its scientific and economic impact. The Computing Division supports this through digital capabilities spanning research, simulation, data, engineering, business systems and communications. The Software Operations Group (SORG) provides the infrastructure and expertise needed for secure software development and operations, promoting DevSecOps and MLOps practices across UKAEA.

As a Senior Platform Engineer, you will work closely with scientists and engineers across UKAEA to deliver secure, robust and sustainable software and platforms. You will lead technical delivery, contribute to work planning and help modernise software operations through improved engineering processes and practices. Working within the growing Software Operations Group, you will collaborate with Platform Engineers specialising in secure software delivery, DevSecOps and MLOps. You will share your expertise, mentor colleagues and help develop and embed modern software-engineering practices across UKAEA. As part of a small team with a broad organisational reach, you will have the opportunity to influence how SORG develops, while delivering solutions that support some of UKAEA’s most complex projects.

What You’ll Be Doing

• Lead significant technical projects and work packages, delivering secure, reliable and sustainable platforms and infrastructure.
• Design and improve resilient solutions across cloud, DevSecOps, MLOps, software delivery and data workflows, while identifying opportunities for innovation and automation.
• Collaborate with scientists and engineers to understand their needs, provide technical advice and deliver solutions that improve efficiency, reproducibility and delivery.
• Develop the Software Operations team by shaping best practices, mentoring colleagues, improving processes and supporting the growth of technical capabilities.
• Drive continuous improvement and operational excellence across UKAEA, managing stakeholders, promoting secure-by-design and SRE practices, and maintaining high standards of safety and quality.

What You’ll Bring

Essential:

• Technical qualification or equivalent experience in a scientific, engineering or technical environment, such as research, HPC or cloud infrastructure.
• Substantial hands-on experience developing, deploying and maintaining production-grade systems or platforms, with proficiency in at least two programming or scripting languages such as Python, Bash, Go or C++.
• Demonstrated expertise in modern software engineering and DevSecOps/MLOps practices, including Git, automated testing, CI/CD, containers, infrastructure as code and technical documentation, with experience working across Linux and/or Windows environments.
• Experience delivering software projects and managing the software lifecycle, with the ability to communicate effectively, collaborate and influence people from a range of technical and non-technical backgrounds.
• Ability to learn and apply new technologies, with experience mentoring or supervising others and the motivation to develop leadership and people-management skills.

Desirable:

• Working knowledge of NIST frameworks (e.g. SP 800-53, SSDF) or equivalent (Software Cyber, AI Cyber Security Code of Practice, ISO 27001, CIS, OWASP) and their application within software development and DevSecOps practices.
• Familiarity with scientific, engineering, or technical domains relevant to UKAEA’s mission, particularly where computing infrastructure plays a critical role in research and experimentation.
• Experience with data pipeline engineering, developing tools for data visualisation or monitoring dashboards.
• Knowledge of UI/UX principles and development of web-based or GUI tools, particularly for internal platforms, observability systems, or scientific workflow interfaces.
• Exposure to modern or emerging programming languages and ecosystems such as Rust, Julia, or SYCL, and interest in evaluating new tools for infrastructure or high-performance computing.
• Experience with mentoring, coaching, or managing technical colleagues, and enthusiasm for contributing to a collaborative, high-performing engineering culture.
• Practical knowledge of deploying and optimising workloads across scientific computing platforms, including on-premise clusters, HPC environments, public cloud platforms, or hybrid architectures.
• Leading SORG-related initiatives (e.g., teaching & training, community, outreach, or policy work).

UKAEA is an onsite organisation, and this role requires regular onsite presence (usually between 3-5 days in any given week) in line with business needs. We actively support flexible working arrangements where this is compatible with the role. Please be aware that this role is subject to achieving a UK Security Vetting (UKSV) (must have resided in the UK for the last 4-5 years) including The Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) checks for criminal convictions and possibly a search of open-source data.

Benefits

We have a generous range of benefits and highlights include:

• A salary of £57,117 (inclusive of a £5,800 specialist allowance)
• Up to 7% corporate performance bonus
• Final salary defined benefits pension scheme with an equivalent of 21.5% employer pension contribution
• 25 days annual leave plus 2.5 privilege days; 8 Bank Holidays
• 3 days of site closure over Christmas break
• Flexible working options plus family-friendly leave provisions

Our commitment to ED&I

UKAEA's mission is clean energy for all, and we welcome talented people from all backgrounds to help us achieve this goal. We are committed to equality, diversity, inclusion and accessibility, and strive to ensure fair representation across our workforce. Please email [email protected] if you have any questions or require adjustments to help you participate fairly in our recruitment process, for example changes to the way we interview or share information. As a Disability Confident Employer, we are committed to providing an inclusive and accessible recruitment experience for all candidates. We particularly encourage applications from groups currently underrepresented in STEM, including women and people from diverse ethnic backgrounds. All appointments are made on merit.