Platform Engineer in London

This role is open to remote working within the UK. Successful candidates will be required to travel to their closest UNiDAYS campus (London or Nottingham) on occasion.

The role in a nutshell:

As a key member of our Platform team, this role presents an exciting opportunity to be part of a team that’s taking platform strategy, cloud automation and developer experience to the next level within UNiDAYS. You will be working closely alongside our software engineering teams to understand first-hand where improvements can be driven to get a better developer experience and improve the productivity of our engineers. With a hands-on approach, you will identify and drive improvements in our systems' performance, reliability, scalability, security, and efficiency.

Our platform team also works to remove barriers for other teams and allow them to deliver faster, accomplished via shared tooling. We are also championing operational excellence throughout the business, focusing on automation and self-serving capabilities. It’s more than just lines of code; we are looking for a commercially-minded Platform Engineer who can bridge the gap between user needs and business goals. You will have the ability to build resilient, cost-effective solutions and navigate evolving technological development trends.

We’re aware that everybody is different and comes with differing experiences. If you don’t have all the skills/experience on our list but are keen to learn, please reach out as we are still keen to talk to you.

Day to day responsibilities:

• Build, test, and implement cloud services via IaC
• Work closely with software engineers to understand where platform engineers can add value as well as assist and upskill on their cloud needs
• Identify new technologies & drive improvements across our platform, shared tooling, modules, & packages
• Strive to create new/improve existing self-serving capabilities for software teams
• Monitor platform performance and identify areas for improvement with an SRE mindset for SLIs and SLOs
• Work to define, improve, implement and document best practices continually
• Participate in on-call one week per month (typically 1 call a fortnight with a simple runbook in place to execute)

What we need from you:

• Strong cloud knowledge including hands-on experience in a wide range of AWS cloud services
• Strong IaC background (Cloudformation & Terraform preferred), application deployment strategies & cloud architectural patterns
• ECS experience with clusters across several environments
• Working knowledge of security, networking, CDN, load balancing, and storage solutions
• Good understanding of CI/CD practices across multiple environments
• Development experience, with an ability or aptitude to work within our core languages (C#, python, TypeScript)

Nice to have:

• AWS/Terraform certification
• Database administration experience (MSSQL, RDS, DynamoDB, Neptune, Redshift)
• Background of mentoring, training, or knowledge sharing with other engineers
• Knowledge of containerisation
• Operational experience in resolving incidents, incident management and conducting RCAs

Personal:

• Confident & able to communicate freely with colleagues
• Strong team working skills
• Critical thinker & problem solver with a passion for continuous improvement
• Able to influence others
• Can give/receive constructive feedback
• Awareness of your strengths/weaknesses and interest in self-development
• Be able to challenge and be challenged
• Taking pride in your work to deliver to a high standard
• Proactive about taking ownership

Perks:

We offer a fast paced, fun & social working environment where you can truly make an impact. We believe that work should enhance and complement your life which is why we leave it up to you to decide where you work. You can choose to work from your assigned campus (either Nottingham or London) or from home, whatever works best for your individual needs. Your manager may request you attend team meet ups at your campus but other than that it is up to you! We work hard at UNiDAYS, but we also believe in fair compensation for hard work. That’s why we’re pleased to offer all employees full access to our comprehensive benefits package.

• 25 days holiday per year increasing with length of service, plus flexible bank holidays
• Competitive salaries
• 4pm finishes every Friday
• Company bonus scheme
• Company pension scheme
• Private health insurance (Vitality)
• Income protection policy
• Life assurance policy
• Employee Assistance Program
• Enhanced parental leave pay
• Core hours with flexibility around how/when you manage your time
• Regular team building activities
• The latest tech and hardware will be supplied from day one
• Good Vibes Program: we know we’ve all had to adapt to new ways of working and UNiDAYS has always taken pride in the community we’ve created in the office but we’re just as committed to creating an innovative approach to fostering connections and improving engagement outside of the office!
• Support for home working for all new team members. We will help assess your home set up and you can expense £150 towards any additional furniture you may need to be safe and comfortable when working from home

About our Product & Engineering team:

The driving force behind this fantastic tech business are the talented Product and Engineering team, who work collaboratively to ensure that UNiDAYS stays one step ahead of the competition, with the ultimate goal of giving students the power to make every experience more valuable and rewarding. The Product and Engineering teams at UNiDAYS are comprised of a bunch of passionate people who work in a fun, fast paced and social environment. Everyone is equal and encouraged to work with each other, whilst having the autonomy to solve problems in the best way they see fit. The UNiDAYS tech team are passionate about the local Tech Community, hosting and sponsoring local meet ups and hack events. Career development is an important facet of the UNiDAYS tech experience.

We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, colour, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status or disability status.