At a Glance
- Tasks: Lead and mentor teams to deliver high-quality cloud-native platform capabilities.
- Company: Join Vodafone's innovative Digital & IT Platform Team in a dynamic environment.
- Benefits: Competitive salary, flexible working options, and opportunities for professional growth.
- Other info: Collaborative culture with a focus on modern engineering practices and continuous improvement.
- Why this job: Shape the future of digital experiences and make a real impact on enterprise technology.
- Qualifications: 10+ years in engineering with strong leadership and cloud-native expertise.
The predicted salary is between 80000 - 100000 £ per year.
The Digital & IT Platform Team is responsible for designing, building, and operating the core digital and IT capabilities that support Vodafone’s enterprise platforms. The team provides cloud‑native engineering foundations, reusable enablers, and secure platform services that enable rapid, scalable delivery across multiple business initiatives. Joining Digital & IT means working within a complex enterprise technology landscape, contributing to platforms that underpin Vodafone’s long‑term digital strategy.
The Value Streams Engineering Team delivers end‑to‑end digital experiences and platform capabilities through cross‑functional, product‑centric squads. Each squad is empowered to own and deliver a defined area of business value, using modern engineering practices and cloud‑native tooling. Joining this team means building high‑quality digital solutions at pace, directly shaping how internal and external users interact with Vodafone’s Digital & IT platforms.
The Platform Technical Lead is a senior technical authority within the Digital & IT organisation, responsible for driving engineering excellence, shaping technical execution, and guiding multiple squads in delivering high‑quality, cloud‑native platform capabilities. This role translates architectural direction into practical technical implementation, ensures teams follow best‑practice engineering patterns, and provides hands‑on leadership across backend services, APIs, integrations, and shared platform components.
Operating across Digital & IT, Networks, Product, Security, and Platform Engineering teams, the Platform Technical Lead ensures coherent engineering delivery, accelerates the adoption of modern engineering practices, and supports the development of secure, scalable, enterprise‑grade Digital & IT platforms.
Given the responsibilities outlined above, the role includes:
- Providing technical leadership and hands‑on guidance across multiple squads (40–70+ FTE influence), ensuring consistent engineering standards, design patterns, and high‑quality implementation across the Digital & IT platform.
- Informing and influencing multi‑million‑euro engineering investment decisions, including tooling, automation, infrastructure, and technical capability uplift across the delivery organisation.
- Mentoring and enabling senior engineers, Technical Leads, and DevOps specialists, championing modern engineering practices such as CI/CD, automation, observability, reliability, secure‑by‑design, and event‑driven architectures.
- Driving cross‑organisational technical forums, resolving major engineering risks, and ensuring strong alignment with architectural guardrails and platform evolution roadmaps.
What you'll do:
- Provide expert technical oversight across backend services, integration flows, APIs, data models, and event‑driven platform components.
- Translate architectural blueprints and patterns into detailed engineering designs that squads can implement efficiently and securely.
- Develop, standardise, and govern coding practices, engineering design patterns, testing approaches, operational readiness, and automation frameworks.
- Lead complex technical investigations and decisions - balancing innovation, cost, performance, and delivery speed across multi‑market requirements.
- Collaborate with Product Owners, Delivery Leads, Architects, and Network teams to ensure technical feasibility, sequencing, and readiness of engineering deliverables.
- Drive technical excellence in CI/CD, observability, cloud operations, performance engineering, resilience, and secure‑by‑design practices.
- Ensure engineering delivery meets all non‑functional requirements (performance, security, reliability, scalability, operability).
- Provide senior technical input into partner and vendor evaluations, PoCs, and technology selection supporting platform strategy.
- Line Management - Experience leading and coaching senior engineers and multi‑disciplinary technical teams, building a culture of excellence, autonomy, and continuous improvement.
- Leadership - Ability to influence technical direction across multiple squads, guide high‑stakes design decisions, and drive alignment across Digital & IT, Networks, Security, and Product.
- Communication - Skilled at communicating complex technical concepts clearly to executives, architects, engineers, and non‑technical stakeholders, including decision‑making rationale.
- Vendor Management - Experience evaluating and guiding external partners or engineering suppliers to ensure high‑quality technical delivery aligned with platform standards.
- Agile - Deep experience working within modern product‑centric and agile environments, enabling autonomous squads, improving flow, and embedding iterative, incremental technical delivery practices at scale.
Who you are:
- MSc or equivalent in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Telecommunications, or related field.
- 10+ years engineering experience with at least 5 years in senior/principal technical leadership roles.
- Deep expertise in cloud‑native architectures, microservices, event‑driven systems, API‑first design, distributed systems, and modern DevOps/SRE practices.
- Strong hands‑on experience with CI/CD pipelines, observability frameworks, infrastructure‑as‑code, container orchestration, and platform engineering.
- Demonstrated success leading engineering delivery across multi‑squad, multi‑market or large‑scale digital platform environments.
Platform Technical Lead in London employer: Voiscentre
Vodafone is an exceptional employer, offering a dynamic work environment in Paddington or Newbury where innovation thrives. With a strong focus on employee growth, the company provides ample opportunities for professional development through mentoring and hands-on leadership roles. The collaborative culture fosters cross-functional teamwork, empowering employees to shape high-quality digital solutions that directly impact users, all while embracing modern engineering practices and a commitment to excellence.
StudySmarter Expert Advice🤫
We think this is how you could land Platform Technical Lead 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 Voiscentre 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 Voiscentre.
✨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 Voiscentre.
✨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 Voiscentre 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 Technical Lead 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 Voiscentre.
Craft a killer cover letter:Your cover letter is your chance to stand out—make it personal! Explain why you want to work at Voiscentre 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 Voiscentre
✨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 Voiscentre 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.
