Head of Cloud & Platform Engineering - CONFIDENTIAL HIRE

We are looking for an experienced Cloud & Platform Engineering leader to take ownership of the strategy, engineering and transformation of a complex enterprise cloud and container environment.

This is a senior leadership position combining cloud strategy, platform engineering, transformation, operational resilience, financial management and people leadership.

A key mandate will be evolving the cloud function from a predominantly operations-focused environment towards a more automated, engineering-led and self-service platform model.

The successful candidate should bring strong technical credibility across modern cloud infrastructure while being comfortable influencing senior stakeholders and driving large-scale transformation across multiple technology functions.

Key Responsibilities

Cloud & Platform Strategy

• Define and execute the longer-term strategy and roadmap for enterprise cloud and container platforms.
• Establish architecture principles, workload placement approaches and platform investment priorities.
• Translate strategic objectives into structured programmes with clear deliverables and measurable outcomes.

Platform Engineering & Operations

• Own the engineering and operational direction of enterprise cloud and container platforms.
• Drive improvements across availability, scalability, observability, automation, capacity, resilience, backup and recovery.
• Improve platform reliability and reduce recurring operational issues through stronger engineering practices.

Cloud Governance & Security

• Establish scalable cloud foundations covering identity, networking, security, access controls, resource governance and lifecycle management.
• Ensure appropriate governance is embedded into platform services without unnecessarily slowing technology delivery.
• Partner closely with security, architecture and risk stakeholders to maintain appropriate controls across the environment.

Automation & Platform Modernisation

• Expand the use of Infrastructure as Code, automation, DevSecOps and self-service infrastructure capabilities.
• Lead significant cloud migration, remediation and modernisation initiatives.
• Drive the reduction of legacy technology and technical debt while improving the overall maturity of the platform estate.

Cloud Financial & Commercial Management

• Provide oversight of cloud consumption, forecasting, cost allocation and optimisation.
• Establish stronger financial accountability and visibility across cloud usage.
• Manage relevant technology suppliers, licensing arrangements and commercial performance.

Enterprise Leadership

• Partner across infrastructure, architecture, cybersecurity, application engineering, data and other enterprise technology functions.
• Communicate complex technology, investment, risk and transformation decisions clearly to senior leadership.
• Build alignment across stakeholders with different technical and business priorities.

People Leadership

• Build and develop a high-performing cloud and platform engineering organisation.
• Develop senior technical and leadership capability within the function.
• Establish clear accountability, effective delegation and succession depth while reducing dependency on individual subject-matter experts.

What We're Looking For

• Significant enterprise experience across AWS and/or Microsoft Azure
• Strong understanding of Kubernetes and enterprise container platforms
• Proven experience defining and executing enterprise cloud strategies and transformation roadmaps
• Leadership of significant cloud migration, modernisation or platform transformation programmes
• Strong knowledge of cloud architecture, governance, IAM, networking, security and operational resilience
• Experience with Infrastructure as Code, automation, DevSecOps and self-service platform engineering
• Strong understanding of hybrid environments and workload placement decisions
• Experience with cloud financial management / FinOps, cost optimisation and forecasting
• Strong commercial, licensing and technology vendor-management experience
• Ability to operate effectively across both strategic and technical discussions

Experience with enterprise Kubernetes distributions such as OpenShift or comparable platforms would be advantageous.

Leadership Profile

We are particularly interested in leaders who can combine technical depth with enterprise-level ownership.

You should be comfortable taking an ambiguous technology objective, establishing a clear direction and independently driving it through to execution.

The role requires someone who can challenge technical decisions constructively, influence senior stakeholders, develop strong engineering leaders and balance innovation, reliability, security, cost and delivery priorities.

What Success Looks Like

Success will include a clearly defined cloud strategy, stronger platform reliability and governance, increased automation and self-service adoption, successful modernisation of legacy workloads, improved cloud cost accountability and a stronger engineering organisation capable of operating with greater ownership and independence.

This opportunity would suit an established Cloud, Platform Engineering or Infrastructure leader who has already operated at significant enterprise scale and is looking to take ownership of both the strategic direction and transformation of a major cloud platform environment.