Platform Engineer - AWS (we have office locations in Cambridge, Leeds and London)

Company Description

Genomics England is a global leader in enabling genomic medicine and research, focused on creating a world where everyone benefits from genomic healthcare. Building on the 100,000 Genomes Project, we support the NHS’s world-first national whole genome sequencing service and run the growing National Genomic Research Library, alongside delivering numerous major genomics initiatives. By connecting research and clinical care at national scale, we enable immediate healthcare benefits and advances for the future. 

Our mission is to provide the evidence and digital systems so that by 2035 genomics could play a role in up to half of all healthcare interactions, whilst securing the UK’s position as the best place to discover, prove and benefit from genomic innovations. 

We are accelerating our impact and working with patients, doctors, scientists, government and industry to improve genomic testing, and help researchers access the health data and technology they need to make new medical discoveries and create more effective, targeted medicines for everybody. 

Behind the Healthcare and Research outcomes, Genomics England delivers through designing, developing and operating complex healthcare software systems. 

We're on the cusp of big changes with the real prospect of genomics becoming the fabric of everyday healthcare through the lifetime - from birth to old age.

Job Description

Platform Engineer - AWS Cloud Platform Team

Are you a Platform Engineer who is passionate about automation, AWS cloud technology, and solving complex engineering challenges? 

At Genomics England, we're hiring a Core Level Platform Engineer to help design, build and optimise our AWS cloud platform using modern automation and infrastructure tooling. 

This role sits in our high impact Cloud Platform Team within our Scalable Tech business service; the team currently consists of 6 to 7 Cloud Platform Engineers and forms part of our Cloud Centre of Excellence (CCoE). We own and operate the AWS Organisation and Landing Zone and are responsible for designing, implementing and promoting cloud best practices across our 100+ in house engineering community. Engineers in the CCoE are responsible for hands on technical, end to end delivery of platform improvements and initiatives.

As a Platform Engineer in the team, you will also be expected to contribute to the Engineering Chapter through enablement, coaching and strategy, working closely with your team and the wider engineering community across the business to help Genomics England build a future-ready cloud platform that will stand the test of time. 
 
This is an engineering role in a truly mission-critical environment, ensuring our platforms are scalable, secure, and efficient. From fine-tuning CI/CD pipelines to proactively automating solutions, your knowledge and expertise will really shape the future of our technology; we believe strongly in empowering engineers, fostering an inclusive culture, and giving you the autonomy to make a real impact. 

Everyday responsibilities include:  

• Collaborate with a supportive DevOps team to drive automation, efficiency, and continuous improvement.  

• Provide in-hours support to fellow Platform Engineers with day-to-day changes to our codebase. 

• Develop and maintain Engineering Golden Path templates and contribute to engineering enablement across the wider organisation. 

• Own and enhance cloud-based infrastructure on AWS, ensuring scalability, security, and reliability.  

• Develop, maintain, and optimise CI/CD pipelines using GitLab CI/CD, alongside Terraform and Ansible for infrastructure automation. 

• Implement Infrastructure as Code (IaC) to automate deployments and reduce manual effort. 

• Contribute to the development and enforcement of cloud governance frameworks, including security, cost management, and compliance policies across teams. 

• Support the wider organisation in cloud adoption by building reusable platform components, templates, and standards that accelerate application team delivery while maintaining platform consistency.   

• Proactively monitor system performance, identify potential issues, and introduce automation for resilience.   

• Troubleshoot and debug platform issues, ensuring seamless operations and minimal downtime.   

• Influence engineering decisions in a collaborative and inclusive environment that values diverse perspectives.  

Skills and experience for success:  

• Minimum 2 years' experience as a Platform Engineer, Cloud Engineer or similar role within a DevOps environment. 

• A minimum of 2 years' commercial experience with AWS. Relevant certifications would be an advantage. 

• A minimum of 2 years' experience with Terraform for infrastructure automation.   

• Familiarity with automation tools such as Ansible, Chef, or Puppet. 

• Desirable experience working within an organisation with a Cloud Centre of Excellence (CCoE). 

• Understanding of cloud governance principles, including cost optimisation, tagging strategies, and security best practices in multi-account AWS environments. 

• An interest in enabling and mentoring application teams in cloud best practices, promoting a self-service model while maintaining architectural and operational standards.  

• Experience with CI/CD pipelines, particularly GitLab CI/CD, and DevOps best practices.   

• Proficiency in scripting, including Python, alongside Infrastructure as Code (IaC) practices to automate deployments, optimise infrastructure and support CI/CD pipelines. 

If you have at least 2 years’ solid commercial experience as a Platform Engineer, building and improving complex cloud platforms, and you're passionate about AWS, automation and engineering best practice, we'd love to hear from you. Join Genomics England and help shape the cloud platforms that are powering the future of genomic healthcare!
 

Qualifications

• Qualifications are not mandatory. However, AWS, Terraform or automation certifications are welcomed and would be considered an advantage. 
• Computer Science or Relevant Engineering Degree as a recent Graduate would also be beneficial (though not a requirement)

Additional Information

Salary From: £73,400 

Closing Date: Sunday 8th November @ 23:00 (UK time)

Being an integral part of such a meaningful mission is extremely rewarding in itself, but in order to support our people, we’re continually improving our benefits package. We pride ourselves on investing in our people and supporting them to achieve their career goals, as well as offering a benefits package including: 

• Generous Leave:  30 days’ holiday, plus bank holidays, plus additional leave for long service, and also the option to apply for up to 30 days of remote working abroad annually (approval required).
• Family-Friendly: Blended working arrangements, flexible working, enhanced maternity, paternity and shared parental leave benefits.
• Pension & Financial: Defined contribution pension (Genomics England double-matches up to 10%, however you can contribute more if you wish), Life Assurance (3x salary), and a Give As You Earn scheme.
• Learning & Development: Individual learning budgets, support for training and certifications, and reimbursement for one annual professional subscription (approval required).
• Recognition & Rewards: Employee recognition programme and referral scheme.
• Health & Wellbeing: Subsidised gym membership, a free Headspace account, and access to an Employee Assistance Programme, eye tests, flu jabs.

Equal opportunities and our commitment to a diverse and inclusive workplace 

Genomics England is actively committed to providing and supporting an inclusive environment that promotes equity, diversity and inclusion best practice both within our community and in any other area where we have influence. We are proud of our diverse community where everyone can come to work and feel welcomed and treated with respect regardless of any disability, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, religion, sexual orientation, or social background. 

Genomics England’s policies of non-discrimination and equity and will be applied fairly to all people, regardless of age, disability, gender identity or reassignment, marital or civil partnership status, being pregnant or recently becoming a parent, race, religion or beliefs, sex or sexual orientation, length of service, whether full or part-time or employed under a permanent or a fixed-term contract or any other relevant factor.  

Genomics England does not tolerate any form of discrimination, harassment, victimisation or bullying at work. Such behaviour undermines our mission and core values and diminishes the dignity, respect and integrity of all parties. Our People policies outline our commitment to inclusivity. 

We aim to remove barriers in our recruitment processes and to be flexible with our interview processes. Should you require any adjustments that may help you to fully participate in the recruitment process, we encourage you to discuss this with us. 

Culture

We have four key behaviours that represent what we would like Genomics England to feel like and the culture we want to encourage, in order for us to achieve our mission. These behaviours help us all work well together, deliver on our outcomes, celebrate our successes and share feedback with each other. You can read about these and other aspects of our culture here Culture | Genomics England

Blended working model

Genomics England operates a blended working model as we know our people appreciate the flexibility that hybrid working can bring. We expect most people to come into the office a minimum of 2 times each month. However, this will vary according to role and will be agreed with your team leader. There is no expectation that people will return to the office full time unless they want to, however, some of our roles require full time on site attendance e.g., lab teams, reception team. 

Our teams and squads have, and will continue to reflect on what works best for them to work together successfully and have the freedom to design working patterns to suit, beyond the minimum. Our office locations are: Canary Wharf, Cambridge and Leeds.

Onboarding background checks

As part of our recruitment process, all successful candidates are subject to a Standard Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check.  We therefore require applicants to disclose any previous offences at point of application, as some unspent convictions may mean we are unable to proceed with your application due to the nature of our work in healthcare.