Principal Platform Engineer

Job Title

Job Description

So, who are we?

IG is a FTSE 100 fintech operating across five continents, serving over 1.3m customers and handling billions of dollars in transactions – built on scale, trust, and proof. We didn't pivot to innovation; it's how we've always operated. What that means for the people who work here is real: genuinely complex problems to solve, the technology and resources to tackle them properly, and the kind of scope that's rare in established businesses. 

The bar is high – bring a curious and forward-thinking mindset and we'll give you the platform to define what comes next. Join us at IG – the future gets built here. 

Your team

This role is part of our Platform Engineering team -- they are responsible for building the cloud and containers platform landscape to support the business applications via self-service capabilities and automation.

Your role in the Team's Success

The Principal Platform Engineer is a hands-on technical leader responsible for defining, building, evolving, and governing cloud platform architecture and infrastructure to ensure it is secure, scalable, reliable, and cost-effective. 

This role sets the technical direction and standards for cloud platforms across public and private cloud, working closely with engineering, security, and FinOps teams to embed best practices into platform design and delivery. The Principal Cloud Engineer acts as a hands-on expert and thought leader, influencing complex technical decisions, reducing platform risk, and enabling engineering teams to build and operate services with confidence, speed, and financial discipline. 

What you'll do

• Design and architect scalable AWS cloud infrastructure, developing IaC solutions using Terraform and leading cloud technology evaluation and standardisation initiatives 
• Build, optimise, and maintain CI/CD pipelines for infrastructure deployment, establishing DevOps and DevSecOps best practices across the organisation 
• Architect and manage Kubernetes environments (EKS, AKS, GKE) and implement platform engineering tools to deliver self-service capabilities via an IDP (e.g. Backstage) 
• Define and enforce monitoring, alerting, and observability standards to ensure infrastructure reliability and performance 
• Foster collaboration between development and operations teams, bridging gaps to drive a unified engineering culture 
• Provide technical leadership and mentorship to engineering teams, writing and maintaining documentation to support knowledge sharing.
  

What you'll need for this role

Key Qualification Requirements: Overall 12+ years of experience

• Cloud Infrastructure & Experience: 4+ years in cloud infrastructure engineering with hands-on experience designing and administering complex platforms across AWS, GCP, and Azure, including deep knowledge of networking (VPC, Direct Connect, Transit Gateways, BGP, OSPF) and IaaS/PaaS architectural patterns 
• Infrastructure-as-Code & Automation: 2+ years with IaC tools (Terraform or Ansible) and hands-on experience with orchestration and automation platforms (AWX, Ansible Tower, Terragrunt), scripting in Python, Bash, or Go 
• DevOps & DevSecOps: 2+ years designing and implementing CI/CD pipelines using Jenkins, GitLab, GitHub Actions, or equivalent, with strong knowledge of security best practices including secrets management, vulnerability scanning, and compliance 
• Kubernetes & Containers: 2+ years of Kubernetes administration across on-premises and cloud environments (EKS preferred, AKS, GKE), with proficiency in networking, RBAC, pod security, service mesh (Istio), and Docker image management 
• Platform Engineering & Developer Tooling: Experience implementing developer portals (Backstage), artifact repositories (JFrog Artifactory, Nexus), API gateways, and self-service platform engineering tools to support internal teams 
• Observability & Reliability: Hands-on experience with monitoring and observability platforms (Honeycomb, Prometheus, Grafana), including defining alerting standards and ensuring infrastructure reliability at scale 
• Architecture & Design: Strong grasp of microservices architecture, cloud networking protocols (Layer 2/3, MPLS), DNS, load balancing, and traffic management, with the ability to independently influence technical direction 
• Version Control & Collaboration: Proficiency across version control systems (Git, GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket) with the ability to operate autonomously and drive engineering standards across teams 

How we work:

We try to take a thoughtful approach to our ways of working as a company. We follow a hybrid working model with 3 days in the office -- which we think balances the need to collaborate effectively and connect with each other. When it comes to how we deliver, there are 5 things we want everyone to do to drive high performance, better learning and career satisfaction:

• Lead and Inspire: Drives trust, alignment, and enthusiasm
• Think Big: Focus on the problems that most impact commercial outcomes
• Champion the client: Understand and prioritise client's needs
• Deliver at pace: Push for fast, sustainable growth;
• Raise the bar: Take ownership, be accountable and share feedback

We believe that diversity is vital to success, it fuels creativity, drives innovation and sets us up for global success. We're committed to building teams with a variety of perspectives and skills to help us realise our vision and strategy, that's why we encourage applications from people with diverse backgrounds and experiences to join us on this journey. Learn more about our D&I approach here.

The Perks

Your growth fuels our success! Thrive with tailored development programs, mentoring opportunities with leaders, and clear career progression. Expand your network through committees, sports and social clubs. Enjoy extra time off for volunteering and community work.

Learn more about the Perks here!

Join us for this exciting journey. Apply now!

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