Job Description

Role Summary

We are seeking a

Principal Platform Engineer with 7+ years of hands-on experience

designing, building, and operating

on-premise, bare-metal platforms

in

leased data-centre environments

.

You will lead the

end-to-end build

of a

mission-critical NHS 999 telecommunications platform

, supporting

real-time AI inference

,

streaming workloads

, and

telecoms-grade availability

.

This role requires

direct ownership

of physical infrastructure, private cloud platforms, and self-managed Kubernetes.
There is

no reliance on managed cloud services

(no EKS / AKS / GKE).

Key Responsibilities

On-Prem & Leased Data-Centre Platform Ownership

Design and build

on-premise infrastructure

hosted in

leased UK data centres

Architect and operate

bare-metal Kubernetes clusters

(control plane + workers) Own

compute, networking, storage, Linux OS, and platform architecture

Design platforms capable of

99.99% availability

Plan and execute

capacity management, failover, and disaster recovery

Operate

GPU-enabled infrastructure

for AI inference and training Build systems suitable for

NHS 999 and emergency communications workloads

Kubernetes, CI/CD & Automation (GitLab)

Design and maintain

GitLab CI/CD pipelines

(build, test, deploy) Automate: Infrastructure provisioning (Terraform / IaC) Kubernetes deployments AI model and application releases Implement

GitOps workflows

Own

day-2 operations

, including upgrades, patching, and rollbacks Minimise deployment risk in

safety-critical environments

Real-Time Streaming & Telecoms Systems

Build and operate

Kafka-based streaming platforms

Support

sub-second latency

event processing Design for

traffic spikes, back-pressure, and failure scenarios

Ensure predictable behaviour under

999 call surges

Optimise systems for

latency, throughput, and resilience

MLOps & AI Platform Infrastructure

Operate

production AI inference platforms

(KServe, Seldon, Triton, or similar) Enable

GPU scheduling, isolation, and concurrency controls

Support

model versioning, retraining pipelines, and lifecycle management

Implement: Canary releases Versioned deployments Safe rollback paths Work closely with

AI engineers

, retaining platform ownership
Reliability, Security & NHS Compliance

Build observability using

Prometheus, Grafana, and centralised logging

Define and monitor

SLIs, SLOs, latency, uptime, and error budgets

Lead

incident response and root-cause analysis

Implement

least-privilege access

, secrets management, and audit controls Harden platforms for

NHS, telecoms, and regulated environments

Required Experience (Non-Negotiable)

Candidates

must meet most of the following

:

7+ years

hands-on platform / infrastructure engineering experience Proven experience building

on-prem or private-cloud platforms

Experience operating

leased data-centre infrastructure

Bare-metal Kubernetes

(self-managed, not EKS / AKS / GKE) Strong Linux, networking, and storage fundamentals

GitLab CI/CD

pipeline design and ownership Experience with

telecommunications or NHS environments

Ownership of

production systems with strict uptime requirements

Strongly Preferred

NHS 999, emergency services, or healthcare platforms Telecommunications background (BT, Vodafone, carrier networks) Kafka and real-time streaming in production GPU-based AI inference workloads Terraform and Infrastructure as Code Experience in

regulated, mission-critical environments

What This Role Is

Not

Cloud-only DevOps Data science or ML research Junior or mid-level engineering Platform consumption or inherited systems
This is a

hands-on, build-from-scratch platform ownership role

.

Working Environment

Location:

Manchester M35 9BD (On-site required)

Infrastructure:

Leased Data Centres Bare Metal Private Cloud

Stack:

Kubernetes GitLab Kafka GPU Linux
Final Screening Statement

If you have

not personally built and operated on-premise platforms

in

leased data centres

, this role will not be suitable.

If you have

7+ years of experience delivering telecoms-grade or NHS-grade platforms

, and are comfortable owning systems

where failure is not an option

, we want to hear from you.

Job Types: Part-time, Permanent, Temporary, Fixed term contract, Temp to perm, Zero hours contract, Volunteer, Internship
Contract length: 12-18 months

Pay: 48,973.65-100,679.17 per year

Expected hours: 10 - 20 per week

Benefits:

Casual dress Discounted or free food Flexitime Free parking On-site parking Referral programme UK visa sponsorship Work from home
Ability to commute/relocate:

Manchester M35 9BG: reliably commute or plan to relocate before starting work (required)
Experience:

hands-on platform engineering, including building on-prem: 7 years (required)
Work Location: Hybrid remote in Manchester M35 9BG