Staff Platform Engineer - Contract

Our backend team is undergoing a transition, consisting of engineers at different experience levels. Two members have moved from frontend to backend, building their technical expertise, while a temporary Kafka specialist is supporting a specific project until Q2. We also have a junior engineer who requires structured development and a part-time contributor known for their speed. Among our more experienced engineers.

The entire team requires continuous coaching on Kafka, best practices, and software design patterns, as well as guidance on leveraging AI tools effectively to improve efficiency and development workflows.

While we are making progress in sharing knowledge, a key challenge remains: We need additional support in the infrastructure domain, specifically a hands-on engineer who can actively work alongside our DevOps team to bridge gaps in backend and infrastructure development.

Therefore, we are looking for a strong candidate who is not only a strategic thinker but also someone who thrives in hands-on problem-solving. As a Platform team member, you will work closely with other DevOps and Backend engineers to design, build, and maintain scalable infrastructure and deployment pipelines. You'll be responsible for setting up and managing environments across multiple stages (development, staging, production), ensuring smooth deployments, and supporting the engineering teams with the tools and automation needed to ship high-quality software efficiently and reliably. This role is key to providing our engineers gain confidence, adopt best practices, and effectively integrate AI-driven solutions into their work.

We are seeking a DevOps/platform engineer with experience in Java, preferably Kotlin, who is capable of maintaining Kafka.

This is where you come in. We need someone who can:

• Be deeply hands-on - collaborating directly with our DevOps engineer to implement best practices, optimise workflows, and actively participate in solving infrastructure challenges.
• Lead with clarity - making complex DevOps and backend processes easy to understand.
• Communicate effectively - ensuring the team gains confidence in backend and infrastructure development.
• Simplify and accelerate workflows - assessing how things can be done more efficiently and using AI to reduce manual effort.
• Coach and empower the team - introducing AI-driven tools and methodologies to improve productivity, while mentoring engineers who are still building confidence in these areas.

• Proficiency in Java or preferably Kotlin. We also use Python a lot!
• Strong experience with event-driven architectures and Kafka, with a preference for Kafka Streams.
• Expertise in AWS infrastructure, including the ability to write Terraform and deploy scalable, secure, resilient services.
• Strong proficiency in containerization (Docker) and orchestration technologies like Kubernetes.
• Strong experience with data pipelines and analytics, with the ability to design, implement, and optimise solutions. Knowledge of technologies such as Kafka events, Athena, and similar tools is highly valued.
• Proven ability to design and build microservices from scratch, with experience using LLMs and AI-powered tools to accelerate development and reduce manual effort.
• Experience in LLMs (Large Language Models) and AI-driven automation to improve development workflows, streamline coding, and optimize infrastructure management.
• Passion for leveraging AI-powered tools to optimise CI/CD pipelines, automate infrastructure management, and improve operational efficiency.
• Demonstrated leadership in guiding and mentoring engineering teams, fostering a culture of AI-assisted development and DevOps best practices.
• Strong communication and collaboration skills, fostering cross-functional partnerships across product, engineering, and operations teams.
• Enjoys sharing knowledge and has a talent for making complex infrastructure look fun and easy.

Nice to have:

• A Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field.

Must be eligible to work in the UK.

Please note whilst we really appreciate offers of help, we do not work with recruitment agencies at the moment.