Lead Platform Engineer

Who you are

• Excellent communication skills, with a focus on doing this asynchronously across multiple timezones and countries
• Demonstrable impact working effectively with developers, product managers and other business stakeholders to understand and deliver impactful projects or improve KPIs
• Record of successfully and consistently delivering critical path projects, on time and at scale
• Meticulous organisation and planning skills
• Experience of mentoring and coaching highly-autonomous teams
• Proficiency with AWS. We use a lot of different AWS services and including Amazon EKS in production
• Knowledge of Platform Engineering best-practices, including security, CI/CD tooling and methodologies
• Experience working on SaaS platforms, including engaging product teams to ensure up-skilling and knowledge sharing across teams
• Proactive, problem-solving orientation with an interest in continual improvement
• Prior experience in globally distributed teams
• Studies have shown that some groups of people, like women, are less likely to apply to a role unless they meet 100% of the job requirements. Whoever you are, if you like one of our jobs, we encourage you to apply as you might just be the candidate we’re looking for!

What the job involves

• Our Global Platform Engineering Solutions team builds custom integration solutions with our clients and automates the build of the main Kraken Customer application
• As the Lead, you will manage people across the US and EU, as well as coordinate with your APAC counterpart, delivery management, and global Platform leadership to ensure a smooth process for just-in-time Kraken app delivery, champion automation, and solve unique client requirements to ensure networking, regulatory, data safety, and other needs are met
• Technical Leadership
• Work closely with the APAC Solutions lead, Director, Heads of Platform Engineering and Client Engineering to define strategic objectives and team direction
• Manage team priorities and ensure initiatives are completed within deadlines
• Work with Client Engineering and pre-Sales teams to support client use cases and integrations, with a continuous improvement workstream to streamline and automate app builds
• Provide production support for highly-available, large-scale internet-facing distributed systems
• People Management
• Line manage 7-10 Platform Engineers in Solutions team across the US and EU, and co-manage the global, follow-the-sun team and pipeline to support new client infrastructure builds
• Set clear performance expectations and regularly review individual and team performance, offering actionable insights and constructive feedback to support and grow team members
• Lead a strong team culture with open communication, trust, and inclusive team environment
• Participate in Platform Engineering leadership and org-wide efforts as well as setting high standards for team health, code hygiene, and ways of working
• Technical Delivery
• Deliver technical improvements such as small features and bug fixes
• Support team delivery through code reviews, technology research and architectural guidance
• Technologies We Use
• Build platform tooling and automation primarily in Python and Django
• CI/CD pipelines in CircleCI; GitOps workflows using ArgoCD
• Kubernetes-based environments - we use Amazon EKS
• Terraform for IaC

Benefits

• Equity option scheme: Everyone who works at Kraken owns a part of the business with shares in the Octopus Energy Group. So as the company grows we all benefit
• Pension scheme: We'll pay 5%. You decide on your contribution starting from 3%
• Holidays: We don't count your holiday days. We trust everyone to work hard and take as much time off as they need
• Flexible working: We're happy for you to work in a way that's best for you. Need to pick the kids up from school or work from home? That's not a problem. It's important to us that everyone has a positive work-life balance
• Free breakfast: Our offices are always stocked with fresh fruit, breakfast, snacks, great coffee and soft drinks.

Weekly on a Friday we all get together (including virtually) for company updates and drinks

• For parents: We can arrange access to tax free childcare, as well as maternity and paternity pay
• Free eye tests: We offer eye test vouchers for all colleagues who use Visual Display Units (VDU). Long spells of VDU work can be visually demanding so we want to make sure you're OK
• Car salary sacrifice: Save money on leasing an electric vehicle through our workplace salary sacrifice scheme
• Cycle to work scheme: Spread the cost of buying a bike, including accessories and safety equipment, up to a value of £2.5K. And save money on the repayments through the cycle to work scheme
• Get the right tech: Have a certain tech requirement? We’ll do our best to sort it for you
• Money coach: Get support with financial planning through our partnership with Octopus Money Coach
• Yoga + Headspace: Twice a week we have 45 Minute live yoga class open to all Kraken staff.

Need some calm in your life? We have Headspace licences available

• Team events and activities: Participate in team events and cohesion activities to build stronger connections
• Health Insurance: We’ll provide comprehensive coverage with Alan and access to Alan Mind.
• Transportation: If you cycle to the office we’ll support you by up to €600/year, if you use public transport we'll reimburse 75% of your Navigo pass. If you use both, we'll support you by up to €900/year
• Green energy discount: Enjoy a 32% discount on green energy compared to the regulated tariff
• Year-end gift voucher: Receive a €100 gift voucher at the end of each year
• Gymlib subscription: Get a subscription to Gymlib for access to a wide variety of fitness options
• Meal vouchers: Enjoy €10 Ticket Restaurant cards for meal expenses
• NGO support days: Benefit from three additional RTT days (Reduction of Working Time) to support NGO work, every year