Data Centre Technology Platform Lead

We are seeking a Data Centre Technology Platform Lead to join our Group Technology team in Milton Keynes. You will be responsible for technology platforms including compute, storage, backup/recovery and Cloud and own your platform-as-a-product, including the design, implementation, operating, governance, compliance and regulation. You will apply a product management mindset to release early and often, adapting to customer input and feedback and using data to prove value and improve service. Your expertise will lead an aligned and communicated vision, roadmap and delivery, building trust with your customers and stakeholders - whom you will communicate with frequently.

This platform capability is responsible for the day-to-day operating, including pro-active monitoring, incident and problem management, ongoing maintenance and continuous improvement. This includes owning the 3rd party relationships from contract definition to supplier performance management., * Providing strong thought leadership, vision and technical due diligence

• Continual delivery of mandatory changes, discretional improvements and operational management of this platform
• Incident response and resolution and root cause analysis and fix to ensure a 24x7x365 capability
• Team and line management: Deliver the platform capability and to steward the team's professional development
• Alignment both to enterprise architecture and technology principles, patterns and policies, and across the department to ensure a consistent and coherent IT infrastructure capability in line with business strategy
• Governance of teams consuming this platform capability in a safe, reliable and sustainable way
• Suppliers: Day-to-day contract and performance management

Do you have experience in UNIX?, * Proven experience in leading and managing a team (~10), who are responsible for compute, storage, backup/recovery and Cloud platforms ideally in an agile value-stream operating model

• Experience in operating in a full 24x7x365 reliability lifecycle, ideally also designed and improved it
• Professionally qualified in on-premises and public cloud compute and storage, ideally with a relevant degree or post-graduate qualification
• Proven experience in designing, implementing and supporting solutions, ideally with at least national infrastructure exposure
• Data-informed decision making, ideally in an OKR framework
• Proactive problem-solver and used to managing pressure, ideally at a scale relevant to Connells
• On-premises and public-cloud exposure including migrating to the latter, ideally within a significant or completed hosting transformation initiative
• Specific technology exposure:

• IAC: Terraform, GitHub Actions, ARM templates and resource management
• Containerisation and orchestration (Docker, Kubernetes)
• Knowledge of core services (Virtual Networks, VMs, Storage, App Services, etc.)
• Experience with Azure AD, RBAC, Key Vault, and security best practices
• Experience using PowerShell, Azure CLI, and Bash for automation tasks
• Knowledge of security best practices for on-premises and cloud environments
• Experience optimising on-premises and cloud spend
• Server and o/s (Windows and Unix) build and patching
• Server and storage standards
• Microsoft Active Directory and Office365 configuration and management (Exchange, SharePoint, Teams)