Principal Hardware Engineer

• Lead the delivery, operation, and lifecycle management of physical IT infrastructure.
• Establish and maintain engineering standards, processes, and best practices.
• Oversee hardware deployment, operation, maintenance, and decommissioning.
• Provide technical leadership across data centres, build labs, and office environments.
• Manage infrastructure projects, hardware refresh programmes, and large-scale deployments.
• Ensure compliance with security, governance, and risk management requirements.
• Support infrastructure resilience, capacity planning, and business continuity initiatives.
• Work with customers, suppliers, and senior stakeholders to deliver projects successfully.
• Mentor and support engineering teams, promoting high-performance working practices.
• Drive continuous improvement across infrastructure systems and processes.

Technologies:

• Cisco
• Hardware
• Support
• ITIL
• Security
• VMware

• Significant experience in enterprise infrastructure engineering, hardware lifecycle management, or data centre operations.
• Strong knowledge of enterprise server, storage, and networking technologies.
• Experience managing infrastructure projects and leading technical teams.
• Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills.
• Strong understanding of infrastructure security, compliance, and governance.
• Ability to combine strategic planning with hands-on technical delivery.
• Proven problem-solving and decision-making capabilities.
• Experience in secure, regulated, or high-assurance environments is advantageous.
• Industry certifications such as ITIL, CCNA/CCNP, VMware, Dell, HPE, Lenovo, or Cisco are highly desirable.
• Ability to obtain UK security clearances if required.

We are recruiting on behalf of our client for an experienced Principal Hardware Engineer based in Portsmouth, with regular travel to customer sites. This is a full-time opportunity to provide technical leadership in the delivery, operation, and lifecycle management of enterprise hardware environments, including data centres, build labs, and office infrastructure. Youll be supported by a highly skilled team and help maintain engineering standards, governance, and operational excellence across internal and customer environments. We offer the opportunity to work on large-scale enterprise infrastructure projects and cutting-edge data centre and hardware technologies, with career progression, ongoing professional development and certification support, and a collaborative, inclusive working culture. Salary is competitive and dependent on experience.