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Northern Data Group

Director of Platform Engineering (m/f/d)

London Full time

Job Description

We’re searching for an experienced and visionary Director of Platform Engineering to lead the architecture, development, and scalability of our core platform services across Northern Data Group. You will play a pivotal role in evolving our engineering landscape — driving platform reliability, scalability, and automation across cloud infrastructure, while collaborating closely with cross-functional teams including Product, Software, and Data Engineering. This is a hands-on leadership role in a fast-paced, high-growth environment & is ideal for someone who thrives on building structure from ambiguity and leading technical excellence at scale.

YOUR RESPONSIBILITIES:

Leadership & Strategy:

  • Define and execute the strategic roadmap for NDG’s platform engineering function, ensuring our infrastructure is future-ready for rapid AI and HPC workloads.
  • Build and mentor a high-performing team of platform engineers, site reliability engineers, and DevOps specialists across multiple geographies.
  • Partner closely with the CTO, Director of Cloud Engineering, and Product & Software Engineering leaders to align platform initiatives with NDG’s wider technical vision.
  • Drive standardisation of cloud infrastructure and platform tooling across brands (Taiga Cloud, Ardent Data Centers, and others).

Technical Execution:

  • Lead the design and delivery of a resilient, scalable, and secure platform architecture supporting AI workloads and GPU clusters.
  • Oversee automation, CI/CD, monitoring, and observability frameworks for infrastructure performance and service reliability.
  • Champion best practices in software deployment, container orchestration, and infrastructure-as-code (e.g., Kubernetes, Terraform, Ansible, Docker).
  • Ensure consistent uptime, disaster recovery, and security posture across global environments.

Innovation & Collaboration:

  • Work closely with Product and Software teams to enable faster experimentation and deployment pipelines.
  • Drive integration with leading-edge NVIDIA GPU infrastructure and next-gen networking environments.
  • Collaborate with Data Center and Operations teams to ensure seamless interconnectivity between on-prem and cloud environments.
  • Build frameworks to improve developer experience, self-service capabilities, and platform governance.

Governance & Operations:

  • Own platform reliability metrics (SLAs, SLOs, SLIs) and capacity planning.
  • Manage platform budgets, forecasting, and vendor relationships.
  • Implement best-in-class monitoring and alerting systems across global environments.

YOUR QUALIFICATIONS:

Technical Background

  • 10+ years of experience in engineering roles with at least 5 years in a leadership position (Head/Director level) within Cloud Infrastructure, Platform Engineering, or DevOps.
  • Deep understanding of Cloud, HPC, AI infrastructure, particularly with NVIDIA GPU compute, Kubernetes and hybrid environments.
  • Proven experience in designing scalable and secure distributed systems.
  • Strong working knowledge of tools such as Terraform, Docker, Ansible, Prometheus, Grafana, and CI/CD pipelines.
  • Hands-on experience with Python, Bash, or Go scripting for automation.
  • Familiarity with InfiniBand networking, data center interconnectivity, and high-performance compute clusters is a major advantage.

Leadership & Soft Skills:

  • Experienced in leading distributed & multicultural engineering teams across multiple regions.
  • Strong communicator capable of bridging technical and non-technical discussions with stakeholders.
  • Strategic thinker with the ability to execute in fast-paced, unstructured environments.
  • Pragmatic and solutions-oriented able to balance innovation with delivery.
  • Track record of driving culture, collaboration, and excellence within high-growth technology companies.

WHAT WE OFFER

With us, you will work towards the future of HPC: From new, sustainable building methods for data centers to cooling concepts to software solutions for accelerated compute. 

Your approaches count: In official exchange formats or spontaneously at the coffee machine. At Northern Data, it's the best idea that counts - not the hierarchy. We’re looking forward to getting your inputs!

You make the difference in the company: Unlike in established corporations, at Northern Data you will really help shape things. From implementing new departments, to optimizing processes and culture. 

Best-in-class partners: The best work with Northern Data. This means a knowledge and time advantage from which your career and our customers benefit equally.

Green by heart: Sustainability is at the core of Northern Data. With us, you actively work on the carbon neutrality of datacenters worldwide. Beginning with our infrastructure and continuing with the solutions for our clients, we work towards a green future.

Home Office facts: Work with our international and virtual team flexible from home. And of course, your hardware wishes will be fulfilled to make your ideas for next level HPC come true.

Your wellness matters: At Northern Data we have regular wellbeing initiatives that are designed to promote wellness, diversity, inclusion, and much more, ensuring a supportive and enriching environment for our global team.