Platform Engineer

Senior Platform Engineer - GCP / Kubernetes / Linux

Location: Stockport / Hybrid

Contract: 12 Months

IR35: Inside IR35

Rate: Competitive day rate

Working Pattern: Hybrid, with an expectation of around 2-3 days onsite initially and scope for greater flexibility once embedded

The Role

Ocho is working with a client in Stockport who is looking for an experienced Senior Platform Engineer to join their infrastructure engineering team on a 12-month contract.

The immediate focus is a major on-premise to Google Cloud Platform (GCP) migration, so this role is particularly suited to someone with strong hands-on GCP experience alongside Kubernetes and Linux.

This is a project-focused engineering role rather than a BAU support position. The team is responsible for designing and delivering new infrastructure and platform solutions, with long-term operational support handed over to a separate TechOps function once projects are complete.

You will work as part of a small senior engineering team, typically 3-5 engineers per project, helping design, build and improve cloud and platform infrastructure across a range of initiatives.

Key Responsibilities

Support the migration of infrastructure and workloads from on-premise environments into GCP

Design, build and improve cloud and platform infrastructure

Work extensively with Kubernetes across containerised environments

Provision and manage infrastructure using Terraform and other automation tooling

Apply strong Linux systems administration skills across platform environments

Contribute to cloud architecture, platform design and technical governance

Improve infrastructure scalability, reliability and maintainability

Support automation and standardisation across cloud environments

Work with networking, IAM, security and infrastructure configuration

Collaborate with senior engineers, architects and technical stakeholders

Produce clear technical documentation and support handover into TechOps

Provide senior-level technical input and recommendations across infrastructure projects

Essential Skills & Experience

Strong commercial experience with Google Cloud Platform (GCP)

Previous experience working on cloud migration projects, ideally on-premise to GCP

Strong hands-on Kubernetes experience

Strong Linux systems administration skills

Good experience with Terraform and Infrastructure as Code

Strong background in Platform Engineering, Cloud Engineering or DevOps

Experience designing, building and improving production-grade infrastructure

Good understanding of cloud networking, IAM and security principles

Strong automation mindset

Ability to work independently and take ownership of complex technical problems

Comfortable operating in a senior engineering environment and making technical recommendations

Highly Desirable

Helm

AWS experience

CI/CD tooling

Monitoring and observability

Cloud networking and VPC design

Infrastructure architecture

Governance and security best practices

Experience simplifying or modernising complex infrastructure environments

The Ideal Candidate

You will likely come from a Senior Platform Engineer, Senior DevOps Engineer, Senior Cloud Engineer or Cloud Infrastructure Engineer background.

The strongest candidates will have genuine hands‑on experience across:

GCP + Kubernetes + Linux + Terraform

You should be comfortable building and improving infrastructure rather than simply deploying applications into an existing platform.

This role would suit someone who enjoys project-based engineering work, cloud migration and platform design without being tied into long-term BAU support.

Interview Process

The interview process is straightforward and consists of:

Stage 1: 15-minute screening call

Stage 2: 1-hour technical deep-dive with two senior engineers

Stage 3: 15-minute final call with the Director of Systems Engineering

Offer following successful completion of the final stage

Contract Details

12-month initial contract

Inside IR35

Stockport-based hybrid role

Approximately 2-3 days onsite initially

Potential for increased remote flexibility once onboarded

Strong likelihood of extension, with contractor tenure potentially extending up to 36 months

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