Principal Cloud Platform Engineer - Contract

Location: Hybrid (60% office / 40% remote)
Rate: £580 - £618 per day - Inside IR35
Engagement: PAYE via Umbrella Company only

Role Overview

We are seeking an experienced Principal Cloud Platform Engineer to help shape the future of our cloud security and automation capabilities. You will play a key role in expanding our cloud product roadmap, automating remediation and escalation processes, and strengthening our security posture across enterprise platforms.

Working closely with engineering, security, and DevOps teams, you will apply modern cloud-native and CI/CD practices to solve real-world business challenges across multiple technology domains.

Key Responsibilities

• Drive cloud infrastructure enhancements aligned to strategic and budgetary objectives.

• Collaborate with engineering teams on the design, build, and delivery of scalable cloud services.

• Enable stakeholders to adopt modern cloud-native architectures and best practices.

• Ensure cloud platforms adhere to security, compliance, and software lifecycle standards.

• Automate operational workflows, incident remediation, and escalation processes.

Essential Skills & Experience

• Proven experience in cloud engineering with professional certifications (AWS, Azure, or GCP preferred).

• Ability to translate High-Level Designs (HLD) and Low-Level Designs (LLD) into implementable solutions.

• Strong scripting skills in PowerShell, Bash, and Python or Java.

• Deep experience with CI/CD pipelines and Agile/Scrum methodologies.

• Knowledge of SIEM, cloud security controls, and cloud security tooling.

• Experience with incident, problem, and change management processes.

• Hands-on experience with Wiz (Wiz Cloud, Wiz Defend).

• Strong containerisation expertise (Docker, Kubernetes).

• Experience with Windows and Red Hat Linux environments.

• Automation experience using Chef or similar configuration management tools.

GCP-Focused Experience (Highly Desirable)

• Infrastructure automation using Deployment Manager or Terraform.

• IAM roles, Service Accounts, and Organization Policies.

• CI/CD tooling including Cloud Build, Artifact Registry, and Cloud Deploy.

• GCP Networking (VPC, firewall rules, load balancing).

• Observability and security tooling (Cloud Logging, Monitoring, Security Command Center).

• Experience with GKE and container orchestration.

Desirable Qualifications

• Experience within financial services or other regulated environments.

• Bachelor's degree (or higher) in a relevant technical discipline.

• CISSP or equivalent security certification.