Lead IT Infrastructure Platform Engineer

📋 Job Overview

Take technical ownership of critical enterprise infrastructure platforms, lead complex and high-impact change, and make decisions that deliver a measurable uplift in engineering standards and technical capability.

🏢 About IRIS

IRIS Software Group is one of the UK's largest privately held software companies, trusted by 100,000+ businesses, schools and accountancy firms to keep their operations running. Our software pays 1 in 6 UK employees, supports over 12,000 schools, and is relied on by 91 of the top 100 UK accountancy firms. We're a Great Place to Work® certified employer, recognised for our commitment to well-being, inclusion and development - and we're growing fast.

🎯 The Role

The Lead IT Infrastructure Platform Engineer provides lead-level technical ownership, design assurance and delivery leadership across enterprise infrastructure platforms and services. The role sets direction for assigned platforms or service areas, shapes standards and roadmaps, assures complex designs and leads high-impact implementations. It operates across organisational and technical boundaries, resolving ambiguity and influencing decisions while remaining sufficiently hands-on to maintain practical authority and support the most complex operational issues. This is an individual-contributor role with no line-management responsibility. Leadership is exercised through technical ownership, delivery coordination, influence, coaching and the quality of decisions and outcomes. The role balance is approximately 80% platform leadership, governance, design, project support and implementation, and 20% operational support. Success in this role is demonstrated through platform direction that holds up under scrutiny, design assurance that prevents costly rework, successful delivery of complex or high-impact change, and a measurable uplift in engineering standards and technical capability across the platforms it owns.

✅ Key Responsibilities

• Provide lead-level technical ownership for assigned infrastructure platforms or service areas, setting direction within the agreed architecture and technology roadmap.
• Define and maintain platform roadmaps, lifecycle priorities, resilience objectives, improvement backlogs and technical standards.
• Assess cross-platform dependencies, strategic risks, technical debt and investment needs, presenting clear options and recommendations to decision-makers.
• Ensure platform decisions balance security, resilience, supportability, cost, delivery practicality and business outcomes.
• Lead the development and consistent application of infrastructure design standards, implementation patterns, engineering guardrails and operational acceptance criteria.
• Produce, review and assure high-level and low-level technical designs for complex or high-impact change.
• Provide constructive technical challenge and confirm that proposed solutions align with architecture, security, governance, operational and lifecycle requirements.
• Maintain clear decision records and ensure risks, exceptions, approvals and accountabilities are visible and understood.
• Lead the technical delivery of complex infrastructure projects and major platform improvements from discovery and design through implementation and transition.
• Shape technical scope, delivery approach, dependencies, sequencing, resource needs, acceptance criteria and implementation risks.
• Coordinate technical contributors across internal teams and suppliers, resolving ambiguity and escalating decisions at the appropriate point.
• Provide authoritative technical recommendations to project, architecture, security, service management and senior stakeholders.
• Ensure service transition is complete, including monitoring, controls, documentation, support models, recovery arrangements, knowledge transfer and ownership.
• Provide lead-level operational support for major incidents, high-risk problems and complex service issues affecting assigned platforms.
• Guide diagnosis and recovery, ensuring decisions are evidence-based, risks are controlled and communications are clear.
• Lead technical problem management and follow-through, ensuring lessons result in sustainable engineering or governance improvements.
• Review service trends and operational risks, prioritising improvements that reduce recurring demand and strengthen resilience.
• Participate in operational cover and planned out-of-hours work where required by the service.
• Provide technical direction, coaching and design guidance to engineers and peers without direct line-management responsibility.
• Build alignment across technical leads, architecture, security, service management, delivery teams, suppliers and business stakeholders.
• Represent the platform or service area in relevant governance, design and delivery forums.
• Raise the quality of engineering practice through reusable standards, peer review, knowledge sharing and clear documentation.

📌 Required Qualifications

• Typically eight or more years in infrastructure engineering roles, including sustained experience operating at Senior level or equivalent.
• Extensive experience designing, implementing, governing and supporting enterprise infrastructure services in a complex organisation.
• Proven technical leadership of complex projects, major platform changes or multi-team technical initiatives from design through transition.
• Experience producing and assuring high-level and low-level designs, implementation strategies and operational acceptance criteria.
• Demonstrated ownership of platform roadmaps, lifecycle planning, technical standards, governance or service improvement portfolios.
• Experience leading technical response to major incidents and complex problems, with evidence of sustainable follow-through.
• Experience influencing architecture, security, service management, suppliers, project teams and senior stakeholders with

⭐ Desirable Experience

• Experience influencing architecture, security, service management, suppliers, project teams and senior stakeholders with

🎁 Benefits

Competitive

🛂 Visa & Eligibility