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

How to Apply

If you are an experienced Platform or DevOps Engineer with strong GCP, Kubernetes and Linux experience and are interested in a long-term cloud transformation project, contact Aaron Somers at Ocho or apply with your CV for more information.