Job Description

Principal Platform Engineer - Ref: 1733

Initial contract until 27/12/26

£98.82ph, UMB, inside IR35

Yeovil - Full time onsite

Please note, DV clearance is required for this positon and the programme will have "UK Eyes Only" restrictions.

Your Impact

Are you ready to take on complex technical challenges at the forefront of cyber and platform engineering? At Leonardo, our Principal Platform Engineers are hands-on experts who shape the design, integration, and delivery of secure platforms that keep our customers' missions running.

Your work at Leonardo UK will see you take the lead in solving customer problems in an agile, innovative and team-centric manner. The role may involve a blended hybrid working model, with a mixture of working from home and working on site at one of our Leonardo offices to ensure close collaboration with the wider team and with our customers.

Leonardo UK is seeking a Principal Platform Engineer to join the Cyber & Security Solutions Division team. This role is focused on delivering, maintaining, and improving platform and systems engineering solutions that underpin critical defence, government and public sector services.

What you will do as a Principal Platform Engineer

Act as the technical authority on one of our platform engineering domains (e.g. virtualisation) providing specialist domain expertise to projects and programmes.

Lead the design and implementation of secure platforms across on-premise environments.

Capture, analyse, and interpret complex customer requirements to drive system design and architecture.

Develop high- and low-level designs, ensuring alignment with secure-by-design principles.

Take ownership of technical delivery within work packages, including planning, estimation, and progress reporting.

Mentor, coach, and develop junior and senior engineers, raising technical capability across the community.

Provide input to technology strategies, feasibility studies, and innovation projects.

Engage with internal and external stakeholders, presenting technical solutions and justifying design decisions.

What you'll bring

Extensive technical expertise across multiple platform domains, with a track record of delivering secure solutions.

The ability to balance hands-on engineering with technical leadership and mentorship.

A problem-solving mindset, able to innovate and recommend the best approach for complex challenges.

Core areas (must have):

Windows and Linux operating systems

Virtualisation platforms (VMware, Hyper-V)

VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) stack (vSphere, vSAN, NSX-T, Aria Suite)

Design, build and operation of software-defined datacentre platforms

Network virtualisation and micro-segmentation concepts (NSX, platform-integrated)

Networking concepts (TCP/IP, DNS, DHCP, firewalls)

Automation and scripting (PowerShell, Bash, Python, Ansible, Terraform)

Knowledge of cyber security controls and accreditation requirements

Experience across the systems engineering lifecycle

Integration of compute, storage, and network layers into a unified platform

Delivery within secure / enterprise / defence environments

Desirable:

VCAP certifcation

Expertise with cloud platforms (AWS) and Infrastructure as Code

Experience integrating enterprise services (Active Directory, PKI, monitoring, SIEM)

Hands-on use of DevSecOps tools and CI/CD pipelines

VxRail and hyper-converged infrastructure

Automation of VCF lifecycle (patching, upgrades, deployment)

Integration with enterprise identity and security services (AD, PKI, PAM)

Containerisation platforms (Kubernetes, Docker)