[Hiring] Platform Engineer @Howden

Role Description

We are seeking a hands-on and forward-thinking Platform Engineer to build, automate, and evolve the Azure infrastructure supporting the Howden US technology and data platforms. This is an Azure infrastructure engineering role, not a data engineering role. While Azure Databricks is a critical part of our technology landscape and an important focus of this position, the Platform Engineer will not be responsible for developing data pipelines, notebooks, transformations, or data models in Databricks. Instead, you will build and improve the infrastructure, security, networking, identity, automation, and operational foundations that allow our engineers to use Databricks effectively.

Your scope extends across the broader Microsoft Azure ecosystem. You may work on infrastructure supporting data platforms, applications, AI solutions, integrations, containerized workloads, or other emerging US technology needs. We expect you to understand the problem first and select the appropriate Azure services rather than defaulting to a particular technology.

This is a builder role. You will be expected to turn problems and ideas into working infrastructure, automate repetitive processes, create reusable capabilities, and continuously improve the developer experience.

We are looking for someone who is curious about why things work the way they do and is comfortable constructively challenging existing architecture, processes, and ways of working. When a better approach exists, we want someone who can articulate it, demonstrate it, and help build it.

The ideal candidate combines strong Azure infrastructure expertise with an entrepreneurial engineering mindset. You are comfortable with ambiguity, willing to experiment, able to move quickly from idea to implementation, and take ownership of solutions through production.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in a technical or quantitative discipline, or equivalent practical technical experience.
• 5+ years of experience in cloud infrastructure, platform engineering, DevOps, SRE, or a similar hands-on engineering role.
• Proven hands-on experience building and operating production workloads and infrastructure on Microsoft Azure.
• Proven experience using Infrastructure as Code and CI/CD to automate cloud infrastructure and platform configuration.
• Hands-on experience supporting Azure Databricks from an infrastructure, security, identity, networking, or platform administration perspective.
• Experience working across multiple Azure services and selecting appropriate technologies based on technical and business requirements.
• Demonstrated experience owning technical solutions from design through implementation, deployment, troubleshooting, and production operation.
• Willingness to wear multiple hats and work across traditional infrastructure boundaries as the US platform and engineering capabilities continue to evolve.

Requirements

• Strong hands-on experience designing, building, automating, and operating Microsoft Azure infrastructure across a broad range of Azure services.
• Deep understanding of core Azure infrastructure concepts, including subscriptions, resource groups, networking, storage, identity, security, compute, application hosting, monitoring, and governance.
• Strong proficiency with Terraform and Infrastructure as Code, including reusable modules and consistent multi-environment deployments.
• Strong knowledge of Azure networking, including VNets, subnets, private endpoints, private DNS, routing, firewalls, network security groups, and secure external connectivity.
• Strong experience with Microsoft Entra ID and Azure access management, including RBAC, security groups, service principals, managed identities, and least-privilege patterns.
• Strong infrastructure and platform-level knowledge of Azure Databricks, including workspace provisioning and configuration, networking, storage integration, Unity Catalog infrastructure, identity and access management, compute policies, secrets, security, and monitoring.
• Experience provisioning and operating other Azure services such as Azure Container Apps, App Service, Functions, Storage Accounts, Key Vault, Azure Monitor, or comparable managed services.
• Strong experience building CI/CD and infrastructure automation, preferably using Azure DevOps, YAML pipelines, Git, APIs, and SDKs.
• Proficiency in automation and scripting using Python, PowerShell, Bash, or similar technologies.
• Experience implementing observability, monitoring, logging, alerting, cost management, and operational controls across Azure environments.
• Strong understanding of cloud security and governance, including secrets management, environment isolation, network security, auditability, access controls, and secure-by-default infrastructure patterns.
• Ability to troubleshoot complex problems spanning Azure infrastructure, networking, identity, security, Databricks, storage, applications, and external integrations.
• A strong builder mindset: comfortable taking an ambiguous infrastructure problem from investigation and architecture through implementation, automation, deployment, and production operation.
• A track record of constructively challenging the status quo, identifying inefficient or unnecessarily complex approaches, proposing pragmatic alternatives, and turning those ideas into working solutions.
• An automation-first mindset: repetitive infrastructure and operational activities should become automated and reusable wherever practical.
• Experience creating self-service capabilities and reusable platform patterns that enable engineering teams to move faster while maintaining appropriate security and governance.
• Practical experience using modern AI-assisted and agentic engineering tools to accelerate infrastructure development, troubleshooting, automation, and documentation.
• Strong bias for action and ownership, with the ability to move from problem identification to a working production solution with minimal oversight.
• Comfort working in an entrepreneurial environment where engineers are expected to build, simplify, automate, and improve rather than simply administer existing infrastructure.
• Ability to collaborate effectively with technical and non-technical stakeholders across data engineering, AI, security, infrastructure, operations, and global platform teams.
• Experience with enterprise or regulated environments is preferred; insurance industry experience is a plus.

Benefits

• Medical, dental, and vision insurance, including healthcare savings and reimbursement accounts.
• 401(k) retirement plan.
• Flexible Paid Time Off and paid parental leave.
• Life and Disability insurance.