Platform Specialist

Senior Platform Engineer – GCP / Kubernetes / Linux

Location: Stockport / Hybrid

Contract: 12 Months

IR35: Inside IR35

Rate: £500 per day

Working Pattern: 2 days per week onsite in Stockport

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 an on-premise to Google Cloud Platform (GCP) migration, so this role is particularly suited to someone with strong hands-on GCP experience alongside Kubernetes, Linux and Terraform.

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 Infrastructure as Code 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 cloud networking, IAM 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 hands-on 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 capability, beyond basic command-line familiarity
• 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 and IAM
• 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

• Previous on-premise to GCP migration experience
• GKE experience
• AWS experience
• Broader cloud migration experience
• Infrastructure architecture
• Governance and platform standardisation
• 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 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
• £500 per day
• 2 days per week onsite in Stockport
• Project-focused platform engineering role
• 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, Linux and Terraform experience and are interested in a long-term cloud transformation project, contact Aaron Somers at Ocho or apply with your CV for more information.