Principal Platform Engineer || Internal Developer Platform (AI-Native Engineering)

Job Description

At IFS, we're building the next generation of AI-native enterprise software. We're looking for a Principal Platform Engineer to build the Internal Developer Platform that our product engineering teams will depend on.

You should be a hands-on platform engineer who builds through code and automates by default. Your experience might centre on infrastructure as code, deployment pipelines, automation, platform tooling or service integrations. What matters is that you have built reliable, repeatable capabilities that engineering teams use to deliver and operate software.

Your background may be in platform engineering, infrastructure, SRE, developer tooling or systems integration. What matters is substantial hands-on experience building or extending platform capabilities through code and automation, supporting the delivery and operation of software.

A software development background is particularly valuable, but it is not a prerequisite. We welcome engineers whose coding experience has developed through platform engineering, infrastructure or SRE work.

Architecture, administration and product configuration alone are not sufficient. We want to understand what you personally implemented, tested, automated and supported in production.

We're interested in what you have personally built and automated: how you provisioned it, tested changes, delivered it safely and enabled other teams to use it without depending on manual intervention. The distinction that matters here is between running infrastructure for other teams and giving them something they can serve themselves with — self-service workflows, service catalogues, scaffolders, golden paths. Prior experience with Backstage, Port, Cortex or comparable tooling is particularly welcome.

This is a greenfield build. There is no Internal Developer Platform today, no tooling chosen and no templates written, so you will shape what gets built alongside the engineer leading it. Substantial technical ownership, and impact across our entire engineering organisation.

As a Principal Platform Engineer (IDP Focus), you will be the primary hands-on technical resource responsible for the implementation, configuration, and ongoing support of the IFS Internal Developer Platform. You will work within the Platform Engineering team to build the tooling and automation that enables product teams to self-serve infrastructure, services, and deployment pipelines on top of Kairos and Nexus.

This is a deeply technical, delivery-focused role. You will be building and operating production IDP capabilities, not advising on them.

• Implement, configure, and maintain the IFS Internal Developer Platform (IDP) end-to-end
• Build self-service workflows, service catalogue entries, scaffolders, and golden path templates
• Integrate IDP tooling with Kairos (application framework) and Nexus (infrastructure and deployment)
• Build and maintain CI/CD integration patterns for product team consumption
• Create and maintain developer-facing documentation, guides, and enablement materials
• Provide platform support and technical enablement to product development teams
• Contribute to platform standards, architectural decisions, and the IDP roadmap
• Identify and resolve platform reliability and performance issues
• Collaborate closely with the Platform Lead and adjacent platform teams (Base Tech, Auth, Nexus)

Internal Developer Platforms

• Hands-on experience building or operating IDPs in production environments
• Practical experience with IDP tooling: Backstage, Port, Cortex, or comparable platforms
• Experience implementing service catalogues, scaffolders, golden paths, and self-service infrastructure workflows
• Familiarity with integrating IDPs into CI/CD pipelines and cloud-native infrastructure

Engineering

• Strong hands-on engineering capability across the NGA stack, or the ability to get there fast:
  • Backend: Go
  • Frontend: React (with Next.js)
  • Messaging / Streaming: Apache Kafka / RedPanda
  • Data: PostgreSQL
• Experience with Infrastructure as Code (IaC) and DevOps toolchains
• Event-driven and event-based architecture patterns
• Comfortable operating in a cloud-native environment: Kubernetes (AKS), containers, GitOps

Platform Engineering

• Strong understanding of developer experience principles and platform thinking
• Ability to operate across platform and product team boundaries

Experience supporting and enabling development teams in a platform capacity

We embrace flexibility and hybrid work opportunities to support diverse needs and lifestyles, while also valuing inclusive workplace experiences. By fostering a sense of community, we drive innovation, strengthen connections, and nurture belonging. Our commitment ensures you can work in a way that suits you best, while also engaging with colleagues to share ideas and build meaningful relationships.