Senior Platform Engineer

Level: 4

Salary band: £70,000 - £80,000

Location: Hybrid - 3 days per week in London Office (Angel, Islington)

At Automata, we're on a mission to transform how scientists work by making automation accessible to every lab in the world. We believe that by giving labs the power to automate, we can unlock discoveries that will shape the future of life sciences—from diagnostics and drug discovery to synthetic biology.

But we’re more than just a company disrupting the industry—we're a team of innovators, problem-solvers, and creators passionate about empowering scientists. Our LINQ platform combines hardware and software to streamline workflows, making lab automation fast, flexible, and affordable. This means our customers can focus on groundbreaking research, while we take care of the rest.

Why Work at Automata?

Impact: Your work will directly contribute to advancements in science and medicine, supporting labs around the globe as they push boundaries in research and innovation.

Innovation: You’ll be part of a team solving complex problems (seriously, no one else has figured out how to do this yet), using cutting-edge technology (we have robots).

Growth: We invest in our people. Whether through hands-on experience, professional development, or collaborative projects, you’ll grow both professionally and personally.

Community: Join a diverse, passionate team that values collaboration (golf on a Thursday, Soccer once a month, movie nights whenever we fancy it).

We are looking for a Senior Platform Engineer to help build, scale, and operate the foundational infrastructure powering Automata’s LINQ platform. You will play a critical role in designing and maintaining robust, secure, and compliant systems that support deployments across cloud and on-premise (including bare-metal environments).

You will collaborate closely with product, software, and field teams to define golden paths that accelerate developer productivity while maintaining high operational standards.

Why is this role important for Automata?

As a Senior Platform Engineer, you will ensure that Automata’s platform is reliable, scalable, and compliant, enabling successful deployments in highly regulated environments. Your work will directly impact customer success, internal velocity, and the platform's long-term maintainability.

In this role, you will be responsible for

Designing, building and operating Kubernetes platforms across AWS and bare-metal environments

Managing and optimising Postgres databases, ensuring performance, resilience, and data integrity

Developing and maintaining Infrastructure as Code (Terraform, Pulumi, Crossplane, or similar)

Implementing and managing GitOps workflows (ArgoCD) for consistent and repeatable deployments

Supporting Windows OS provisioning and hybrid infrastructure environments

Building and improving observability systems (OpenTelemetry, metrics, tracing, logging)

Contributing to network architecture and operations, including physical networking (Juniper/Mist)

Supporting deployments in regulated environments (ISO27001, SOC2, GxP)

Collaborating with field and customer teams on on-site deployments and troubleshooting

Developing automation and internal tooling using Python, Go, Rust, or .NET

Participating in building orchestration workflows using tools like Temporal

Help define and maintain golden paths for developers to improve productivity and reliability

Contribute to documentation, onboarding materials, and operational runbooks

What It Takes

5+ years of experience in platform engineering, SRE, or infrastructure roles

Strong experience with Kubernetes in production, including bare-metal clusters

Solid understanding of cloud platforms (AWS) and hybrid deployments

Experience managing databases (Postgres/DBA-level knowledge preferred)

Familiarity with GitOps and modern IaC practices

Experience with observability tooling and distributed systems debugging

Understanding of networking fundamentals, including physical infrastructure

Experience working in regulated environments or with compliance frameworks

Proficiency in at least one programming language (Python, Go, Rust, or .NET)

Strong communication skills and ability to work cross-functionally

Willingness to travel to customer sites when needed

Experience with automation/AI-assisted development workflows (e.g., Claude Code)

Nice to haves

Experience with Juniper/Mist networking

Exposure to Temporal or similar workflow orchestration systems

Background in supporting life sciences or GxP environments

Why You’ll Want to Join Us

You want to operate at the edge of your capability - where expectations are high and impact is real

You’re motivated by ownership and autonomy - not hierarchy or process

You want to build and scale something meaningful - our product directly saves lives

You’re currently under-leveraged, moving faster than your environment allows

You want to work with people who are equally driven, pragmatic, and focused on outcomes

UK Team Benefits:

🍎 Vitality Health Insurance

👀 Eye Care

🚗 Salary Sacrifice - EV

🚲 Salary Sacrifice - Bike & Tech

🧘🏼♀️ Wellbeing & Support

☀️ Wellbeing & Development Allowance

💙 Spill & Employee Assistance Programme

😊 Additional Leave

👵🏼 Pension Scheme

🫂 Group Life & Critical Illness cover

We are an equal-opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees. Discrimination of any kind based on race, colour, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, age, genetic information, disability, or veteran status is strictly prohibited.