Head of Infrastructure & Platform Engineering Transformation

Head of Infrastructure & Platform Engineering Transformation The Panel is partnering with a large enterprise financial services organisation to appoint a senior engineering leader to drive the modernisation of its infrastructure and platform estate across on-premise, hybrid and cloud environments. This is a hands-on transformation leadership role for someone who has built and run modern platforms, not just designed or governed them. You will lead a multi-year agenda across automation, platform engineering, SRE, observability and AI-enabled operations, working with domain leaders to make change happen across a large, complex technology estate. Responsibilities 1. Shape and deliver a multi-year infrastructure modernisation roadmap across on-premise, hybrid and cloud platforms. 2. Drive Infrastructure as Code, policy as code, GitOps and automated provisioning as the default way of working. 3. Build AIOps, observability and predictive resilience capabilities that detect and resolve issues before customers are affected. 4. Establish platform engineering foundations: golden paths, self-service capabilities, reusable patterns and guardrails that engineering teams adopt. 5. Embed SRE practices and measurable reliability, automation and delivery outcomes across technology teams. 6. Simplify and consolidate the estate, reducing technical debt and operational complexity. 7. Influence senior business and technology stakeholders, and lead strategic engagements with cloud providers and technology partners. Experience 1. 10+ years in infrastructure, platform or cloud engineering, ideally in payments, banking or another regulated, high-availability environment. 2. 5+ years leading large engineering functions, with real accountability for platforms, budgets and outcomes. 3. A proven track record of delivering modernisation in production, such as cloud migrations, IaC platforms, SRE adoption or observability, with measurable results. 4. Hands-on credibility with engineers, combined with the ability to lead and communicate confidently at executive level. 5. Experience driving change across a matrix organisation, bringing long-serving teams with you. To apply, or for a confidential conversation, contact Fergal Keys at The Panel - fergalk@thepanel.com and also answer - What are the size of teams you have managed? - What are the budgets you have managed?