Staff Platform Engineer

Level: 5
Salary band: £110,000 - £120,000
Location:Hybrid - 3 days per week in London Office (Angel, Islington)

AtAutomata,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. OurLINQ 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 thatvalues collaboration (golf on a Thursday, Soccer once a month, movie nights whenever we fancy it).

We are looking for aStaff Platform Engineerto lead the technical direction of Automata’s platform infrastructure. This is a high-impact role where you will define architecture, drive standards, and enable teams to deliver faster and more reliably across cloud and on-premise environments.
You will operate across teams, setting the vision for platform engineering and ensuring that our systems meet the highest standards ofperformance, security, and compliance.

Why is this role important for Automata?
As a Staff Platform Engineer, you will be responsible for shaping thetechnical foundation of Automata’s platform at scale. You will define the systems and practices that allow teams to move quickly while maintaining reliability in highly regulated, customer-facing environments.
Your work will multiply engineering productivity and ensure that Automata can scale its platform globally.

In this role, you will be responsible for

• Define and drive theplatform architectureacross cloud, edge, and bare-metal deployments

• Establish and evolvegolden pathsthat standardise how engineers build, deploy, and operate services

• Lead the design ofmulti-cluster Kubernetes platforms, including bare-metal and hybrid setups

• Own strategy and best practices fordata infrastructure (Postgres and beyond)

• Drive adoption ofGitOps (ArgoCD)and scalableIaC frameworks

• Architect systems forhighly regulated environments (ISO27001, SOC2, GxP)

• Leadobservability strategyusing OpenTelemetry and modern tooling

• Guidenetwork architecture, including physical networking and vendor integrations (Juniper/Mist)

• Drive platform-levelautomation and AI adoption(e.g., developer tooling, Claude Code workflows)

• Influence and improveorchestration patterns(Temporal and similar systems)

• Partner with product, engineering, and field teams to ensure successfulcustomer deployments

• Mentor engineers and raise the technical bar across the organisation

• Balancetechnical excellence with pragmatic decision-making

• 8+ years of experience in platform engineering, infrastructure, or distributed systems

• Deep expertise inKubernetes, includingbare-metal and large-scale production systems

• Strong experience designingcloud + on-prem hybrid architectures

• Advanced knowledge ofPostgres and data infrastructure

• Proven experience defining and scalingplatform standards and developer workflows

• Strong background inIaC and GitOps at scale

• Experience designing systems forcompliance-heavy environments

• Deep understanding ofobservability, reliability engineering, and incident management

• Strong programming skills in at least one of (Go, Python, Rust, .NET)

• Excellent communication and leadership skills across technical and non-technical teams

• Experience working directly with customers or field teams in complex environments

• Willingness totravel when needed to support key deployments

• Experience introducingAI-assisted engineering practices

• Experience withJuniper/Mist networking and physical infrastructure

• Experience withTemporal or workflow orchestration systems

• Background inlife sciences, robotics, or lab automation

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.