Enterprise Infrastructure Principal Engineer, Sheffield/Birmingham
Posted 1 day ago by eTeam Workforce Limited
Negotiable
Inside
Hybrid
Sheffield/Birmingham , UK
Summary: The Enterprise Infrastructure Principal Engineer role is a hybrid position based in Sheffield/Birmingham, focusing on aligning technical direction with enterprise goals and driving improvements across multiple teams. The position requires strong technical judgment, leadership, and the ability to influence enterprise-wide strategies. The role is expected to evolve over a 10-month duration, emphasizing organizational alignment, technical leadership, and strategic impact. The successful candidate will possess deep technical expertise and the ability to communicate effectively with both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
Key Responsibilities:
- Demonstrate sound technical judgment and align platform decisions with enterprise goals.
- Set enterprise-wide technical direction and reduce systemic risk through standards and mentorship.
- Build credibility and operate effectively within enterprise constraints.
- Contribute to enterprise-grade design documents and align proposals with architecture standards.
- Lead high-impact infrastructure initiatives and deliver measurable improvements.
- Mentor senior engineers and model strong documentation and decision-making discipline.
- Contribute to infrastructure strategy and align investments with business priorities.
- Communicate complex topics effectively to senior leadership and shape culture around quality and reliability.
Key Skills:
- Deep technical expertise in engineering principles and architectural knowledge.
- Strong leadership and influence capabilities.
- Strategic collaboration with internal stakeholders and business partners.
- Ability to articulate technical strategies to diverse audiences.
- Experience with network topology, IAM, CI/CD, monitoring, and security tooling.
- Proficiency in risk management and operational maturity improvement.
Salary (Rate): £700/day
City: Sheffield/Birmingham
Country: UK
Working Arrangements: hybrid
IR35 Status: inside IR35
Seniority Level: undetermined
Industry: IT
We are a Global Recruitment specialist that provides support to the clients across EMEA, APAC, US and Canada. We have an excellent job opportunity for you.
Role Title: Enterprise Infrastructure Principal Engineer
Location: Hybrid 60% office-40% Remote - Sheffield/Birmingham
Duration: 10 Months
Rate: £700/day on inisde Ir35
Role Description:
Strong Performance:
- Consistently demonstrates sound technical judgment, aligns platform decisions with enterprise goals, and enables progress across multiple teams.
Exceptional Performance:
- Sets enterprise-wide technical direction, reduces systemic risk, and scales impact through standards, strategy, and mentorship.
0-30 Days: Organizational Alignment & System Comprehension
Theme: Learns fast, builds credibility, operates effectively within enterprise constraints.
1. Architecture & Systems Knowledge
Meets Expectations
Demonstrates working knowledge of:
Key Platform Products/Services
Network topology, IAM, CI/CD, monitoring, and security tooling
Accurately explains current-state architecture, dependencies, and constraints.
Exceeds Expectations
Identifies undocumented system behaviors, hidden coupling, or Legacy risks early.
Provides leadership with a concise, accurate current-state assessment.
2. Reliability, Security & Risk Awareness
Meets Expectations
Reviews historical incidents, audits, and compliance requirements.
Understands escalation paths, operational ownership, and change management processes.
Exceeds Expectations
Proactively identifies systemic reliability or security risks and articulates business impact.
Surfaces risk tradeoffs in clear, executive-appropriate language.
3. Enterprise Influence & Collaboration
Meets Expectations
Establishes productive relationships across:
Enterprise Infrastructure
Security
Application teams (our customers)
Architecture review boards
Respects governance and decision-making processes.
Exceeds Expectations
Quickly earns trust as a neutral, high-judgment technical advisor.
Is consulted informally on complex or sensitive technical decisions.
31-60 Days: Technical Leadership & Measurable Impact
Theme: Converts understanding into alignment, decisions, and improvement.
1. Architecture & Technical Direction
Meets Expectations
Authors or contributes to enterprise-grade design documents.
Aligns proposals with:
Enterprise architecture standards
Security and compliance requirements
Cost and operational constraints
Exceeds Expectations
Simplifies or clarifies existing architecture standards.
Resolves cross-team architectural disagreements through data and reasoning.
2. Execution & Delivery
Meets Expectations
Leads or materially contributes to at least one high-impact infrastructure initiative, such as:
Platform modernization
IaC standardization
CI/CD reliability improvements
Cost optimization
Exceeds Expectations
Delivers measurable improvements (eg, MTTR, deployment failures, cloud spend).
Enables delivery across multiple teams without direct authority.
3. Reliability, Security & Operations
Meets Expectations Improves consistency of:
Incident response
Postmortems
Change management practices
Exceeds Expectations
Introduces or strengthens reliability metrics, or risk dashboards used beyond a single team.
Elevates operational maturity at the program or portfolio level.
Mentorship & Technical Stewardship
Meets Expectations
Mentors senior/staff engineers through design reviews and technical guidance.
Models strong documentation and decision-making discipline.
Exceeds Expectations
Raises design quality across teams.
Reduces rework and decision churn through clearer architectural guidance.
61-90 Days: Strategic Impact & Institutionalization
Theme: Scales impact across the enterprise and improves long-term outcomes.
Enterprise Infrastructure Strategy
Meets Expectations
Contributes to or co-owns infrastructure strategy and roadmap.
Aligns infrastructure investments with business priorities and regulatory needs.
Exceeds Expectations
Influences multi-year platform direction.
Helps leadership make informed tradeoffs between speed, cost, and risk.
Systems Thinking & Risk Management
Meets Expectations
Establishes repeatable processes for:
Architecture reviews
Capacity planning
Disaster recovery validation
Exceeds Expectations
Reduces systemic risk through standardization and simplification.
Prevents incidents through proactive design and early intervention.
Developer Productivity & Platform Enablement
Meets Expectations Improves clarity around:
Ownership models
Approved patterns
Supported platforms
Exceeds Expectations
Enables self-service infrastructure and golden paths. Noticeable reduction in escalations and ad-hoc exceptions.
Organizational Leadership & Presence
Meets Expectations
Communicates complex topics effectively to senior leadership.
Operates comfortably in ambiguity and enterprise-scale complexity.
Exceeds Expectations
Recognized as a principal-level authority across multiple organizations.
Shapes culture around quality, reliability, and technical excellence.
Additional Role Requirements:
Deep Technical Expertise: Well-versed in engineering principles and the broader technical landscape, with strong architectural knowledge.
Leadership & Influence: Demonstrates gravitas and the ability to lead complex initiatives, inspire confidence, and motivate cross-functional teams.
Strategic Collaboration: Works closely with internal stakeholders and business partners to align architecture decisions with organizational goals.
Vision & Communication: Capable of articulating technical strategies clearly to both technical and non-technical audiences, fostering alignment and buy-in.