Principal CloudOps Platform Engineer

Job Description

At OVO, we are on a mission to solve one of humanity's biggest challenges, the climate crisis. And we know it takes all of us to change the world. That's why we need diverse people from all abilities, gender identities, ethnicities, ages, sexual orientations, life experiences and backgrounds to join us.

Teamworking for the planet

Everything we do here spins around Plan Zero. So, naturally, the team you’ll be joining plays a gigantic role in making that happen. Here’s how:

The Evergreen and CloudOps teams are at the heart of OVO's customer focused technology transformation. Building a scalable and efficient service to host OVO's applications and services. Evergreen's goal is to make it easier for teams to host in GCP and at the same time to reduce CO2 usage through efficient and smart usage of cloud services. This is at the heart of OVO's Plan Zero

This role in a nutshell

As the Principal Cloud Platform Engineer at OVO, you’ll lead the development and execution of the cloud and platform strategy, focusing on innovation, governance, cost efficiency, and infrastructure excellence. This role plays a key part in shaping the company's long-term engineering practices and influences strategic decisions at both the team and organisational levels. As a recognised leader in cloud and platform initiatives, this position works closely with senior management to drive the future direction of OVO’s technology landscape.

Your key outcomes will be

• Lead the strategic direction for cloud and platform initiatives, ensuring alignment with OVO's goals.
• Architect and oversee the development of scalable, secure, and high-performance platform infrastructure, focusing on large-scale Kubernetes environments.
• Drive enterprise-level cost optimisation strategies and establish compliance frameworks.
• Influence senior leadership on strategic decisions and manage third-party platform lifecycle.
• Develop advanced automation, monitoring, and self-service tools to enhance platform efficiency.
• Champion the integration of emerging technologies into the platform.
• Ensure platform strategies align with business objectives, promoting synergy across the organisation.
• Mentor senior engineers, setting practices and standards to drive excellence.
• Community of Practice: Lead and grow the Community of Practice, driving industry engagement and thought leadership. Contribute to content creation and knowledge exchange, furthering your skills while mentoring and coaching others. Provide input into upskilling and learning pathways, supporting career progression within the CoP.

You’ll be a successful Principal CloudOps Platform Engineer at OVO if you…

• Extensive experience in cloud platforms (preferably GCP) and large-scale systems, with proven leadership in driving strategic tech initiatives.
• Expertise in enterprise cloud architecture, governance, and multi-cloud strategies, including advanced Kubernetes management and security.
• Strong track record in cloud economics, cost optimisation at scale, and managing budgets effectively across multiple regions.
• Proven ability to design and implement disaster recovery (DR) and high-availability (HA) engineering strategies.
• Deep knowledge in performance optimisation, automation, and orchestration architecture, with hands-on experience in GitOps and CI/CD.
• Strong leadership and communication skills, with the ability to influence senior leadership and align technical strategy with business goals.
• Demonstrated mentorship and coaching abilities, promoting innovation, technical excellence, and continuous improvement across teams.
• Recognised subject matter expert with a passion for technology and a results-driven, strategic mindset in making impactful decisions.

Let’s talk about what’s in it for you

We keep our pay ranges broad on purpose to give us, and you, flexibility to match your experience to our zero carbon mission.

You’ll be eligible for an on-target bonus of 15%. We have one OVO bonus plan that focuses on the collective performance of our people to deliver our Plan Zero goal.

We also offer plenty of green benefits and progressive policies to help you feel like you belong at OVO…and there’s flex pay. We'll give you 9% Flex Pay on top of your salary – 4% of this is auto enrolled into your pension, and the remaining 5% is yours to do what you like with. You can use this to buy from our extensive range of flexible benefits, including our green benefits which we've put at the heart of our offering, add to your pension or even take it as cash.

Here’s a taster of what’s on offer:

For starters, you’ll get 34 days of holiday (including bank holidays).

For your health With benefits like a healthcare cash plan or private medical insurance depending on your career level, critical illness cover, life assurance, health assessments, and more

For your wellbeing With gym membership, travel insurance, workplace ISA, will writing services, dental insurance, and more

For your lifestyle With extra holiday buying, discount dining, home & tech loans, and supporting your favourite charities with give-as-you-earn donations

For your home Get up to £400 towards any OVO Energy plan, plus great discounts on solar, smart thermostats and EV chargers

For your commute Nab a great deal on ultra-low emission car leasing, plus our cycle to work scheme and public transport season ticket loans

Want to hear about our full range of flexible benefits and progressive people policies? Our People Team can tell you everything you need to know.

For your Belonging

To find better ways to support our people, we need to listen to each other’s experiences and find ways to build a truly inclusive and diverse workplace. As part of this, we have 8 Belonging Networks at OVO. Led by our people, for our people - so when you join OVO, you can play a part - big or small - with any of the Networks. It's up to you.

Oh, and one last thing...

We’d be thrilled if you tick off all our boxes, yet we also believe it’s just as important we tick off all of yours. And if you think you have most of what we’re looking for but not every single thing, go ahead and hit apply. We’d still love to hear from you!

If you have any additional requirements, there’s a space to let us know on the application form; we want to make the process as easy and comfortable for you as possible.