Lead Platform Engineer

Location: South East London

Founded in 2001, Resident Advisor (RA) is one of the world's longest-running music media brands and a cornerstone of the dance, electronic and DJ ecosystem. The site's audience of over 7 million monthly users is drawn in by a combination of news, editorial, club listings and ticketing, RA-branded events at venues and festivals worldwide, original films and a weekly mix series that has run for 20 years.

Purpose of the role:
We're looking for a Lead Platform Engineer passionate about electronic music to join our Core Platform team. You'll lead a small, focused team helping scale our high-traffic infrastructure that handles massive spikes during on-sale events. Our tech stack includes Node.js/.NET microservices, Postgre

SQL/MSSQL databases, Elastic Search, Redis, and Kafka running on AWS EKS (Kubernetes), managed via Terraform with CI/CD pipelines and Data Dog monitoring. Your responsibilities include improving infrastructure performance and reliability, driving modernization and cost optimization, developing shared components (i.e. auth systems, Graph

QL gateways), enhancing developer experience, maintaining E2E testing systems, and creating internal tooling. This is an opportunity to solve challenging scale problems while shaping the technical foundation that powers RA's products for the electronic music community. Key responsibilities Managing and improving AWS infrastructure using infrastructure-as-code practices Database maintenance and query optimization Cloud cost optimization and resource efficiency Researching, planning, and leading the evolution of backend infrastructure, transitioning from reactive maintenance to a proactive, future-proof platform roadmap Providing functional and technical training to the broader development team, fostering a culture of shared knowledge and operational excellence Writing application code to support infrastructure tooling and shared platform services Leading, mentoring, and supporting a team of two site reliability engineers and one QA Engineer including regular 1:1s, goal setting, and performance feedback Owning team capacity planning and workload prioritization, ensuring the right work gets done in the right order Collaborating with the QA Engineer to define and uphold quality standards, integrating QA practices into the wider development team's process Acting as a technical escalation point for your team and a key voice in broader platform and architecture decisions

Required Skills:

Experience working with AWS

Experience with Kubernetes and containerized application deployment

Experience with infrastructure-as-code technologies (Terraform preferred) Experience deploying and maintaining SQL-based databases (Postgre

SQL or MS SQL Server) Experience writing production-level application code Experience building and maintaining CI/CD pipelines

Experience with git and version control workflows Strong documentation writing skills and commitment to knowledge sharing Proven experience leading or mentoring engineers in a formal or informal capacity Strong interpersonal skills with openness to giving and receiving feedback Fluent English communication skills (written and verbal)

Experience with Data Dog or similar for monitoring and alerting Desired

Skills:

Experience with both Postgre

SQL and MS SQL Server Advanced SQL query optimization skills Experience deploying and maintaining Kafka for event-driven architectures Experience deploying and maintaining ETL pipelines Deep understanding of Site Reliability Engineering principles and best practices

Experience with backend languages such as C# and Node.js

Experience with scripting languages (such as Bash, Python, Power Shell) Experience managing high-traffic systems with significant load variations Familiarity with QA methodologies and E2E testing frameworks, and an appreciation for how reliability and quality practices intersect

What we offer you:

Generous annual leave policies aimed at promoting work-life balance. Flexibility in working arrangements, offering hybrid or remote work options based on role requirements and location. Matching pension schemes and/or 401k. Comprehensive staff wellbeing initiatives, featuring regular activities and workplace programmes to support mental and physical health. This includes discounted Classpass memberships, and custom-fitted earplugs. Company-led social events, team lunches, and discounts on RA merch.

Paid annual volunteering allowance, encouraging contributions to community projects and charities you care about. Regular company-wide Q&As with senior leadership, along with ongoing virtual educational training sessions for all staff. A transparent internal company culture committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion (see: https://). Active involvement in community projects within the electronic music community (see: https://). More about RA :
As an independent company run by devoted dance music enthusiasts, our mission is to bring together the world's electronic music communities. Our Global…