Head Platform Engineer

About IDP

IDP is the global leader in international education services, delivering global success to students, test takers and our partners, through trusted human relationships, digital technology and customer research. An Australian-listed company, we operate in more than 50 countries around the world.

Our team is comprised of over 7,000 people of various nationalities, ages and cultural backgrounds. Proudly customer-first, our expert people are powered by global technology. Together, we offer unmatched services, helping local dreams become realities, all over the world.

Learn more at www.careers.idp.com

Role purpose

IDP’s strategic investment in technology platform tools and innovation is driving growth and solving complex business problems for our services through a robust platform engineering tools and accelerate the time to market of IT Products and innovation at scale.

As a Head of Platform Engineering, you will be leading the platform engineers, integrating emerging technologies and tools into every aspect of product engineering what we do at IDP. You will work with architects, engineering squads and engineering managers, blending IDP’s deep industry knowledge and innovative ideas with our platforms, capabilities, and technical expertise.

Key accountabilities

• End to end accountability for managing & administrating the platform engineering tools of IDP, including:

  • Product Management Tool - JIRA

  • DevOps, Git, CI/CD Pipeline

  • SonarQube

  • Splunk

  • Snyk

  • PowerApps

• Design, implement & maintain the continuous integration & deployment pipeline utilizing DevSecOps principles & practices to increase automation & reduce human involvement in the process.

• Demonstrate a deep understanding of the Cloud domain (AWS), included but not limited to multi-cloud ecosystems, cloud networking & identities, zero trust architectures, cloud middleware, AWS tech stack, Lambda/serverless computing, CI/CD, API first paradigm & tools, etc.

• Should manage the implementation of observability telemetry data instrumentation, alerts, dashboards setup & integration with ticketing solution.

• Position is expected to make decisions & recommend approach based on the results from different inputs (market data, user feedback, quality reviews, platform telemetry, among others)

• Drive for business process automation with rapid application development using power platform. Monitor & control the administration of use cases developed using lowcode platform.

• Collaborate with various engineering squad teams to ensure that code is properly built, tested & deployed.

• Monitor & analyze the consumption of tools license & utilization, identify the cost saving opportunities & implement solutions.

• Ensure that DevOps processes are aligned with business objectives & KPIs

• Develop & maintain documentation for all processes, procedures & configurations related to the DevOps pipeline.

• Should manage the DEVOPS dashboard & run recurring review meetings with senior leadership team.

Required experience

• Approximately 15+ years engineering delivery & operations management experience.

• Approximately 15+ in a technology product delivery in AGILE environment.

• Approximately 5+ years in DEVOPS, CI/CD pipeline automation experience

• Work experience in educational services industry, preferred.

• Certifications in AWS tech stack would be advantageous.

Skills & attributes for success

• Experience in leading platform engineers in a software engineering environment with development & production support

• Identify, plan & lead execution of desired business outcomes, while maintaining the right levels of performance & sustainability

• Master systems thinking to be able to create & evolve fit-for-purpose strategy & delivery structures.

• Stay up to date with emerging trends & technologies in DevOps & DevSecOps.

• Ability to clearly identify & articulate problems & proposed solutions across all domains involved in the lifecycle of products & services.

• Identify trending industry strategies for product(s) & the platform as a whole.

• Ability to prioritize personal & team workloads to best meet organizational objectives.

• Highly skilled in data driven analysis & decision making to identify issues, trends, & opportunities.

• Ability to lead diverse teams through inclusive behaviors.

• Experienced in driving a complex agenda in a high-pressure environment.

• Ability to lead & reconcile the interests of multiple domains, inclusive of delivery, product management, architecture, engineering, business management

To qualify for the role, the person must have

• Excellent communications skills - strong verbal & written communication skills. Be able to explain technical information in a manner which is understood by non-technical clients.

• Strong executive presence & relationship management abilities to work effectively with clients, project teams & vendors across multiple cultures & geographies.

• Flexibility to adjust to multiple demands, shifting priorities, ambiguity, & rapid change.

• Notable leadership skills, being capable of inspiring a team to achieve high performance & stability.

• A balanced approach to developing teams while meeting commitments; successfully developing a sustainable & evolving group of diverse, inclusive, high performing & agile individuals who achieve established goals.

• Prioritize deadlines & provide supervision to all members of the distributed team.

• Strong influencing skills are required to work with other engineering heads & leaders & encourage effective feedback for all team members with partners

Other Requirements

• Flexible work schedule to accommodate time zones & meet deadlines.

• International travel may be required