Cloud Platform Engineering Specialist

Job description

Cloud Platform Engineering Specialist Location: Leeds Salary: Competitive Salary + Package (dependent on experience) Accenture is a leading global professional services company, providing a broad range of services in strategy and consulting, interactive, technology and operations, with digital capabilities across all of these services. With our thought leadership and culture of innovation, we apply industry expertise, diverse skill sets and next-generation technology to each business challenge. We believe in inclusion and diversity and supporting the whole person. Our core values comprise of Stewardship, Best People, Client Value Creation, One Global Network, Respect for the Individual and Integrity. Year after year, Accenture is recognized worldwide not just for business performance but for inclusion and diversity too. “Across the globe, one thing is universally true of the people of Accenture: We care deeply about what we do and the impact we have with our clients and with the communities in which we work and live. It is personal to all of us.” – Julie Sweet, Accenture CEO As a team: Working across industry groups, our Data & AI team combines deep technology, business and industry expertise to design and deliver some of the largest, most challenging and highest profile data and AI solutions in the world. We operate across Financial Services, Resources, Products, Communications and Health & Public Services. Our practice is built around three strategic capabilities: AI Platform Engineering, AI Pipelines, and Data Products. Together these capabilities cover the full spectrum of modern data and AI delivery — from the cloud infrastructure and platforms that underpin AI workloads, through the pipelines that move and transform data at scale, to the data products that turn engineering effort into lasting business value. As a Cloud Platform Engineering Specialist, your focus is the foundation on which all of this runs — the cloud infrastructure, automation and operational platform that makes data and AI delivery possible at scale. You will lead delivery of AI-native platform engineering programmes — designing, building and operating the cloud environments that power our clients’ most demanding data and AI workloads. We operate in an AI-augmented delivery model where intelligent automation, AIOps and AI-assisted engineering are not future ambitions but current practice, and our Managers are expected to lead from the front in adopting and embedding these approaches. You’ll learn, grow and advance in an innovative culture that thrives on shared success, diverse ways of thinking and enables boundaryless opportunities that can drive your career in new and exciting ways. If you’re looking for a challenging career working in a vibrant environment with access to training and a global network of experts, this could be the role for you. As a Cloud Platform Engineering Specialist, you will: Lead delivery of enterprise-scale cloud platform programmes, driving the design and implementation of AI-native infrastructure across Azure, AWS, GCP, Databricks, Microsoft Fabric and Snowflake Architect and oversee AI-ready platform environments from the outset — designing for the compute, networking, storage and security requirements of GenAI, ML and agentic workloads, not retrofitting them later Drive AIOps adoption across platform operations — implementing intelligent monitoring, automated incident detection and response, and self-healing infrastructure capabilities that reduce manual operational toil Lead the design and delivery of CI/CD platforms incorporating AI-assisted deployment pipelines, automated testing and operational automation, establishing these as engineering standards across delivery teams Establish and govern Infrastructure as Code practices at scale, increasingly leveraging AI-assisted code generation and review to accelerate platform delivery and enforce consistency Lead platform security, networking and compliance engineering — embedding policy-as-code, automated governance controls and AI-assisted security scanning as standard elements of platform delivery Design for platform resilience, FinOps and performance optimisation — using AI-driven telemetry and observability to anticipate issues, optimise cost and maintain operational excellence Drive adoption of agentic operations patterns — designing platforms that support autonomous and human-in-the-loop operational workflows, and leading teams in understanding how to build and govern these effectively Mentor and develop platform engineering teams in AI-augmented delivery practices, setting technical standards and fostering a culture of continuous improvement and engineering excellence Contribute to proposition development, accelerators and reusable platform assets that strengthen our market offering and reduce delivery time on future engagements We are looking for significant experience in the following: Design and delivery of enterprise-scale cloud platforms across one or more of: Azure, AWS, GCP, Databricks, Microsoft Fabric or Snowflake Advanced Infrastructure as Code capabilities (Terraform, Bicep, CloudFormation or similar) including AI-assisted IaC generation and governance CI/CD platform design and implementation, with experience incorporating AI-assisted deployment and test automation AIOps, platform observability and intelligent monitoring — including experience designing or operating self-healing or autonomously managed platform capabilities Cloud security, networking, identity and access management, and policy-as-code engineering AI-ready platform architecture — proven ability to design environments that meet the demands of GenAI, ML and agentic workloads in production Experience leading and mentoring engineering teams, setting technical direction and driving delivery to a high standard Familiarity with agentic AI patterns and their implications for platform design, operations and governance You should apply if: You don’t need to tick every box on this list. We’re looking for experienced platform engineering leaders who have demonstrable depth across a number of these areas, and the technical curiosity to grow into the rest. If you set high standards, lead teams with purpose, embrace AI as a fundamental shift in how platform engineering is practised — and want to work on some of the most ambitious data and AI programmes in the market — we want to hear from you. Set yourself apart: Hands-on experience designing or operating agentic platform capabilities or AI-driven autonomous operations in production Cloud FinOps leadership and platform cost optimisation at enterprise scale Experience contributing to commercial propositions, bids or client-facing accelerators Infrastructure as Code experience at enterprise scale (Terraform, Bicep, CloudFormation or similar) Cloud networking, identity, access management or security engineering experience Familiarity with policy-as-code or platform governance controls Relevant advanced cloud certifications (e.g. AWS Solutions Architect Professional, Azure Solutions Architect Expert, Google Professional Cloud Architect) AI platform and engineering certifications (e.g. AWS Machine Learning Specialty, Google Professional ML Engineer, Databricks Generative AI Engineer) AI practitioner certifications demonstrating hands-on fluency with leading AI platforms — for example Anthropic Claude Certified Architect (CCAR-F or CCAR-P), Microsoft Agentic AI Business Solutions Architect (AB-100) or AI Agent Builder Associate (AB-620), or equivalent credentials from other leading AI vendors What’s in it for you At Accenture, in addition to a competitive basic salary, you will also have an extensive benefits package which includes 25 days’ vacation per year, private medical insurance and 3 extra days’ leave per year for charitable work of your choice! Flexibility and mobility are required to deliver this r