Director of Platform Engineering

Department: Platform

Employment Type: Permanent

Location: London

Reporting To: James Complin

Description

We're seeking a people-oriented Director of Platform Engineering to lead, develop, and empower our Platform team. This role balances strategic leadership with operational excellence - you'll define how Platform Engineering enables the wider business while building a high-performing, engaged team. You'll work closely with senior stakeholders, translating business objectives into platform strategy, and ensuring the team delivers scalable, reliable, and efficient solutions. The ultimate goal will be to solidify platform as a product to both internal and external customers.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead, manage, and develop the Platform Engineering team, driving a culture of accountability, collaboration, and continuous improvement
• Define and execute the Platform Engineering strategy in alignment with wider business goals Partner with senior stakeholders across Engineering, Product, and the business to ensure platform capabilities enable delivery and growth
• Own and improve platform reliability, scalability, security, and performance Establish clear KPIs and metrics to measure platform impact and team effectiveness
• Drive best practices across infrastructure, DevOps, and platform capabilities (e.g. CI/CD, observability, cloud architecture, data platform)
• Support career development, mentoring, and succession planning within the team
• Act as a trusted deputy to the VP of Platform, stepping in as needed and contributing to wider technology leadership decisions

Skills, Knowledge & Expertise

• Proven experience leading Platform, DevOps, or Infrastructure teams at a senior level; ideally within a fintech environment
• Strong people leadership skills, with a track record of building and developing high-performing teams Experience defining and delivering platform strategy aligned to business outcomes
• Deep understanding of modern cloud environments, infrastructure-as-code, developer tooling, internal dev platforms (IDPs) and distributed systems architecture
• Familiarity with our tech stack: AWS, Azure, Terraform, Terragrunt, Pulumi, Kubernetes, Docker
• Strong knowledge of DevOps principles, CI/CD pipelines, and engineering best practices
• Experience driving operational excellence including reliability, monitoring, and incident management
• Ability to influence and communicate effectively with senior stakeholders and non-technical audiences
• Commercial awareness with experience managing budgets and optimising platform costs
• A pragmatic, delivery-focused mindset with the ability to balance short-term needs and long-term strategy

Job Benefits

Why join YouLend?

• Award-Winning Workplace: YouLend has been recognised as one of the "Best Places to Work in 2024 and 2025" by the Sunday Times for being a supportive, diverse, and rewarding workplace.
• Award-Winning Fintech: YouLend has been recognised as a "Top 250 Fintech Worldwide" company by CNBC.

It's just getting fun

• We have developed powerful solutions, secured significant partnerships, and are growing rapidly.
• The global opportunity is still massive, and YouLend is a raw organisation where we are only just getting started.

Lots of upsides

• High-growth (>100% growth during 2022 and 2023), so clear outlook to compensation (bonus or share option appreciation) and career growth (through growth with the business).
• Well-capitalised with supportive private equity backing.
• Part of Banking Circle Group with a fully licensed Luxembourg bank, which can provide a balance sheet and support European expansion in otherwise complex regulated markets.

Motivating work environment

• A high-quality team that pushes each other to succeed through direct feedback and aligned incentives.
• Strong, transparent team culture: we have each other's backs.
• Independent work environment where results matter.
• Data-driven culture and emphasis on speed (anti-red tape).

We offer a comprehensive benefits package that includes:

• Stock options
• Private Medical Insurance (via Vitality)
• EAP with Health Assured
• Enhanced Maternity and Paternity Leave
• Great office space (including a gym!) in Central London
• Subsidised lunch (via Feedr)
• Deliveroo allowance if working late in the office
• Monthly in-office masseuse
• Team and Company socials
• Sports clubs

At YouLend, we champion diversity and embrace equal opportunity employment practices. Our hiring, transfer, and promotion decisions are exclusively based on qualifications, merit, and business requirements, free from any discrimination based on race, gender, age, disability, religion, nationality, or any other protected basis under applicable law.