Head of Platform

About H&B At Holland & Barrett, we are over a century old and yet a startup. Our radical digital transformation has made us fully cloud-native, leveraging containers, Kubernetes, serverless, and event‑driven services to redefine our industry. We're now looking for a visionary Head of Platform to lead the next chapter in our engineering story. This isn't just another leadership role—it's your chance to build a greenfield observability platform from scratch and shape the future of our operations, security, and developer experience. About the Role We're creating an operational platform that will become the backbone of incident management, security, and service owner operations. From IoT devices and network assets to cloud infrastructure, this platform will give us a unified view across our ecosystem. Our goal: enable teams to move faster, more reliably, and more securely—while giving our developers a world‑class platform experience. We embrace a “platform as a product” philosophy: our platform is built for developers, designed with their feedback, and crafted to accelerate innovation across the organisation. What You’ll Do Define and execute the roadmap for our greenfield observability platform. Lead and mentor a high‑performing team of SRE, DevOps, and DevSecOps engineers. Drive architecture and technology decisions to ensure the platform is secure, scalable, and reliable. Partner with security and engineering teams to embed security into every layer of the platform. Champion a “platform as a product” mindset, delivering a seamless developer experience. Promote SRE and DevSecOps best practices across the organisation. Key Requirement Proven senior leadership experience (Head of Platform, Head of DevOps, or similar). Deep expertise in SRE, DevOps, and DevSecOps practices. Hands‑on experience building and operating large‑scale, cloud‑native systems (AWS) . Skilled in containerization and orchestration ( Docker, Kubernetes ), serverless, and event‑driven architectures. Track record of building and leading high‑performing engineering teams. Strong communicator with the ability to articulate technical vision and influence stakeholders. Passion for developer experience and treating internal platforms as products. Familiarity with observability tools and technologies ( Prometheus, Grafana, ELK stack, distributed tracing ). Why Holland & Barrett? This is a rare opportunity to build a platform from the ground up in a historic, global company with a startup mindset. You'll have autonomy, access to cutting‑edge technology, and the support of a forward‑thinking leadership team. We offer a competitive salary, a comprehensive benefits package, and a flexible working environment. If you're a passionate, innovative, and results‑oriented leader excited by the challenge of shaping the future of observability and secure platform engineering , we'd love to hear from you. What we offer: Wellbeing & Lifestyle Benefits Health Cash Plan Life Assurance Bonus Scheme - Based on company & personal performance Virtual GP Private Medical care FREE at‑home blood test kit Holiday Purchase option Pension Contribution scheme Access to ‘Wellhub' with gyms, studios and wellbeing apps Discounts & Savings 25% Colleague Discount with FREE Standard Delivery Exclusive Discounts from a wide range of partners £/€50 Annual Product Allowance to spend in store Learning & Development Access to a variety of learning opportunities, including Level 2‑5 Apprenticeships, Workshops and our Digital Learning Library AND MORE! Holland and Barrett is an equal opportunity employer. We welcome diverse perspectives and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all colleagues. We understand that when our colleagues are listened to, respected and valued for who they are, we build an organisation with belonging at its heart – making health and wellness a way of life for everyone. Holland & Barrett does not accept unsolicited resumes from search firms/recruiters. Please do not forward resumes to our job alias, employees, or any other company location. Holland & Barrett is not and will not be responsible for any fees if a candidate submitted by a search firm/recruiter unless otherwise agreed with respect to specific open position(s). #J-18808-Ljbffr