Infrastructure Operations Manager

Infrastructure & Platform Operations Manager | Leading Commodities Trading Firm (London) A leading global commodities trading firm is seeking a Infrastructure & Platform Operations Manager to take ownership of a broad infrastructure function supporting a highly technical, business-critical trading environment. This is an opportunity for an infrastructure leader who enjoys operating across the full technology stack rather than specialising in a single domain. The remit spans compute, Windows and Linux, virtualisation, storage, networking, cloud, backup and core platform services, giving you the breadth to influence the infrastructure estate as a whole rather than operating within a single technology silo. The firm is continuing to invest heavily in technology, creating a strong pipeline of infrastructure modernisation and transformation work. A major focus of the role will be to evolve how infrastructure is operated - introducing greater automation, improving observability and resilience, simplifying processes, reducing operational risk and removing technical debt. You'll lead and develop a team of infrastructure engineers while remaining technically engaged in the environment, giving you genuine influence over both the people and technology strategy. The Role - Lead and develop the Platform Operations team, creating a strong culture of technical ownership, accountability and continuous improvement - Own the availability, performance, resilience and operational health of infrastructure services across on-premise, co-location and cloud environments - Provide technical leadership across compute, Windows/Linux, virtualisation, storage, networking, backup and core platform services - Define and execute an infrastructure operations roadmap focused on modernisation, automation, resilience and operational maturity - Identify manual, inefficient or high-risk processes and drive their transformation through automation, Infrastructure-as-Code and better engineering practices - Challenge existing ways of working, simplify complex infrastructure processes and help reduce technical debt across the estate - Lead major incidents and critical service recoveries, ensuring effective coordination, root-cause analysis and implementation of permanent fixes - Own infrastructure lifecycle management including upgrades, patching, vulnerability remediation, hardware refresh and technology rationalisation - Develop effective monitoring, capacity management and operational readiness practices across the infrastructure estate - Own backup, disaster recovery and business continuity capabilities, ensuring resilience is regularly tested and improved - Manage strategic relationships with technology vendors, cloud providers and managed service partners - Partner closely with Security, Engineering, Applications and wider Technology teams to deliver reliable, secure and scalable platforms - Build team capability through coaching, mentoring, recruitment, knowledge sharing and succession planning Requirements - Experience managing infrastructure engineering or platform operations teams within a complex, business-critical environment - Strong infrastructure engineering background with broad experience across the infrastructure estate - Strong knowledge of Windows and Linux servers (both Physical and virtual) - Experience with enterprise storage, backups, and recovery services - Strong networking knowledge across the likes of Cisco devices, security, routing, switching, and monitoring - Strong Azure experience, ideally within a hybrid infrastructure estate - Experience leading infrastructure modernisation, automation or operational transformation initiatives - Knowledge of Zscaler or similar cloud security - A genuine track record of improving processes and reducing operational toil through automation, standardisation or Infrastructure-as-Code - Strong understanding of infrastructure resilience, disaster recovery, security and operational risk - Experience managing major incidents and driving meaningful post-incident improvements - Strong supplier and vendor management experience - Excellent communication skills, with the ability to influence engineers, senior technology stakeholders and the wider business - Ability to mentor, develop, and upskill technical teams - Financial services, commodities, trading or another highly available / mission-critical environment would be advantageous We're particularly interested in people who have progressed from a hands-on infrastructure engineering background into leadership. You don't need to be the deepest technical specialist across every domain, but you should be technically credible, naturally curious and confident challenging how things are done. Most importantly, you're someone who sees infrastructure operations as something to engineer and continually improve, not simply maintain. Company Culture - High-performance, technology-driven commodities trading environment with significant ongoing investment across technology - Broad infrastructure remit giving you visibility across the firm's core technology estate rather than responsibility for a single platform - Genuine opportunity to shape the future operating model, engineering standards and technical direction of the infrastructure function - Strong focus on automation, operational excellence and continuous improvement - Collaborative environment with close interaction between Technology and the wider trading business - c.800-person organisation – large enough to invest heavily in technology, small enough for meaningful visibility, impact, and to avoid bureaucratic processes that can often come with large scale firms - Strong internal mobility and the opportunity to continue developing both as a technology leader and infrastructure specialist - Excellent retention driven by the combination of technology investment, breadth of exposure, culture and career development - Benefits: Hybrid working, private medical and dental insurance, pension, bi-annual health assessments, corporate gym membership, electric car lease programme, cycle-to-work scheme, season ticket loans, volunteering opportunities and more.