Platform Engineer (Azure & Databricks)

About the role

Howden US is launching its retail platform and is looking for a hands-on Platform Engineer to build, automate and evolve the Azure infrastructure supporting its technology and data platforms. This is an Azure infrastructure role, not a data engineering role: the engineer builds the infrastructure, security, networking, identity, automation and operational foundations that let engineers use Azure Databricks effectively, without writing data pipelines, notebooks, transformations or data models. The scope covers data platforms, applications, AI solutions, integrations, containerized workloads and other emerging US technology needs.

Key responsibilities

• Design, build, automate and operate secure, scalable infrastructure across Microsoft Azure.
• Provision and manage Azure services with Terraform and Infrastructure as Code, creating reusable patterns across environments.
• Build and maintain the Azure Databricks foundation: workspace configuration, networking, storage, identity and access, Unity Catalog, compute policies, secrets, security and monitoring.
• Partner with Data Engineers so they have reliable, secure platform capabilities.
• Design Azure networking (VNets, subnets, private endpoints, private DNS, routing, firewalls) and connectivity to SaaS and external platforms.
• Implement identity and access with Microsoft Entra ID, Azure RBAC, security groups, service principals and managed identities.
• Build CI/CD pipelines for infrastructure provisioning, validation and deployment.
• Provision other Azure services such as containerized workloads, storage, Key Vault, monitoring and integration services.
• Build monitoring, logging, alerting, cost controls and operational capabilities, plus self-service patterns and reusable platform capabilities.
• Replace manual or overly complex processes with automation and challenge existing approaches with evidence and working solutions.
• Troubleshoot complex issues across infrastructure, networking, identity, security, Databricks, storage, applications and integrations.

Required profile

• Strong hands-on experience designing, building, automating and operating Microsoft Azure infrastructure.
• Deep understanding of Azure infrastructure concepts: subscriptions, resource groups, networking, storage, identity, security, compute, application hosting, monitoring and governance.
• Strong knowledge of Azure networking and Microsoft Entra ID access management (RBAC, service principals, managed identities).
• Strong Azure Databricks knowledge, including Unity Catalog, compute policies, secrets and security.
• Experience with other Azure services such as Container Apps, App Service, Functions, Storage Accounts, Key Vault, Azure Monitor or comparable managed services.
• Entrepreneurial engineering mindset: comfortable with ambiguity, willing to experiment, able to move quickly from idea to implementation and take ownership of solutions through production.

What we offer

• Full-time position with a salary range of $180,000 - $220,000.
• A global insurance broker with 24,000 employees across 56 countries, growing towards 40,000 people by 2030.
• An employee-owned company with 6,000 employee shareholders owning 34% of the business.