Head of Platform Engineering (International)

Job description

About Allica Bank Allica is the UK’s fastest growing company - and the fastest-growing financial technology (Fintech) firm ever. Our purpose is to help established SMEs, one of the last major underserved opportunities in Fintech. Established SMEs are the backbone of local communities - representing over a third of our economy - yet have been largely neglected both by traditional high street banks and modern fintech providers. Why this role exists? Allica is expanding internationally, establishing a regulated entity in its first international market and deploying the proprietary technology platform there. The platform model is deliberately repeatable, so that further markets can be added if and when the opportunity arises. The purpose of this role is to design and implement a repeatable international platform model, prove it in the first market, and enable each local entity to operate its own identity and local access services within centrally governed technology, security and identity standards. The role owns the international Azure platform end to end, from design and build through ongoing run. Identity is delivered on a build-and-hand-over basis: the role designs and implements each entity's Entra environment, then transitions day-to-day operation to the local team, remaining involved for enhancement rather than implementation. Both sit within a governance model where technical controls are defined centrally by Allica's UK platform and security functions, and each international entity operates as a consumer of those controls with local attestation. Accountabilities Multi-market platform foundations, delivered as code - Design and build a parameterised Azure landing zone that can be instantiated per market, covering subscription and management group topology, networking, connectivity, policy assignment, and baseline observability. - Deliver the entire estate through Infrastructure as Code with peer review, automated policy compliance checks, and no manual configuration changes. The landing zone is a product, not a project. - Make market-specific variation explicit and narrow — a small, documented set of local deltas over a common baseline, rather than a fork. Identity and access across multiple entities - Work with central Technology, Identity and Security teams to design and implement a repeatable Entra operating model for international entities, including tenant structure, directory topology, privileged-access patterns, joiner–mover– leaver processes and conditional-access baselines. - Lead the technical onboarding and initial implementation of each entity’s Entra environment in line with centrally approved architecture and control standards. - Ensure each local entity has the capability, documentation, access model, runbooks and evidence processes required to operate its own Entra tenant dayto-day. - Establish a clear handover and assurance model: local entity teams operate workforce identity and local access administration; central teams own the architectural standards and control baseline; the International Platform team leads implementation and, following handover, supports oversight and enhancement rather than day-to-day operation. - Work with central identity owners on cross-entity access and material design changes. Local regulatory deltas and exceptions must be documented, evidenced and approved through the central governance process. Regulatory and control assurance - Operate the "central controls, local attestation" model: implement Allica's centrally-defined control set in each market, maintain the evidence that demonstrates it, and manage the thin layer of genuine local regulatory delta. - Produce and maintain a local-delta attestation template that scales to further markets. - Ensure the platform meets DORA and operational resilience obligations — ICT risk management, incident classification and reporting, resilience testing, and third-party ICT arrangements. Running the platform - Own service availability and performance for the international platform, including on-call arrangements, incident management, SLOs, capacity, and change management. - Define an operating model that is sustainable for a small team across time zones, and that scales as markets are added rather than multiplying headcount linearly. - Feed run experience back into the landing zone templates so each subsequent market starts from a better baseline. Leading the team - Recruit, lead, and develop a small, senior engineering team. Set the technical bar and be an active participant in the work. Personal Attributes & Experience - Substantial hands-on Azure architecture experience at scale, including landing zone design, management group and subscription topology, networking, and Azure Policy - .Deep, practical Infrastructure as Code capability (Terraform) including module design for reuse, and CI/CD pipelines for infrastructure. - Demonstrable experience designing and operating Microsoft Entra ID in a multientity or multi-tenant context: tenancy models, conditional access, privileged identity management, and identity lifecycle automation. - Delivery within a regulated financial services environment, with working knowledge of operational resilience expectations and DORA, and direct experience producing evidence for regulators or auditors. - Experience running production platforms, not only building them, incident management, on-call, and service ownership. - Track record leading small, senior engineering teams while remaining technically hands-on. - Comfort operating within a centrally governed control environment, and the judgement to distinguish a genuine local regulatory requirement from a preference. - Work closely with UK platform, security, and product-engineering functions. This role influences the central control set through evidence and horizon scanning, and does not diverge from it unilaterally. Working at Allica Bank At Allica Bank we want to ensure our employees have the right tools and environment in which to succeed in their role and in support of our customers. Our employees are at the heart of everything we do, so our benefits are designed with you in mind: - Full onboarding support and continued development opportunities - Options for flexible working - Regular social activities - Pension contributions - Discretionary bonus scheme - Private health cover - Life assurance - Family friendly policies including enhanced Maternity & Paternity leave Don’t tick every box? Don’t worry if you don’t have all the skills or requirements listed on the job description. If you think you’ll be a good fit, we’d still love to hear from you! Flexible working We know the ‘9-to-5’ isn’t right for everyone. That’s why Allica Bank is fully committed to flexible and hybrid working. Please let us know what is best for you and, if we can, we will do our best to accommodate. Diversity We’re a diverse bunch here at Allica, with all kinds of experiences, backgrounds and lifestyles. Our openness and differences make us stronger, and we want everybody to feel comfortable bringing as much of themselves to work with them as they like.