Senior Platform Engineer (FCS138)

Senior Platform Engineer (FCS138)

Contract: Permanent, working 35 hours per week (Arts Council also recognises the benefit of flexible working as a valued part of the way we work, and welcome applications from individuals who require flexibility)

Salary: £38,689 per annum plus benefits including a final salary pension scheme, generous annual leave, and flexible and hybrid working. 

Location: Manchester (The role will be based in Manchester; however, we are operating a hybrid way of working and support our staff to make use of remote working options when combined with regular on-site contact days with other members of the team, normally 1-2 days a week) 

As a Senior Platform Engineer, you will play a central role in ensuring Arts Council England’s key technology platforms including Grants Applications and Management, Grants Reporting (currently Cognos), and Export Licensing (GovService Cloud are performant, secure, resilient, well‑integrated and fully supported.

You will be responsible for ensuring these critical platforms are monitored, documented and future‑proofed, with appropriate scalability and alignment to ACE’s wider cloud, networking and security strategies. Working closely with Business Systems, Product colleagues, Infrastructure teams and third‑party partners, you will help to ensure our Grants ecosystem reliably delivers the capabilities the organisation depends on.

You will also coordinate and oversee work across our grants system, Cognos and grants system Infrastructure functions, ensuring cohesive technical support and continuous service improvement. Collaboration with the CDIO Office and Transformation teams will be key in ensuring plans, risks, dependencies and technical roadmaps are clearly understood and communicated.

Your role will be essential in strengthening platform stability, maturing technical practices, and shaping the next generation of Arts Council England’s Grants platforms.

Main Responsibilities

In this role, you will:

• Lead the delivery of technical work across the Grants Platform ecosystem, including change activity and expert operational support.
• Work across multiple platform layers including access, web/app servers, SQL databases, hosting, operating systems (Windows/Linux), virtualisation (VMWare), load balancing (HA Proxy), identity (Entra), security services and data centre hosting.
• Deploy, administer, monitor, troubleshoot and optimise platform components, including configuration, database administration and scripting.
• Support Business Systems Product Engineering teams in configuring new Grants Programmes within our grants management system and managing reporting outputs within Cognos.
• Collaborate in technical management groups focused on Change Management, Cybersecurity, Documentation, Testing, DevOps and Service Management.
• Advise senior management on resourcing, budgeting and the strategic evolution of Grants platforms.
• Work with internal and external stakeholders to strengthen system performance, resilience and delivery.

 What You Will Bring

 Essential

• Strong experience in both System Administration and SQL Server Database Administration.
• Knowledge of JBoss and IBM Cognos.
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to influence, inspire and build trust.
• Proven ability to lead cross‑functional technical work and resolve complex technical problems.
• Experience working as part of major digital transformation initiatives.
• Strong documentation and knowledge‑sharing habits.
• Flexibility to work outside normal business hours when required, and confidence working in a hybrid, predominantly virtual environment.

 Desirable

• Experience with Service and Change Management methodologies (ITIL, Agile, Waterfall, DevOps).
• Configuration management and testing expertise, with the ability to shape future technical architectures.
• Experience mentoring early‑career technical colleagues.
• Basic front‑end and back‑end development skills.
• Experience managing third‑party suppliers.
• Budget estimation and capacity planning skills.
• Cybersecurity knowledge.                                                        

Key Relationships

You will work closely with:

• Business Systems
• Infrastructure teams
• Business functions and Transformation IT
• External partners, particularly Granicus

Your closest internal peers will include Platform Leads across Infrastructure, MS CRM/Power Platform, M365/Workplace and Data/Insights.

Equality Diversity and Inclusion Statement: Arts Council are committed to being an inclusive employer, building an inclusive workplace, and recruiting a workforce that is as diverse as the communities we serve. However, you identify, and whatever background you bring with you, we welcome you to apply for a role at Arts Council.

If there are any adjustments that would support you in your application, please do let us know when you apply. If you are disabled, Evenbreak are able to provide support with your application. For further information please visit their website here

We participate in the ‘Offer an Interview’ scheme which means that we offer an interview to any disabled candidates who meet the essential criteria for the role they’re applying to, subject to the volume of applications received.  Disabled candidates, those living with a long-term condition and/ or neurodivergent candidates may be eligible for this scheme. The scheme uses the definition of disability from the Equality Act 2010 to determine eligibility.  More information is included in the application guidance. 

About us: Arts Council offers a range of benefits to our employees including hybrid and flexible working, a generous annual leave allowance and the Arts Council Retirement Plan - a final salary scheme. To find out more, click here.

Our Code of Ethics requires that employees of the Arts Council are not able to receive an Arts Council grant, investment or loan funding - either in person, as a member of a partnership, or for any organisation they own. There are also limitations on board or CEO positions employees can hold in organisations we fund. For more information on this, please talk to the recruiting manager or contact recruitment@artscouncil.org.uk

We believe our recruitment process should be inclusive and transparent. Find out what to expect with our application Guidance: How to apply and recruitment selection process | Arts Council England and more about our commitment to diversity on our website here. 

To view the job description please click here

To view the recruitment pack which outlines more details about working for Arts Council please click here  

 Job ref: FCS18

Closing date: 09:00am Tuesday 14 April 2026

Interview: TBC

Please note: We do NOT accept CVs or cover letters as part of our recruitment process. If you require any documentation in an alternative format, please contact recruitment@artscouncil.org.uk