Platform Engineer

Who are we?

Howden is a global insurance group with employee ownership at its heart. Together, we have pushed the boundaries of insurance. We are united by a shared passion and no-limits mindset, and our strength lies in our ability to collaborate as a powerful international team comprised of 24,000 employees spanning over 56 countries.

People join Howden for many different reasons, but they stay for the same one: our culture. It’s what sets us apart, and the reason our employees have been turning down headhunters for years. Whatever your priorities - work / life balance, career progression, sustainability, volunteering - you’ll find like-minded people driving change at Howden.

Status: Full Time

Salary Range: $180,000 - $220,000

About the Job

Why Join Howden US?

At Howden, we're not just building a business - we're rewriting the rules of what a global insurance broker can be. And now, it's your turn to be part of something extraordinary. From three people and a dog to over 22,000 employees across 56 countries, we've grown into a $4bn revenue powerhouse with bold ambition: to become a $13bn business with 40,000 people by 2030.

We're launching our US retail platform with the same entrepreneurial spirit that's driven our success worldwide - and we're looking for trailblazers to help shape the future.

Why Howden?

You'll Own It

·With 6,000 employee shareholders owning 34% of the company, our unique ownership model means you're not just joining a team - you're building a business you truly own.

You'll Be Empowered

·We're a destination for talent where people are trusted to look after their clients and grow together. You'll have the freedom to lead, backed by global scale and local expertise.

You'll Be Part of Something Bigger

·Our integrated platform spans broking, reinsurance, and MGA capabilities - giving you access to everything you need to deliver for clients and build something remarkable.

We have always been employee-owned and driven by entrepreneurial spirit. Right from the beginning, we've focused on employing talented individuals and empowering them to make a real difference to the company, whilst building successful and fulfilling careers at the same time. Simply put, we hire talented specialists and give them what they need to make a difference for clients. Always have, always will.

What is the role?

We are seeking a hands-on and forward-thinking Platform Engineer to build, automate, and evolve the Azure infrastructure supporting the Howden US technology and data platforms.

This is an Azure infrastructure engineering role, not a data engineering role. While Azure Databricks is a critical part of our technology landscape and an important focus of this position, the Platform Engineer will not be responsible for developing data pipelines, notebooks, transformations, or data models in Databricks. Instead, you will build and improve the infrastructure, security, networking, identity, automation, and operational foundations that allow our engineers to use Databricks effectively.

Your scope extends across the broader Microsoft Azure ecosystem. You may work on infrastructure supporting data platforms, applications, AI solutions, integrations, containerized workloads, or other emerging US technology needs. We expect you to understand the problem first and select the appropriate Azure services rather than defaulting to a particular technology.

This is a builder role. You will be expected to turn problems and ideas into working infrastructure, automate repetitive processes, create reusable capabilities, and continuously improve the developer experience.

We are looking for someone who is curious about why things work the way they do and is comfortable constructively challenging existing architecture, processes, and ways of working. When a better approach exists, we want someone who can articulate it, demonstrate it, and help build it.

The ideal candidate combines strong Azure infrastructure expertise with an entrepreneurial engineering mindset. You are comfortable with ambiguity, willing to experiment, able to move quickly from idea to implementation, and take ownership of solutions through production.

What will you be doing?

Key Responsibilities

· Design, build, automate, and operate secure, scalable infrastructure across Microsoft Azure.

· Provision and manage Azure services using Terraform and Infrastructure as Code, creating reusable patterns that can be applied consistently across environments.

· Build and maintain the infrastructure foundations for Azure Databricks, including workspace configuration, networking, storage integration, identity and access, Unity Catalog infrastructure, compute policies, secrets, security, and monitoring.

· Partner with Data Engineers who own data pipelines, notebooks, transformations, and data models, ensuring they have reliable and secure platform capabilities on which to build.

· Design and support Azure networking and connectivity, including VNets, subnets, private endpoints, private DNS, routing, firewalls, and connectivity with SaaS and external platforms.

· Implement and improve identity and access patterns using Microsoft Entra ID, Azure RBAC, security groups, service principals, and managed identities.

· Build CI/CD pipelines and automation for infrastructure provisioning, configuration, validation, and deployment.

· Provision and operate Azure services beyond Databricks when appropriate, including application hosting, containerized workloads, storage, Key Vault, monitoring, and integration services.

· Build monitoring, logging, alerting, cost controls, and operational capabilities that improve platform reliability and make issues easier to identify and resolve.

· Create self-service capabilities and reusable platform patterns that allow engineering teams to move faster with less manual intervention.

· Identify repetitive, manual, or unnecessarily complex processes and replace them with simpler, automated solutions wherever practical.

· Constructively challenge existing technical approaches and processes, using evidence and working solutions to drive continuous improvement.

· Troubleshoot complex issues across Azure infrastructure, networking, identity, security, Databricks, storage, applications, and external integrations.

· Collaborate with data engineering, AI, security, infrastructure, operations, and global platform teams while maintaining strong ownership of delivery.

Key Skills & Competencies

· Strong hands-on experience designing, building, automating, and operating Microsoft Azure infrastructure across a broad range of Azure services.

· Deep understanding of core Azure infrastructure concepts, including subscriptions, resource groups, networking, storage, identity, security, compute, application hosting, monitoring, and governance.

· Strong proficiency with Terraform and Infrastructure as Code, including reusable modules and consistent multi-environment deployments.

· Strong knowledge of Azure networking, including VNets, subnets, private endpoints, private DNS, routing, firewalls, network security groups, and secure external connectivity.

· Strong experience with Microsoft Entra ID and Azure access management, including RBAC, security groups, service principals, managed identities, and least-privilege patterns.

· Strong infrastructure and platform-level knowledge of Azure Databricks, including workspace provisioning and configuration, networking, storage integration, Unity Catalog infrastructure, identity and access management, compute policies, secrets, security, and monitoring.

· Experience provisioning and operating other Azure services such as Azure Container Apps, App Service, Functions, Storage Accounts, Key Vault, Azure Monitor, or comparable managed services.

· Strong experience building CI/CD and infrastructure automation, preferably using Azure DevOps, YAML pipelines, Git, APIs, and SDKs.

· Proficiency in automation and scripting using Python, PowerShell, Bash, or similar technologies.

· Experience implementing observability, monitoring, logging, alerting, cost management, and operational controls across Azure environments.

· Strong understanding of cloud security and governance, including secrets management, environment isolation, network security, auditability, access controls, and secure-by-default infrastructure patterns.

· Ability to troubleshoot complex problems spanning Azure infrastructure, networking, identity, security, Databricks, storage, applications, and external integrations.

· A strong builder mindset: comfortable taking an ambiguous infrastructure problem from investigation and architecture through implementation, automation, deployment, and production operation.

· A track record of constructively challenging the status quo, identifying inefficient or unnecessarily complex approaches, proposing pragmatic alternatives, and turning those ideas into working solutions.

· An automation-first mindset: repetitive infrastructure and operational activities should become automated and reusable wherever practical.

· Experience creating self-service capabilities and reusable platform patterns that enable engineering teams to move faster while maintaining appropriate security and governance.

· Practical experience using modern AI-assisted and agentic engineering tools to accelerate infrastructure development, troubleshooting, automation, and documentation.

· Strong bias for action and ownership, with the ability to move from problem identification to a working production solution with minimal oversight.

· Comfort working in an entrepreneurial environment where engineers are expected to build, simplify, automate, and improve rather than simply administer existing infrastructure.

· Ability to collaborate effectively with technical and non-technical stakeholders across data engineering, AI, security, infrastructure, operations, and global platform teams.

· Experience with enterprise or regulated environments is preferred; insurance industry experience is a plus.

Qualifications

· Bachelor's degree in a technical or quantitative discipline, or equivalent practical technical experience.

· 5+ years of experience in cloud infrastructure, platform engineering, DevOps, SRE, or a similar hands-on engineering role.

· Proven hands-on experience building and operating production workloads and infrastructure on Microsoft Azure.

· Proven experience using Infrastructure as Code and CI/CD to automate cloud infrastructure and platform configuration.

· Hands-on experience supporting Azure Databricks from an infrastructure, security, identity, networking, or platform administration perspective.

· Experience working across multiple Azure services and selecting appropriate technologies based on technical and business requirements.

· Demonstrated experience owning technical solutions from design through implementation, deployment, troubleshooting, and production operation.

· Willingness to wear multiple hats and work across traditional infrastructure boundaries as the US platform and engineering capabilities continue to evolve.

What do we offer in return? A career that you define.

Our business succeeds by allowing our people to make a mark in the areas they care about most: personal development, volunteering, and fundraising for charity, or creating new insurance products that address society's greatest challenges.

And we know that separate home and work lives don't really exist. If you're happy and healthy at home, you're more likely to be happy and fulfilled at work - and vice versa. That's why we do our best to support our people in every aspect of their lives.

Diversity and Inclusion

At Howden we value diversity - there is no one Howden 'personality type'. Instead, we're looking for individuals who share the same values as us:

· Our successes have all come from someone brave enough to try something new

· We support each other, in the small everyday moments and the bigger challenges

· We are determined to make a positive difference, at work and beyond

We consider our people our chief competitive advantage and as such we treat colleagues, candidates, clients, and business partners with equality, fairness, and respect - regardless of age, disability, race, religion or belief, gender, sexual orientation, marital status, or family circumstances.

Our sustainability promise

We're on a life-long journey to become an ever-more sustainable group. It's a commitment to taking care of our people and the world we live in, to doing good business, and to making a positive impact wherever we can. Our governance processes, company policies, and review systems are all geared towards our goal of making a positive impact on the world. You can read more about our sustainability work at https://www.howdengroupholdings.com/sustainability.

Compensation and Benefits

The expected base salary range for this role is $180,000 - $220,000; actual base salary will be determined based on factors including candidate experience and work location. This role is classified as exempt under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA).

In addition to a competitive base salary, employees are eligible to receive a discretionary bonus. Howden also offers a variety of benefits and programs, subject to eligibility, including:

Medical, dental, and vision insurance, including healthcare savings and reimbursement accounts

• 401(k) retirement plan
• Flexible Paid Time Off and paid parental leave
• Life and Disability insurance

What do we offer in return?

A career that you define. At Howden, we value diversity - there is no one Howden type. Instead, we’re looking for individuals who share the same values as us:

• Our successes have all come from someone brave enough to try something new

• We support each other in the small everyday moments and the bigger challenges

• We are determined to make a positive difference at work and beyond

Reasonable adjustments

We're committed to providing reasonable accommodations at Howden to ensure that our positions align well with your needs. Besides the usual adjustments such as software, IT, and office setups, we can also accommodate other changes such as flexible hours* or hybrid working*.

If you're excited by this role but have some doubts about whether it’s the right fit for you, send us your application - if your profile fits the role’s criteria, we will be in touch to assist in helping to get you set up with any reasonable adjustments you may require.

*Not all positions can accommodate changes to working hours or locations. Reach out to your Recruitment Partner if you want to know more.