Platform Engineer

Who we are

We’re The Kite Factory; the independent media agency built on Values and Velocity.

Our values set the direction. Velocity drives the momentum. Together, they shape how we think, how we work, and how we help ambitious brands grow in a world that rarely stands still.

Everything we do is built around one belief: the best media ideas are the ones that deliver measurable growth. That’s why we combine strategic thinking, creative ambition, and commercial accountability to create Ideas That Deliver - media solutions grounded in insight, executed with precision, and measured by real-world impact. From commercial challengers to leading purpose led organisations, we partner with brands including WaterAid, White Claw, British Red Cross, Lovehoney, MedExpress, Friends of the Earth and M&G Wealth.

Today, we have specialists across strategy, planning, activation, data, analytics, and creative thinking - united by curiosity, collaboration, and a shared ambition to deliver work that makes a measurable difference.

We’ve grown quickly because we’ve stayed true to what makes us different: independent thinking, deep client partnership, and a culture that empowers people to move with clarity, confidence, creativity, and momentum.

People love working here, and it shows. We’re proud to be recognised as a Campaign Best Place to Work and a Sunday Times Best Place to Work, creating a culture where individuality is valued, progress matters more than perfection, and talented people are trusted to do their best work.

What we are looking for

This is a new role in our product function working with the Head of Product, you will build and run the platform that hosts our AI agents: orchestration, model routing, permissions, audit logging and cost metering and the infrastructure behind our evaluation and quality-gate system. The remit focusses on setting the groundwork for sustainable AI transformation

The agency’s position is that everything judged should be auditable and everything automated should be logged, reversible and owned. You are the person who makes that true in production. You will inherit systems that work and document them into systems that are highly transferable.

The current estate and near-term roadmap include:

• Azure - compute, networking, identity, and burst GPU capacity for local model workloads
• PostgreSQL / PostGIS, our warehouse and reporting infrastructure
• Model provider APIs and the orchestration layer around them
• Docker, Git and a modern observability stack
• RPA tooling against legacy media systems (Mediaocean/DDS awareness an advantage)

You’ll embody our values by:

• Thinking freely to improve processes and challenge how things are done
• Aiming higher by taking ownership and delivering to a high standard
• Staying smart through attention to detail and sound judgement
• Getting involved in supporting managers and contributing to culture
• Winning together by building strong, trusted relationships across the agency

Your role

• Build and run the agent platform: orchestration, model routing, queues, retries, environments and deployments
• Own access control for humans and agents alike least privilege by default, quarterly reviews, no orphaned credentials
• Put audit logging on every automated action and keep the logs queryable, attributable and auditor-friendly
• Stand up cost metering and alerting across model API usage, GPU workloads and vendor licences, with unit costs visible per workflow
• Run the evaluation infrastructure behind our quality gates in partnership with the data & analytics team
• Manage vendor integrations - model providers, RPA tooling and legacy media systems - and cost their brittleness honestly rather than wishing it away
• Harden and document the agency’s infrastructure: runbooks, degraded modes, recovery procedures, secrets hygiene
• Support the wider transformation programme: every team is adopting agent workflows on a paced schedule

Key Deliverables

• The platform must be available and observable, with incidents rare, short and documented
• Every automated action logged and attributable, with retention that satisfies auditors
• Access reviews completed quarterly across all agent and human credentials
• Cost dashboards live, with per-workflow unit costs visible to function heads
• Infrastructure documented end to end in our playbook library updated on an ongoing basis
• Degraded-mode runbooks tested on a schedule.
• Security posture maintained as agent numbers grow: scopes, secrets and data boundaries reviewed with every new workflow

Technical skills

• Major cloud in-production: We use Azure with infrastructure as code (Terraform, Bicep or equivalent) and CI/CD
• R or Python as primary everyday language.
• PostgreSQL in-production: Comfortable around data pipelines and warehouses.
• Experience running LLM-backed systems in production, gateways, orchestration frameworks, observability. Deployment and testing open weight models.
• PostGis and Frontend UX design experience advantageous but not essential

Career experience

• 3+ years’ experience in platform, DevOps, infrastructure or similar engineering roles
• Ideally work experience working in media, marketing or advertising

Key behaviours

We are looking for the following traits from someone in this role; passion, creativity, problem-solving, boldness, proactivity, practicality and pragmatism.

Our Culture

We’re immensely proud of the vibrant culture at The Kite Factory. Our commitment to continuous improvement is reflected in our quarterly pulse surveys, which create a valuable feedback loop, allowing us to evolve and refine our agency's operations. Here, every voice is heard and valued. We've diligently built and embodied our core values: Think Freely, Aim Higher, Stay Smart, Get Involved, and Win Together.

Our people are our greatest asset, and the connections they forge with one another are the foundation of our success. To strengthen these relationships and foster a supportive and inclusive environment, we offer several committees that everyone is encouraged to join, including Social, Diversity & Inclusion, and Environmental Impact. These groups play a crucial role in shaping our culture and ensuring that we not only work together but thrive together.

What’s in it for you?

As well as working with some of the best people in the industry, we offer a competitive salary, a range of benefits, a huge focus on training and development with dedicated training time, partnerships with industry specialists, and the opportunity to progress and develop your career with the support of a fantastic team.

Inclusivity and belonging

At The Kite Factory, we welcome applications from all walks of life including those who are under-represented in our industry. We’re committed to creating a diverse and inclusive place to work where everyone feels they can belong and celebrate each other's differences. It’s so important to us that all voices are heard and listened to so that we can truly create an inclusive place to work where our teams can thrive.

Application

At The Kite Factory we value original thinking, human taste and work that has a point of view. So when you apply, don’t smooth the edges, show us how you think.

Bring your perspective, your experience, and your curiosity. We want to get a real sense of who you are and what you’d bring to the work and the team. AI can help, but it can’t replace judgement or voice. Use it wisely - what matters most to us is you.