Cloud Platform Team Lead
Reports To: Director of Technology Platforms Role Summary
The Cloud Platform Owner, will be responsible for owning and optimising the enterprise cloud environment (Azure C Azure local), ensuring its alignment with the firm’s broader technology and business strategies. This is a leadership role in a highly modernising legal technology environment but still remaining hands on with Cloud Azure Engineering, with a clear remit to support AI enablement, centralised integration, automation, and a mobile-first strategy across a global footprint.
Key Responsibilities
Platform Ownership s Strategy
* Act as the primary owner for the Azure cloud environment, including governance, cost management, architecture, and operations.
* Develop and maintain a scalable, secure, and resilient cloud platform aligned with the firm’s digital transformation goals.
* Drive and implement the roadmap for infrastructure upgrades and simplification of cloud services, on-premservices and all our environments.
* Align team capacity and structure with business needs, ensuring roles, responsibilities, and workflows are well defined.
* Represent the team in strategic planning forums and contribute to organisational leadership decisions.
Leadership
The successful candidate will be expected to uphold a high standard of operational excellence and personal accountability. This includes taking full ownership of the cloud platform’s stability and performance.
* While the role primarily operates within standard business hours, there is an expectation of flexibility and responsiveness during critical incidents.
* Lead by example, setting clear expectations and holding individuals and teams accountable for high performance and ethical conduct.
* Provide direct line management of individuals where appropriate, ensuring clear direction, regular development conversations, and alignment with team and business goals.
* This role requires you to remain hands on as well as take on leadership responsibilities.
Operational Management
* Take full ownership of day-to-day BAU operations, ensuring the cloud platform’s performance, reliability, security, and compliance. This includes patch management
across all infrastructure services, as well as ensuring regular reporting is carried out for
* patch compliance and vulnerability management. Beyond operational stability, the role demands a continuous improvement mindset - proactively evaluating the platform and driving enhancements to optimise efficiency, resilience, and user experience.
* Manage incident response, problem management, and change management processes in collaboration with other platform teams.
* Ensure effective monitoring, health checks, and proactive maintenance across services all Cloudinfrastructure services (including on-prem services).
* Ensure we have Disaster Recovery environments that are fit for purpose and regularly tested.
* Take ownership of major incidents related to cloud infrastructure, including root cause analysis and corrective actions.
* Be available outside of standard working hours if required for high-priority incidents, demonstrating a commitment to seeing critical issues through to resolution, regardless of the time of day.
* Oversee and hold third-party cloud service providers (e.g., managed service partners, platform vendors) to account, ensuring they meet agreed SLAs, security standards, and deliver consistent value to the business.
Engineering s Projects
* Lead a team of platform engineers and third-party partners responsible for configuration, automation, deployment, and enhancement of the platform.
* Oversee delivery of projects related to the Cloud platform, including upgrades, new capabilities, and digital transformation initiatives.
* Ensure effective use of tools such as SolarWinds, Azure, Tenable.
* Enforce patch management processes and ensure the environment is compliant.
* Evaluate and pilot emerging capabilities such as Microsoft Copilot and AI-driven productivity tools.
* Oversee the operational integrity, performance, and availability of core data platforms and pipelines that support reporting, analytics, and AI readiness across the firm.
* Collaborate closely with the Data C AI teams to ensure cloud infrastructure supports scalable, secure, and reliable data ingestion, transformation, and delivery.
Budgeting s Licensing
* Own and manage the platform budget, ensuring efficient use of resources and cost optimisation.
* Manage and forecast consumption charges, ensuring compliance and maximising license utilisation.
* Liaise with procurement, finance, and vendors for renewals and cost planning.
Governance, Risk s Compliance
* Define and enforce policies for workload management and governance across our cloud estate.
* Maintain compliance with internal policies and regulatory requirements.
* Ensure data governance best practices across cloud environment.
Stakeholder Engagement
* Collaborate with business units, Technology senior leadership team, and product teams to gather requirements and improve platform services.
* Champion change management initiatives that drive behavioural adoption of digital tools across the firm.
* Act as an evangelist for Modern cloud tools, driving user adoption and digital workplace maturity.
* Provide platform status reporting and updates to senior leadership and stakeholders.
Required Experience & Skills
* Committed to maintaining high standards of documentation, ensuring that all key
infrastructure processes, configurations, and new services are clearly and consistently documented. Responsible for fostering a culture of knowledge sharing and operational transparency within the team.
* Proven experience in managing enterprise-scale Microsoft Cloud environments.
* Expert knowledge of Windows Server, with a deep understanding of Microsoft Azure, Conditional Access, Entra ID, Microsoft Defender, and related technologies.
* Hands-on experience with cloud management, collaboration tools, and identity/security best practices.
* Disaster Recovery Planning and Implementation
* Experience managing budgets, licensing agreements, and vendor relationships.
* Strong leadership and communication skills, with the ability to lead cross-functional teams and projects.
* Knowledge of ITIL practices and service management methodologies.
* Strong problem-solving and analytical abilities.
Behavioural skills
* Presents ideas and concepts to non-discipline colleagues and management in a manner that is respectful and understandable.
* Objective of job is to motivate others to act; understanding, developing, motivating, negotiating, mediating conflict with technical staff and third parties.
* Creates an environment in which quality information flows freely between self and others; encourages open expression of ideas and opinions; builds effective teams
* Excellent communication skills (both written and verbal) and the ability to interact across different cultures and time zones.
* Expected to have regular interaction with management and counterparts in multiple businesses and countries.
* Demonstrates ability to handle abstract problems with no known solutions.
* Adapts to multiple/changing demands readily.
* Can see applications for practices from different industries that could benefit our business, and successfully implements them.
* Demonstrates strategic and visionary behaviours.
Preferred Qualifications
* Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert