Integration Lead - Secure Digital Platform

Integration Lead – Secure Digital Platform 6-Month contract – Inside IR35 – market rate Reading based – 5 days a week onsite Defence sector – need to be eligible for SC Clearance – current and active SC Cleared already is strongly preferred Role Description The Integration Lead is responsible for leading the technical design, development, and delivery of secure, scalable, and reusable foundational technology services within the Secure Digital Platform. The Integration Lead partners with Delivery Leads, product owners and architects, to lead and manage the technical implementation of platform capabilities and enterprise services to the roadmap planned for each platform. The Integration Lead acts as a hands-on technical leader and subject matter expert, ensuring engineering excellence, operational integrity, and alignment of delivery with enterprise architectural direction and business objectives. Key Responsibilities • Provide delivery leadership across the Engineering, Agile team and Test teams to build and maintain reusable and secure platform services aligned with the organisation’s technology strategy. • Work with the Delivery leads to understand the roadmap of work • Work closely with Product Owners / Architects to implement and test the capabilities within the platforms • Drive high-quality software engineering practices across the team, including code reviews, test automation, CI/CD pipelines, performance monitoring, and observability. • Ensure delivered solutions align with solution designs and security guardrails. • Guide teams in the selection and use of modern tools, frameworks, and platforms that optimise development efficiency and operational effectiveness for delivery. • Support the development and evolution of the Secure Digital Platform roadmap by identifying technical dependencies, enablers, and delivery risks. • Partner with the wider Secure Digital Platform team to establish and enforce standards for infrastructure-as-code, API development, cloud-native services, and integration. • Collaborate with cybersecurity, operations, and compliance teams to ensure secure design and adherence to internal and external policies. • Act as a technical escalation point for complex engineering issues and support the Engineering, Agile and Test leads to develop and row technical capability within the teams. • Contribute to the preparation of delivery-related artefacts such as technical documentation, support handovers, and implementation Runbook. • Foster a culture of continuous improvement, experimentation, and feedback within engineering teams. Skills and Experience Essential • 5+ years of experience in technical leadership roles within software engineering, infrastructure, or platform development teams • Proven experience delivering secure, scalable technology services or platforms in complex enterprise environment • Hands-on experience with cloud platforms (e.g., AWS, Azure, GCP), container orchestration, and infrastructure automation (e.g., Terraform, Ansible) • Strong understanding of DevSecOps principles, CI/CD pipelines, test automation, and observability tooling • Familiarity with platform and product-centric delivery models and agile frameworks (e.g., Scrum, SAFe) • Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills across technical and non-technical audiences • Strong problem-solving skills and ability to make pragmatic decisions under ambiguity or time constraints • Commitment to fostering engineering culture, mentoring others, and growing internal technical capability • High ethical standards when handling confidential information Desirable • Experience with platform engineering, internal developer platforms (IDPs), or technical enablement teams • Experience in a highly regulated industry (e.g., Aerospace & Defence, Finance, Critical Infrastructure) • Exposure to secure coding practices, threat modelling, and secure-by-design approaches • Experience leading hybrid delivery teams (e.g., internal and external/partner teams) • Familiarity with ITSM and incident/problem/change/ management in an enterprise context