IS IT time to tech your career to the next level?
With nine in ten jobs now requiring digital skills, the tech sector is developing new roles faster than any other industry.
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Among the hottest new jobs to emerge are Platform Consultants and Platform Engineers.
Both roles help make tech systems run more effectively but as with any emerging role, there’s a severe shortage of candidates with the right skills.
So if you’re thinking of a career change, IT could be the right move for you.
Here’s all you need to know from Sun Jobs.
What exactly are Platform Consultants and Platform Engineers?
These are two separate job roles but they are often interlinked. Platform Consultants audit a tech platform and then provide guidance, expertise and solutions to clients to maximise the platform’s performance and success.
Platform Engineers aim to speed up the delivery of new tech applications and how quickly they add value to businesses.
The role can include simplifying tech operations, assessing what works well in one area and repurposing the tech into another related area and providing early advice and feedback on problems or security risks.
What kind of pay do Platform Consultants and Platform Engineers get?
The average UK salary for a Platform Consultant is £56,203 while Platform Engineers pocket around £71,000.
Industry experts predict 80 per cent of tech organisations will have dedicated consultants and engineers by 2026 and there are currently over 2,500 high-paid vacancies lying open in the UK.
How do I train to be a Platform Consultant or Platform Engineer?
Both roles are classed as ‘emerging’ technologies so there are no firmly established routes in.
However, the most successful career path is to take a recognised IT or computer science degree and then work for a major software or tech firm.
All major companies are developing their Engineer and Consultant number so there will be opportunities for internal learning and development.
Hubpot also offers free taster Consulting courses at academy.hubspot.com/courses/platform-consulting while you can find out more about Platform Engineering at platformcon.com.
Are there any personal skills I would need?
Platform Engineers need great technical skills, including proficiency in key scripting languages such as Python, Bash or PowerShell, along with other programming languages like Ruby.
You will also need to be customer-focused and able to treat your platform as a product and the developers you work with as your customers.
For Platform Consultants, vital skills include being able to collaboratively with customers, project management, quality assurance and other team members, so your project is a success.
You’ll need to assess and provide accurate cost estimates and budgets for the jobs you work on plus write manuals and demonstration guides for your customers and their staff.
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Ready to byte at a new job? Here are the Sun Jobs top picks for this week
Senior Azure Platform Consultant, Version 1, Belfast
No need to consult with anyone else – this is the job for you!
The Job: Version 1 is hiring a Senior Azure Platform Consultant for a remote-based role, with occasional travel to client sites and offices.
What You’ll Do: You will engage with customers to understand requirements and to identify solutions and opportunities; use DevOps processes and tooling for the delivery of IaaS and PaaS services using Infrastructure as Code (IaC); and produce and contribute to high-quality documentation.
You’ll Need: You will have demonstrable experience in leading on technical designs based on customer requirements and communicating to both technical and non-technical audiences. You’ll be adept at providing delivery of Azure technologies and solutions and working with Cloud native solutions and services..
Apply Now: See further details of this role, along with other opportunities at Version 1.
Staff Platform Engineer, Ripple, London
Engineer a new career with this top-level job.
The Job: Ripple is hiring a Staff Platform Engineer to play a critical role in helping to advance production infrastructure and release pipelines.
What You’ll Do: You will work closely with product engineers to support their infrastructure needs. Along with leading architectural approaches with the right tradeoffs between scale, cost and maintenance, you will coach junior engineers too.
You’ll Need: You will have a Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in computer science, computer engineering, or a related technical discipline, as well as eight years of relevant work experience in Go, Python or Java, plus experience developing APIs and SDKs, working with cloud infrastructures, particularly AWS, and experience with container schedulers and runtimes such as Docker running on Kubernetes, Rancher, or Mesos.
Apply Now: Find out more, or discover more opportunities with Ripple.
Software Engineer, Northrop Grumman Sperry Marine, New Malden
Dive into this exciting new role with Northrop Grumman Sperry Marine.
The Job: Northrop Grumman Sperry Marine is hiring a Software Engineer to join its Commercial Engineering team.
What You’ll Do: You will take a leading role in developing navigation products (Radar, ECDIS, Track Control Systems), working both with an experienced internal team and in collaboration with established outsourced teams to provide improvements and new features to navigation software that is used across a diverse fleet of sea-going craft.
You’ll Need: Experience in developing applications for the .NET framework, particularly with experience of legacy products; good analytical skills and experience of code and design review for large projects; experience of multi-threaded and distributed applications, preferably with an understanding of network protocols and serialisation formats. Experience with Java, and a track record of working with debugging and performance analysis tools on Windows (Windbg, PerfView, etc) are essential.
Apply Now: Apply for this role, along with other opportunities at Northrop Grumman Sperry Marine.
Discover thousands of open vacancies for jobs all across the UK now on The Sun Job Board.
