SouthwindSouthwind

Beautiful infrastructure, quietly powering the products people rely on.

John Doe

Director of Platform Engineering at Southwind

Everything you need for this role, in one place. It updates as you move through the process.

  1. Recruiter Screen
  2. 2
    Technical Quiz
  3. 3
    Technical Phone Screen
  4. 4
    Hiring Manager Phone Screen
  5. 5
    Onsite
  6. 6
    Offer

Step 2 of 6 · Technical Quiz

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  • About
  • The Role
  • Context
  • The Process
  • The Team
  • Benefits
  • Salary
  • Resources
  • Next Steps

About Southwind

Southwind builds the data infrastructure layer that high-growth companies run on. Founded in 2021, we work with teams who need reliability at scale without the operational overhead. Our engineers own the full stack, ship to production daily, and care about the systems they build long after launch.

www.southwind.com

The Role

About the Role

We’re seeking a Director of Platform Engineering to lead our infrastructure, reliability, developer experience, and core backend platform efforts. This is a strategic, high-ownership leadership role responsible for building and guiding the teams that ensure the platform is secure, scalable, observable, and engineered for velocity.

 

In this role, you will set technical direction, drive architectural strategy, empower engineering teams with world-class tooling, and lead initiatives that enable the entire organization to move faster with confidence. You’ll work closely with product, engineering leadership, and cross-functional stakeholders to shape the platform that will support the company’s next phase of growth.

 

What You’ll Do

  • Lead and scale the Platform Engineering organization, including infrastructure, DevOps/SRE, and core backend platform teams.

  • Define the long-term platform vision, architecture, and technical roadmap.

  • Ensure the reliability, scalability, and security of our systems as usage grows.

  • Invest in developer experience through improved tooling, CI/CD pipelines, and streamlined workflows.

  • Drive standards and best practices for observability, incident response, and operational excellence.

  • Partner with engineering leaders to align platform capabilities with product and business goals.

  • Guide major architectural decisions and modernization initiatives.

  • Mentor, coach, and develop engineering managers and senior ICs.

  • Collaborate closely with security, product, and data teams on cross-functional initiatives.

  • Build a healthy, collaborative engineering culture grounded in ownership, trust, and technical rigor.

What We’re Looking For

  • 8–12+ years of engineering experience, with 4+ years leading platform, infrastructure, or SRE teams.

  • Deep expertise in cloud infrastructure (AWS, GCP, or Azure), distributed systems, and high-scale architectures.

  • Proven experience driving platform strategy and building systems that support rapid product growth.

  • Strong understanding of developer tooling, CI/CD, observability, and modern DevOps practices.

  • Experience hiring, scaling, and developing high-performing engineering teams.

  • Excellent communication skills — able to influence executives, partner across teams, and break down complex concepts.

  • Comfort operating in a fast-moving, ambiguous startup environment.

  • A leadership approach that blends empathy, high standards, and strong technical judgment.

Nice-to-Haves

  • Experience scaling SaaS products or mission-critical systems.

  • Background in platform orgs at high-growth startups or mid-stage tech companies.

  • Familiarity with service mesh, multi-region architectures, event-driven systems, or zero-downtime migrations.

  • Experience managing budgets, vendor relationships, and long-horizon technical investments.

  • A track record of building internal platforms that significantly improve engineering productivity.

Why You’ll Love Working Here

  • Massive ownership and influence — you’ll shape the foundation of the company's technology for years to come.

  • Opportunity to build and scale a platform organization from an early inflection point.

  • A thoughtful, collaborative culture that values technical excellence and sustainable velocity.

  • Competitive compensation, equity, and benefits.

Equal Employment Opportunity and Diversity Statement

We are committed to equal employment opportunity in both principle and as a matter of policy. We will recruit, hire, train, promote, compensate and provide benefits to all applicants and employees without regard to ancestry, sex, race, color, ethnicity, national origin, gender, age, religion, religious creed, mental and/or physical disability, medical condition, military and/or veteran’s status, genetic information, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity and/or expression, or any other basis protected by applicable federal, state and local laws. This policy applies to all recruiting, hiring, promotions, upgrades, layoffs, compensation, benefits, terminations and all other privileges, terms and conditions of employment. The firm complies fully with all federal, state and local equal employment opportunity laws.

Context

Why this role exists

Southwind processes over 400 million events a day. The Platform team has grown to 9 engineers under one manager, and the work has outgrown that shape.

Infrastructure, reliability and developer experience are currently split between Platform and 3 product teams. Deployment tooling differs between services. Observability is strong in the ingestion layer and thin everywhere else. Engineers lose roughly a day a week to work the infrastructure should be doing for them.

This role exists to own that properly: one group, one roadmap, and a direct line to the CTO. You inherit a team that is already good and give it the strategy and the headcount it has not had.

The mandate is funded. 5 additional engineers are approved for the first year, including an SRE lead.

What success looks like

30 days. You have met the Platform team and the 5 product leads, and you can name the 5 things that slow engineers down most. Nothing shipped yet, and that is the right answer.

90 days. A platform roadmap exists that the product directors have agreed to, not merely seen. The SRE lead search is under way. Deborah has a clear remit that has not shrunk.

180 days. Deployment is consistent across every service. Observability covers 90% of production systems, not just ingestion. Merge to production runs under 20 minutes, down from 2 hours.

1 year. The group is 14 engineers across platform and SRE. Engineers report losing under 2 hours a week to infrastructure work that is not theirs, down from roughly a day. Deduplication accuracy is 99.9%, up from 99.2%.

Team structure

You report to the CTO and join the engineering leadership team alongside the Directors of Product Engineering and Data.

You inherit the Platform team: 9 engineers led by Deborah Burns, who built the group and will report to you. Deborah stays close to tooling and ingestion. The gap you are filling sits above that: strategy, SRE, developer experience, and the relationship between platform and the 5 product teams.

Approved headcount for the first year is 5: an SRE lead, 2 SREs and 2 platform engineers. The shape is yours to argue with.

Engineering is 40 people across 6 teams, remote across the UK, Ireland, Spain and Germany, with a week together in London each quarter.

Growth path

Southwind has no VP of Engineering. The CTO is direct about why that matters here: the person who builds the platform group well is the internal candidate when the role opens.

Nearer term, the growth is scope rather than title. Security engineering has no owner today and lands with whoever is closest to the problem. Data reliability sits awkwardly between Platform and Data. Both are candidates to move under this role within 18 months.

If you would rather deepen than widen, that is a real path here. Two of the most senior engineers at Southwind have never managed anyone.

The Process

  1. Recruiter Screen

    30 min

    A first conversation with James Hartley, who runs technical hiring for infrastructure. Context on the role and the mandate, and space for you to work out whether it is worth your time.

  2. 2

    Technical Quiz

    120 min

    You are here

    A short written brief. It is a strategy exercise rather than a coding test, and it should take about 2 hours.

    Preparation guide
    Format

    Written response of up to 2 pages, returned before the hiring manager conversation

    120 min

    How to prepare

    The brief is in the Case Study section of this portal and you can start it whenever you like. We are reading for judgement, not completeness. A short answer that is well argued beats a long one that is not. If you pass 2 hours, stop and send what you have.

    Topics likely to come up
    • The 3 things you would do first, and why those and not others
    • What you would deliberately not do in year one
    • How you would know any of it had worked
    Preparation checklist
    3 of 3 ready

    You're fully prepped for this one.

    Case study brief

    Platform strategy brief

    About 2 hours

    This is a short written exercise, not a coding test. We want to see how you frame an ambiguous problem and, just as much, what you choose to leave out.

    There is no model answer. We are reading for judgement, and for how you make a case to people who do not report to you.

    The situation

    Southwind runs a data pipeline handling over 400 million events a day. Platform is 9 engineers. Infrastructure, reliability and developer experience are split between Platform and 3 product teams. Deployment tooling differs between services. Observability is strong in the ingestion layer and thin everywhere else. Engineers estimate they lose about a day a week to infrastructure work that is not their job. You have funded headcount for 5 more engineers in year one.

    What we would like from you

    Pick the 3 things you would do in the first 90 days, and say why those and not others. For one of them, describe what you would actually build or change, and how you would know it had worked. Then name the thing you would deliberately not do in year one, and what you would say to the product director who wants it.

    What we are reading for

    Whether you sequence by leverage or by noise. Whether your measures are real or decorative. Whether you can say no to a peer and keep the relationship intact. We care more about the reasoning than the conclusion, and we will disagree with you in the call without that counting against you.

    What you do not need to do

    No slides. No architecture diagrams unless one genuinely says it faster than a sentence would. No research into Southwind beyond what is already in this portal. If you find yourself past 2 hours, stop and send what you have. Running long is not evidence of commitment.

    Deliverables

    A written response of no more than 2 pages, in whatever format suits you. Bullet points are fine. Send it to Deborah before your hiring manager conversation and we will spend the first 20 minutes of that call on it.

    Questions? Email deborah.burns@demo.candidhq.com (Deborah Burns).

  3. 3

    Technical Phone Screen

    45 min

    Discuss your platform leadership experience, architectural decisions, and approach to scaling teams and systems.

  4. 4

    Hiring Manager Phone Screen

    60 min

    Deep dive into your platform leadership philosophy, scaling experience, and approach to building high-performing teams.

  5. 5

    Onsite

    240 min

    Four conversations in one day, remote or in London, whichever suits you. This is the panel that decides, and you meet the people you would actually work with.

  6. 6

    Offer

    30 min

    We make the offer verbally first and in writing the same day, with the full picture in one go rather than in pieces.

The Team

  • James Hartley
    James Hartley
    Recruiter
    Recruiter ScreenOffer

    Runs technical hiring for backend, infrastructure and data. Came from a specialist tech search firm and moved in-house three years ago. Knows the difference between a genuine technical bar and a whiteboard hazing session.

    Works best in the mornings. Sends detailed prep notes before every interview. Will always say where you stand.

    Email
  • Deborah Burns
    Deborah Burnsshe/her
    Hiring Manager · London, UK
    Technical Phone ScreenHiring Manager Phone Screen

    Leads the Platform team of 9 engineers. Joined Southwind to build out the infrastructure group and has run it since. Came from a payments company where she was on call for four years, and has firm opinions about alerting as a result. Plays bass badly and cheerfully in a band of other engineers.

    Written first. Expect a design doc rather than a slide deck.

    Ask me about our migration off the monolith and what is left of it

    Interviews in English

    Email
  • JL
    Jeremy Lewishe/him
    Interviewer · Manchester, UK
    Onsite

    Engineering Manager for the Payments group. Was an individual contributor here for three years before moving into management, and still reviews code most weeks. Mentors through a local coding programme on Saturdays. Two allotments, one of which is going well.

    Weekly one to ones without fail. Gives feedback the same day.

    Ask me about what the first ninety days look like on this team

    Interviews in English

    Email
  • AB
    Amber Brownshe/her
    Recruiting Coordinator · London, UK

    Coordinates onsite and remote loops across Product and Sales. The first point of contact once a conversation is booked, and the person to tell if you need anything adjusted. Trained as a stage manager, which turns out to be the same job with different lighting. Runs half marathons.

    Works UK hours. Replies to scheduling questions within the hour.

    Ask me about accessibility needs or adjustments for any stage

    Interviews in English

    Email

Benefits

Salary

Competitive, benchmarked annually against Radford. Bands shared at offer stage.

Equity

0.05-0.15% options depending on level. 4-year vest, 1-year cliff, 10-year exercise window.

Pension

6% employer contribution. No minimum employee contribution required.

Pension top-up

Option to sacrifice salary into your pension pre-tax, supported and encouraged.

Health

Full medical, dental, and vision. 100% premium covered for you, 80% for dependants.

Holiday

28 days plus public holidays. No approval needed for up to 5 consecutive days.

Parental leave

20 weeks full pay for all parents, regardless of gender or route to parenthood.

Sick leave

Uncapped. No sick notes required for the first 10 days.

Remote

Fully remote, with a quarterly in-person week in London. Travel and accommodation covered.

Equipment

£2,500 equipment budget on day one. Refreshed every 3 years.

Learning

£1,500 per year for conferences, courses, or books. No pre-approval needed under £300.

Hiring referral

£2,000 for a successful referral who passes probation. Paid immediately on completion.

Salary

This is the approved band for the role. Move the slider to tell us where you would need to land, and we will be straight with you about whether it works.

Move the sliders to share where your salary thinking is right now. This is a heads-up for your recruiter so you stay aligned through the process. It isn't a final number. Your actual package gets agreed with your recruiter directly. Update any time your thinking shifts.

Role range

$210k – $260k

Your expectation

$233,000 – $236,000

$210k$235k$260k

How firm is this?

The more we understand about your needs, the better aligned we can stay through the process.

Resources

benefits

  • southwind benefits
    PDF

general

  • Southwind Employee Handbook
    PDF

Next Steps

Right now

You're in Technical Quiz. Well done getting through Recruiter Screen!

Coming up

Next is Technical Phone Screen.

Discuss your platform leadership experience, architectural decisions, and approach to scaling teams and systems.

Open the stage in The Process section above to see preparation tips.

Southwind candidate portal

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