Director, Infrastructure Engineering

Location: Remote UK, United Kingdom

Thales people architect identity management and data protection solutions at the heart of digital security. Business and governments rely on us to bring trust to the billons of digital interactions they have with people. Our technologies and services help banks exchange funds, people cross borders, energy become smarter and much more. More than 30,000 organizations already rely on us to verify the identities of people and things, grant access to digital services, analyze vast quantities of information and encrypt data to make the connected world more secure.

Together we offer fantastic opportunities for committed employees to learn and develop their career with us. At Thales UK, we research, develop, and supply technology and services that impact the lives of millions of people each day to make life better, and keep us safer. We innovate across the major industries of Aerospace, Defence, Security and Space. Your health and well-being matters to us and that’s why we offer you the flexibility to do what’s important to you; whether that’s part time hours, job sharing, home working, or the ability to flex your start and finish times. Where possible, we support a working pattern that suits your lifestyle and helps you reach your ambitions.

Director of Infrastructure Engineering

Location: Remote UK
Business Unit: Cybersecurity & Digital Identity

About the Role

We are seeking a senior Director of Infrastructure Engineering to lead Thales’ global infrastructure teams across Site Reliability Engineering (SRE), Network Reliability Engineering (NRE) and Network Engineering & Architecture.

This role sets the strategic direction for our infrastructure, ensuring our platforms are secure, scalable and reliable, supporting mission‑critical digital identity and cybersecurity services.

Key Responsibilities

• Shape the infrastructure strategy across systems, networks and cloud platforms.

• Lead senior managers and globally distributed engineering teams, fostering a collaborative and high‑performance culture.

• Drive reliability engineering, including SLI/SLO frameworks, incident response excellence and automation to reduce operational toil.

• Oversee global network architecture, including routing, firewalls, security design and modernisation initiatives.

• Champion automation-first engineering, platform tooling and observability improvements.

• Collaborate with Security, Product and Cloud Operations to ensure regulatory compliance, secure-by-design practices and strong cross-functional alignment.

• Provide senior visibility into performance, capacity, reliability posture and risks.

What We Expect From You

• Strong leadership experience in infrastructure, network, or platform engineering.

• Background in large-scale, global engineering environments.

• Technical credibility across systems, networking and cloud.

• Experience implementing SRE and reliability frameworks.

• Ability to mentor and develop leaders and engineers.

• Strong communication skills, able to influence at executive level.

• Knowledge of network and IT architecture, including TCP/IP, routing, firewalls, Linux systems (Debian/RedHat), VMWare/KVM, Cisco/Juniper environments.

• Ability to work both strategically and hands-on when required.

You’ll thrive if you are:
Analytical, persuasive, collaborative, autonomous, curious, and committed to continuous learning.

Benefits of This Role

• Strategic global impact—shaping the future infrastructure of a leading cybersecurity and digital identity provider.

• Leadership scope across multiple engineering domains with influence at executive level.

• Opportunity to modernise and transform large-scale global platforms.

• Career growth across the wider Thales Group, including international mobility, technical expert paths or senior leadership pathways.

• Continuous development opportunities, exposure to cutting-edge technologies and high‑complexity engineering challenges.

• Chance to work with world-class engineers, diverse global teams and major international customers.

In line with Thales' Baseline Security requirements, candidates will be asked to provide evidence of identity, eligibility to work in the UK and employment and/or education history for up to three years. Some vacancies may require full Security Clearance which can require further evidence to be provided. For further details of the evidence required to apply for Baseline and Security Clearance please refer to the Defence Business Services National Security Vetting (DBS NSV) Agency.

At Thales we provide CAREERS and not only jobs. With Thales employing 80,000 employees in 68 countries our mobility policy enables thousands of employees each year to develop their careers at home and abroad, in their existing areas of expertise or by branching out into new fields. Together we believe that embracing flexibility is a smarter way of working.

Thales UK is committed to providing an inclusive and barrier-free recruitment process. We will provide reasonable adjustments and support to ensure neuro-diverse applicants or those with a disability or long-term condition can be their best during the recruitment process. To request an adjustment, if you need this job advert in an alternative format or if you have any questions about the recruitment process, please contact Resourcing Ops for mid to senior roles, or the Early Careers Team for graduate and apprentice roles.

Great journeys start here, apply now!