A Major UK Global Bank (London)

Sourcing a Senior Platform Engineer to accelerate Azure delivery and resilience

The Challenge

The bank’s engineering function needed a Senior Platform Engineer to strengthen its Azure platform as adoption increased across the organisation. The remit included automation, networking, multi-region reliability, and introducing self-service for development teams.

Demand for engineers with this mix is high. Azure specialists who understand both scale and regulation are scarce. The internal team had tried twice to hire but lost candidates at offer stage. Delivery milestones began to slip. The platform team struggled to keep pace with security, resilience, and environment requests.

Xist4 was selected for our sector experience and the credibility of our recruitment process. The hiring manager wanted a partner who understood technical depth, delivery realities, and what senior engineers look for in a role.

The Solution

Xist4 delivered a targeted retained search with a focus on technical capability, practical experience, and alignment with the bank’s environment.

• Ran a detailed briefing to define the required skills across Azure networking, multi-region design, resiliency patterns, Terraform, DevOps pipelines, and cross-team collaboration.
• Provided insight into talent availability, hybrid expectations, and areas where the brief needed clarity.
• Reached out to engineers working with Azure App Services, Containers, APIM, Firewall, Front Door, Service Bus, and regulated-cloud governance.
• Positioned the role with a delivery lens: ownership, influence, impact, and the chance to shape platform patterns for the entire organisation.
• Used scenario-based assessments to test engineering judgement rather than surface-level knowledge.
• Drove consistent communication to avoid the misalignment and silence that contributed to previous offer rejections.
• Advised on interview pacing and offer strategy to keep candidates engaged.

The Result

Within six weeks, Xist4 produced a shortlist of engineers with real experience of Azure-scale environments. The chosen candidate brought strong IaC discipline, hands-on multi-region Azure delivery, and the ability to partner with security and operations teams.

At the three-month follow-up, the hiring manager reported faster deployment cycles, clearer platform patterns, and improved support for engineering squads. The new hire reduced bottlenecks and helped stabilise key Azure services.

This case shows how Xist4 supports delivery leaders with searches that balance technical depth, culture fit, and market reality.