Kamal CHERIYATH
Platform Engineering • Cloud Architecture • Developer Experience
I have over twenty years' experience building enterprise platforms and enabling engineering teams, with a career spanning software engineering, architecture, platform product management, and Platform Engineering. I'm currently a Principal Engineer responsible for Hosting and Developer Platforms at Marks & Spencer.
I enjoy solving complex engineering problems and turning them into scalable platform capabilities that simplify how software is built, deployed, and operated. My work combines technical strategy with hands-on engineering, helping build modern cloud platforms, improve developer experience, and deliver change through reusable, product-oriented platforms.
Platform Strategy & Roadmaps Aligning platform strategy and technology with engineering and business priorities, balancing innovation, and long-term sustainability.
Enterprise & Cloud Architecture Designing secure, scalable multi-cloud platforms using Well-Architected principles.
Platform Transformation Driving Platform Engineering adoption through modern operating models, standards, and reusable platform capabilities.
Distributed Systems Architecting resilient multi-region platforms for global scale, availability, and disaster recovery.
Platform as a Product Building Internal Developer Platforms that enable self-service, standardised delivery, and an improved developer experience.
DevOps & Site Reliability Engineering Embedding DevOps and SRE practices to improve delivery, reliability, and operational resilience.
Platform Automation & AI Delivering declarative infrastructure, policy-driven automation, and intent-based platform workflows.
Observability Creating unified platform observability through telemetry, monitoring, alerting, and operational insights.
Technical Direction Providing technical leadership across architecture, platform strategy, and engineering initiatives.
Stakeholder Alignment Working with engineering, product, security, and executive stakeholders to align technology with business outcomes.
Large-Scale Delivery Leading complex platform transformation programmes across distributed engineering organisations.
Mentoring & Engineering Culture Coaching engineers, promoting engineering standards, and encouraging pragmatic, collaborative decision-making.
Cloud Operations Operating cloud-native platforms with automation, resilience, security, and operational maturity.
Reliability & Performance Designing highly available platforms that improve reliability, scalability, and service performance.
FinOps & Sustainability Optimising cloud investment through FinOps, right-sizing, and sustainable engineering practices.
Secure by Design Embedding security, governance, and policy into platforms by default.
Principal Engineer for Hosting and Developer Platforms
- Leading the recovery and evolution of hosting and developer platforms following a large-scale cyber incident, improving resilience and operational maturity.
- Defining secure-by-default, private-by-default platform architecture with security, governance, and automation built into core platform capabilities.
- Designing developer access and internal application platforms based on Zero Trust, micro-segmentation, and least-privilege principles.
- Establishing modular, intent-driven platform patterns that translate workload requirements into secure, standardised deployments.
- Architecting secure multi-region platforms that support resilience, scalability, and consistent operational outcomes.
Cloud Platform Engineering Lead
- Led the strategy and engineering of Cloud9, the enterprise cloud platform supporting over £35m annual cloud investment.
- Conceived and delivered Muziris, an Internal Developer Platform providing self-service, platform automation, service discovery, and engineering standards used by over 2,000 developers.
- Accelerated Platform Engineering adoption through reusable platforms, automation, and standardised delivery patterns.
- Established DevSecOps and Central Operations capabilities across cloud platforms.
- Embedded policy-driven infrastructure, privileged identity management, and governance into platform design.
- Introduced engineering health metrics, platform scorecards, and unified observability to improve reliability, cost visibility, and engineering effectiveness.
- Led FinOps and sustainability engineering initiatives to improve cloud efficiency and responsible consumption.
- Built high-performing global engineering teams while managing strategic cloud and technology partnerships.
- Evaluated emerging technologies and open-source platforms to shape long-term platform strategy.
Product Manager, Azure Foundation & Cloud Integration Frameworks
- Defined the product strategy and roadmap for Azure Foundation, Cloud Integration, and enterprise B2B platform capabilities.
- Evolved Azure Foundation into a self-service platform for Kubernetes, serverless, and cloud-native workloads.
- Delivered API, event-driven, and integration frameworks that accelerated application modernisation and migration to Azure.
- Established platform capabilities and engineering standards that achieved an independent integration maturity rating of 4+/5, placing the organisation amongst the industry's highest performers.
Lead Architect, Application Integration
- Defined enterprise architecture, reference models, and technical standards for messaging, APIs, data integration, and hybrid cloud.
- Established architectural principles and governance that enabled consistent delivery across on-premises and cloud platforms.
- Served as Design Authority for the integration domain, providing architecture assurance and technical guidance for enterprise programmes.
- Partnered with engineering and programme teams to shape integration strategy and support major transformation initiatives.
Engineer, Technical Lead & Architect
- Progressed through engineering, technical leadership, and architecture roles delivering enterprise solutions across financial services and retail.
- Worked with organisations including Merrill Lynch, BlackRock, and ABN AMRO, on large-scale platforms and integration programmes.
- Led engineering centres of excellence, establishing technical standards, mentoring engineers, and promoting best practices.
- Provided technical consultancy, pre-sales support, and architectural leadership across global delivery teams.