The Humans Behind the Platform: Structuring Teams for Culture and Capability

It’s easy to focus on the tech when building a Platform team, and that’s tremendously important, but it’s often the people and how they work together that determine success. Over the past couple of years, I’ve led the Platform Engineering Team at MONY Group through different formations, migrations, and tooling adoptions.
Whatever shape the team has taken, whatever we're working on, the constants have been a need for clear purpose and a culture where people can thrive, this takes work, and has sometimes been tricky to get right.

In this talk, I’ll share what we’ve learned from shaping and supporting our platform teams: what’s worked (and what hasn’t) when it comes to team composition, balancing seniority, and supporting career growth. Collaboration is central to how we operate, so I’ll also talk about how we work with and support our internal customers, and what’s helped us navigate complex, knotty migration projects.

I’ll also cover how we’ve built a culture that gives engineers space to lead. We want engineers at every level to feel confident taking ownership,and that takes deliberate effort.

If you’re figuring out how to shape your platform teams to enable others as well as deliver, this talk will offer practical ideas, and maybe a few things to rethink.

⭐️ Claire Reckless
Engineering Manager - Platforms @ MONY Group

Claire is an Engineering Manager at MONY Group in Manchester, where she leads the Platform Engineering Team. With a background spanning Tech Support, Testing, and QA across sectors like Finance and Security, she brings a deep appreciation for resilient systems and collaborative teams.

Claire is passionate about learning and development, and she’s especially proud of coordinating MONY Group’s apprentice programme, an initiative that’s helped build a more diverse and sustainable pipeline of engineering talent. She’s energised by helping engineers at all levels grow their confidence, take ownership, and shape the future of their teams.