Solution Architect - UK Defence Accounts

What we are looking for

We are looking for experienced, pragmatic, personable and talented Solution Architects and Application Architects for our UK Defence and National Security accounts, supporting the delivery of digital, data and technology services.

You will have demonstrable experience working within the UK Defence environment, either through previous service in the UK Armed Forces or through significant experience working directly within or alongside Ministry of Defence organisations such as Defence Equipment &Support (DE&S), Defence Digital (DD), or Front Line Commands. You must be able to establish immediate credibility with military stakeholders through a strong understanding of Defence structures, command hierarchies, Defence capability, operational context, and the terminology and acronyms used across the Defence community.

Your technical skills will be broad, covering aspects such as consulting, cloud services, application integration, data management and custom application development.

You will be comfortable working in environments with multiple suppliers and interacting with a varied set of stakeholders.

What you will be doing

You will be working to define solutions and shape the architectural aspects of programmes. This may range from driving initial discovery phases to understanding the landscape and identifying challenges, through to designing solutions within product and programme teams.

You will be comfortable working in an agile, fast-moving environment – building relationships quickly and working as part of collaborative, multi-functional teams.

You will own or contribute to activities such as:

• Evaluating the current state of a solution or service;

• Identifying challenges, gaps and opportunities;

• Identifying technical solutions and options;

• Defining programme roadmaps and high-level direction setting;

• Defining transition states and transformation approaches;

• Supporting estimation and business case generation for proposed solutions;

• Guiding proposed solutions through technical governance reviews;

• Building relationships with technical and business stakeholders;

Your skills and experience

The ideal candidate must have:

• Experience working in Defence delivery environments, demonstrating an understanding of Defence governance, acquisition processes, military decision-making and collaborative working across military, Civil Service and supplier organisations.

• Strong Solution Architecture experience, with demonstrable delivery within Defence, National Security or other complex, highly regulated environments.

• Strong knowledge of cloud-native architectures and cloud platforms, including experience of MODCloud or equivalent Defence or National Security cloud environments.

• Experience working within recognised architecture frameworks such as TOGAF, NAF or MODAF, together with modelling approaches such as ArchiMate.

• Experience of delivering solutions with strict security controls, where external security assurance is mandated, including an awareness of Secure by Design (SbD) principles and their implementation.

• Experience defining the high-level engineering approach at a programme level – such as defining transition states, architectural roadmaps and identifying potential delivery options.

• Experience working within an MBSE environment, with the ability to consume and interpret architecture models, viewpoints and traceability held within Sparx Enterprise Architect to inform solution design and architectural decision-making.

• Broad knowledge of technologies and applications, such as integration and messaging services, digital services, case management, data integration and have a good, up-to-date understanding of emerging technology approaches.

• The ability to spot and address common themes and architecturally significant concerns.

• Excellent communication skills and strengths in producing high quality and accurate deliverables.

• Ability to engage credibly with senior military officers, Civil Servants, suppliers and technical stakeholders.

• Able to influence technical and non-technical stakeholders, building trusted relationships across Defence, customer and supplier organisations.

• Candidates must hold, or be eligible to obtain, UK Security Check (SC) clearance. Existing SC or DV clearance is highly desirable.