Lead Solutions Architect (3 days Onsite) in Gloucester

Company Overview: Atreides helps organisations turn large, complex, multimodal datasets into detailed geospatial data, that can be used for a wide range of use cases. At present, Atreides focuses on providing high-fidelity data that allows customers to make decisions quickly. We are a fast-moving, high-performing start-up. We value having a diverse team and believe that inclusion helps us perform better. We trust our people to work independently, as we believe this leads to better results and greater job satisfaction. With a mission-driven mindset and an entrepreneurial spirit, we are building something new and helping to harness data on a massive scale to make the world safer, stronger and more prosperous.

Team Overview: Our mission systems team is made up of security engineers, cloud architects and a variety of other technologists, many of whom have served in the armed forces. Between us, we have experience in defence, operational intelligence, law enforcement, large multinational companies and cyber security operations. We obsess about designing products that will change the way governments, international companies and non-profit organisations protect themselves from external threats and hostile adversaries.

Position Overview: We are seeking an experienced Lead Solutions Architect to lead the design and delivery of secure, scalable and resilient Microsoft Azure environments that support critical defence platforms. Alongside your technical work, you will lead a team of solutions architects and engineers. You will set priorities, support their development and make sure work is delivered to a high standard. You will also act as the technical authority when new capabilities are brought into production systems. You will work with colleagues and stakeholders from a range of disciplines, based around the world, to shape mission-focused cloud strategies that meet strict security and performance requirements. You will make sure your team’s work stays aligned with those strategies.

Responsibilities:

• Team leadership – coach and develop a high-performing team of architects and engineers, allocate work and encourage a culture of continuous improvement.
• Architectural direction – set the technical direction for Azure landing zones and related services, working with colleagues to agree best-practice patterns and governance.
• Decision-making and governance – chair design reviews, take responsibility for architecture decisions and present options analysis to senior internal and customer stakeholders.
• Solution design – design secure, efficient Azure solutions and plan modular landing zone topologies that deliver scalability, resilience and cost optimisation.
• Infrastructure as Code – deploy and manage Azure infrastructure using Infrastructure as Code (IaC) (e.g. Bicep, Terraform).
• Delivery pipelines – direct the implementation of CI/CD pipelines (e.g. GitHub Actions, Azure DevOps, GitLab CI/CD) and promote automated testing and release processes.
• New capabilities – lead the introduction of emerging capabilities (e.g. mobile platforms, geospatial analytics, zero-trust architectures) into legacy and hybrid estates.
• Operational performance – lead ongoing monitoring, capacity planning and cost control across cloud workloads.
• Partner liaison – work with defence partners, third-party suppliers and internal teams to make sure solutions meet programme requirements and security policies.
• Documentation and knowledge sharing – maintain architecture standards, patterns and runbooks to support audit readiness and the onboarding of new staff.

Required Expertise:

• Experience of leading cloud architecture teams on large-scale Azure programmes.
• In-depth knowledge of Azure cloud architecture, infrastructure and engineering, including landing zone design.
• A strong grounding in networking (VPNs, firewalls, routing and switching) and secure-by-design principles.
• Experience of overseeing IaC (Terraform or Bicep) and modern DevOps toolchains.
• Familiarity with container orchestration and microservices (e.g. AKS/Kubernetes, Azure Container Apps, Docker).
• Experience of mobile device management (MDM) platforms and enforcing endpoint policies across an organisation.
• Strong problem-solving skills, a disciplined approach to documentation and the ability to explain complex ideas to technical and non-technical audiences.
• Experience of supporting defence, intelligence or government customers, particularly in secure or classified environments.

Desired Qualifications:

• Azure Certification - AZ-104
• Azure Certification - AZ-305
• Azure Certification - AZ-500
• Azure Certification - AZ-700
• Azure Certification - AZ-400
• CCNA (or equivalent networking qualification)

Travel: Willingness to travel to customer site in Gloucester 3 days a week.

Security Clearance: Active SC clearance is required at a minimum. Active DV or eligibility and willingness to undergo DV vetting is strongly preferred.

Compensation and Benefits:

• Competitive salary
• Comprehensive health, dental, vision insurance and pension plan
• Flexible hybrid work environment
• Additional benefits like flexible hours, work travel opportunities, competitive vacation time and parental leave

While meeting all of these criteria would be ideal, we understand that some candidates may meet most, but not all. If you're passionate, curious and ready to "work smart and get things done," we'd love to hear from you.