At a Glance
- Tasks: Lead data migration strategies and ensure secure cloud transitions for clients.
- Company: Join CGI, a top-rated inclusive employer with a vibrant community.
- Benefits: Enjoy competitive salary, private healthcare, pension, and a share scheme.
- Other info: Hybrid role with opportunities for career growth and professional development.
- Why this job: Make a real impact by shaping innovative data solutions in a collaborative environment.
- Qualifications: Experience in data architecture and cloud migration is essential.
The predicted salary is between 60750 - 74250 £ per year.
This job is with CGI, an inclusive employer and a member of myGwork – the largest global platform for the LGBTQ+ business community.
At CGI, you'll help clients modernise critical data landscapes through secure, controlled migration to the cloud. As a Senior Data Architect, you'll shape migration strategy, define ETL approaches and ensure data quality, governance and resilience are built into every stage of delivery. Working closely with multidisciplinary teams, you'll translate complex technical needs into practical solutions that deliver measurable outcomes. This is an opportunity to take ownership of meaningful work, contribute innovative thinking and be supported by experienced colleagues in a collaborative environment where your expertise helps create lasting impact.
CGI was recognised in the Sunday Times Best Places to Work List 2025 and has been named a UK Best Employer by the Financial Times. We offer a competitive salary, excellent pension, private healthcare, plus a share scheme (3.5% + 3.5% matching) which makes you a CGI Partner not just an employee. We are committed to inclusivity, building a genuinely diverse community of tech talent and inspiring everyone to pursue careers in our sector, including our Armed Forces, and are proud to hold a Gold Award in recognition of our support of the Armed Forces Corporate Covenant. Join us and you'll be part of an open, friendly community of experts. We'll train and support you in taking your career wherever you want it to go.
Due to the secure nature of the programme and available timescales, you must already hold active UK Security Clearance (SC) to start on the project. This is a hybrid position.
Your future duties and responsibilities
In this role, you will play a key part in supporting our clients' application and data migration programme by defining and developing the data migration strategy and ensuring the right standards, controls and tooling are in place ahead of production migration. You'll work closely with the wider migration team to guide the secure movement of data and associated workloads from on-premises environments into Microsoft Azure, balancing technical quality with delivery practicality.
You will also collaborate with developers, infrastructure engineers, application support teams, project managers and business leads to ensure migration activities are aligned, well designed and effectively delivered. By combining strong technical analysis with clear communication and a structured approach, you'll help deliver reliable cloud migration outcomes that support long-term client success.
Key responsibilities
- Lead support migration architecture decisions and strategy development
- Analyse compare migration options, including lift-and-shift and re-platforming approaches
- Define develop secure ETL processes for controlled data migration to Azure
- Carry out support database installation, schema creation, extraction, transformation and bulk load activities
- Produce maintain detailed design documentation for DBA implementation
- Work closely collaboratively with multidisciplinary teams across delivery
- Diagnose resolve database errors, system issues and migration risks
- Ensure embed data quality, governance, security and non-functional requirements
- Consider advise on backups, retention, resilience and operational concerns
- Support apply understanding of cloud, automation, APIs and DevOps integration trends
- Maintain improve delivery quality through robust analysis and documentation
- Contribute help align technical solutions to business and operational needs
Required qualifications to be successful in this role
You'll bring strong experience in data architecture, cloud architecture and migration delivery, with the confidence to work across technical and business teams in a secure environment. You should be comfortable translating complex requirements into practical designs, advising on migration trade-offs and supporting delivery through to implementation.
Essential qualifications
- Proven experience in data architecture or database architecture roles
- Strong understanding of data migration strategy and ETL processes
- Experience delivering or supporting migrations to Microsoft Azure
- Ability to produce detailed technical design documentation
- Strong data analysis, technical analysis and solution analysis skills
- Experience diagnosing database issues and supporting problem resolution
- Experience working with developers, infrastructure engineers and business stakeholders
- Good understanding of cloud architecture, automation, APIs and DevOps trends
- Strong communication, presentation and stakeholder management skills
- Experience supporting secure or regulated environments
Desirable qualifications
- UK Government project experience
- Experience with backups, retention and resilience planning
- Familiarity with modern cloud migration patterns and integration approaches
- Experience working across transformation programmes
Together, as owners, let's turn meaningful insights into action.
Life at CGI is rooted in ownership, teamwork, respect and belonging. Here, you'll reach your full potential because you are invited to be an owner from day 1 as we work together to bring our Dream to life. That's why we call ourselves CGI Partners rather than employees. We benefit from our collective success and actively shape our company's strategy and direction.
Your work creates value. You'll develop innovative solutions and build relationships with teammates and clients while accessing global capabilities to scale your ideas, embrace new opportunities, and benefit from expansive industry and technology expertise.
You'll shape your career by joining a company built to grow and last. You'll be supported by leaders who care about your health and well-being and provide you with opportunities to deepen your skills and broaden your horizons.
That same commitment to fairness extends to how we use technology. To support our recruitment team, AI tools may be used to help assess applications though they never replace human judgement. All hiring decisions remain entirely in the hands of our recruitment professionals.
Come join our team-one of the largest IT and business consulting services firms in the world.
Senior Data Architect in Portsmouth employer: CGI
At CGI, we pride ourselves on being an inclusive employer that fosters a supportive and collaborative work culture. As a Platform Engineer in Glasgow, you'll enjoy competitive benefits including a strong pension scheme, private healthcare, and the opportunity to become a CGI Partner through our share scheme. With a commitment to employee growth and development, you'll have the freedom to innovate and make a meaningful impact while working alongside a diverse community of experts dedicated to shaping the future of technology.
StudySmarter Expert Advice🤫
We think this is how you could land Senior Data Architect in Portsmouth
✨Join Local Tech Meetups
Get out there and mingle with fellow developers by joining local tech meetups. It’s a fantastic way to meet people who might be working at CGI or know someone who does. Plus, you can pick up some trendy tech skills and trends while you're at it!
✨Contribute to Open Source Projects
Show off your coding chops by jumping into open-source projects. Not only does this give you practical experience, but it also gets you noticed in the dev community. You'll create a killer portfolio that speaks volumes about your skills to CGI.
✨Tap into Online Developer Communities
Don’t underestimate the power of online developer communities like GitHub, Stack Overflow, and even Reddit. Participate in discussions, share your projects, and build your visibility. We can often find opportunities through these channels that can lead to a full-time gig at companies like CGI.
✨Explore Job Boards Specifically for Tech Roles
Keep your eyes peeled on job boards that focus on tech roles. Sites like TechCareers or Stack Overflow Jobs can often have listings for companies like CGI that might not show up on broader job sites. Make it a habit to check these regularly, and don’t hesitate to apply directly through our website!
We think you need these skills to ace Senior Data Architect in Portsmouth
Some tips for your application 🫡
Show off your coding skills:When applying for a software engineering role, it's super important to showcase your coding skills. Make sure your CV includes your tech stack, any relevant programming languages you’re comfortable with, and examples of projects you've worked on. If you have a GitHub profile, link it up! We love to see code in action.
Tailor your portfolio:For a full-time role, we’d expect to see some solid examples of your work in your portfolio. Make sure to include at least two or three projects that highlight your problem-solving skills and your ability to work with different technologies. Focus on the projects that are most relevant to the position at CGI.
Craft a killer cover letter:Your cover letter is your chance to stand out—make it personal! Explain why you want to work at CGI and how your skills align with the role. Show us your passion for software development. We dig enthusiastic candidates who understand the value of collaboration and continuous learning!
Be clear and concise:When it comes to writing your CV and cover letter, clarity is key. Avoid jargon that could confuse us and stick to simple, direct language. Highlight your achievements with quantifiable results where possible, and keep everything easy to read. A well-organised application goes a long way!
How to prepare for a job interview at CGI
✨Brush Up on Your Coding Skills
For a full-time software engineering role, it's crucial that we stay sharp with our coding abilities. Expect technical questions that might involve solving problems on the spot or discussing algorithms. Practise on platforms like LeetCode or HackerRank to get comfortable with the types of questions that often come up.
✨Know Your Tools and Frameworks
Make sure we’re well-acquainted with the tools and technologies listed in the job description. Familiarise ourselves with any specific frameworks or programming languages mentioned. If CGI uses React or Node.js, for instance, be ready to discuss how we’ve used them in previous projects or coursework.
✨Showcase Your Projects
Bring along a portfolio that highlights our best work. This could be code samples, GitHub repositories, or any side projects we’ve built. Make sure we can talk through our thought process for each project, especially the challenges we faced and how we solved them—this shows our problem-solving skills in action.
✨Prepare for Behavioural Questions
While technical skills are key, full-time positions also require cultural fit. Be ready to discuss our previous experiences and how we handle teamwork, conflict, and deadlines. Brush up on the STAR method—Situation, Task, Action, Result—to clearly articulate our past experiences when discussing how we've contributed to a team.
