Senior Defence Systems Technologist

London, United Kingdom | Posted on 17/09/2026

Darter is a strategic consultancy dedicated to strengthening the UK's national security, resilience and prosperity in the digital age. We partner with senior leaders across defence, government and technology to cut through complexity, shape strategy and accelerate real-world progress.

Our people sit at the highest level of decision-making — providing the clarity and influence that ensures choices are informed, impactful and future-ready. We work shoulder to shoulder with delivery teams to keep strategy and implementation aligned, so ambitious ideas translate into genuine impact.

Guided by our values — Deliver Excellence, Empathy and Integrity, Force for Good — we're building a team of sharp, mission-driven people who want their work to matter. If you want to help make the UK more secure, prosperous and agile, we'd like to hear from you.

Job Description

We'relooking for an experienced Defence Systems Technologist who can understand complex military problems, apply systems thinking to decompose them, and connect operational needs to the wider Defencetechnologyecosystem.

This goes beyond a conventional Solution Architecture role, combining mission understanding, systems thinking and technology judgement .

You'llwork across users, programmes, architects, engineersand specialists to understand mission needs,captureand decompose requirements,identifydependencies and shape coherent technical and architectural options.

You'llbe comfortable moving between the strategic and the technical: understanding an operational problem, exploring how systems and capabilities interlock, and helping senior stakeholders make informed technical decisions.

Your architecture should not exist simply to create diagrams.It should help people make better decisions .

Whatyou’lldo

• Work with military users and stakeholders to understand operational needs,constraintsand measures of success.
  
• Apply systems thinking across people, processes, information,technologyand organisations.
  
• Decompose complex requirements into capabilities, functions, services, systems,interfacesand dependencies.
  
• Develop mission, system and solution architecture views that explain how capabilities fit into the wider Defence ecosystem.
  
• Identifydependencies across areas such as networks, cloud, data, identity, security, gateways,infrastructureand other programmes.
  
• Consider interoperability,integrationand information exchange from the outset.
  
• Develop and assess technical options,identifyingrisks,trade-offsand opportunities for reuse.
  
• Apply technical judgement to challenge assumptions,identifygapsand recognise when specialist expertise isrequired.
  
• Support technical governance, assurance, procurementand supplier discussions.
  
• Work alongside delivery teams to ensure architectural intent can be turned into achievable capability.
  
• Communicate complex technical issues clearly to technical and non-technical audiences.
  

Requirements

Technology awareness

A key part of the role ismaintaining broad awareness of developments across both military and commercial technology.

This could include:

• cloud and edge computing;
  
• mission and combat systems(AIR);
  
• C4ISR systems
  
• data platforms and exploitation;
  
• cybersecurity;
  
• NATO interoperability technologies
  
• AI and machine learning;
  
• identity and zero-trust architectures;
  
• communications and connectivity;
  
• autonomoussystems;
  
• Sensing/emergingIOT technologies;
  
• Spacedomain systems;
  

You are not expected to be a deep specialist in all of these areas. You are expected to understand technologies well enough to assess their relevance, ask informed questions, challengeassumptionsand recognise when specialist expertise isrequired.

We value people who can distinguish genuine opportunity from technology hype and reduce emerging technology to a practical question: "What could this mean for the mission?"

What good looks like

Your work should help clients answer some deceptively simple questions:

• What are we trying to achieve?
  
• What capabilities do we need?
  
• How do they fit togetherand what do they depend upon?
  
• What already exists that we can reuse or exploit?
  
• Where are the gaps?
  
• Could technology change the answer?
  
• What are the risks and trade-offs?
  
• What decisions do we need to make next?
  

Ultimately, yourjob is to help turn complex operational problems into coherent,integratedand deliverable capability.

This is a hybrid role and you should expect regular travel to client sites across the UK, typically most weeks. When not required on site, we support flexible and remote working. We are seeking applicants who are UK based, that are eligible to work and reside in the UK.

You must be eligible to obtain and maintain Security Check (SC) clearance and potentially Developed Vetted (DV).

What you'll get

• Meaningful work that contributes to the UK's security and resilience.
  
• A supportive, values-led culture built on excellence, empathy, and integrity.
  
• Competitive salary, performance and profit-share bonus, and share options plus;
  
• Pension matched up to 10%. Private health insurance. Dedicated learning and development budget. Flexible, remote-first working. Unlimited holiday. Volunteering leave and matched charitable donations.