SC Data & Information Strategy Architect (IT) / Contractor in Southampton

Data & Information Strategy Architect

Location: Onsite, Andover (min 3 days per week)

Security Clearance: current SC clearance is mandatory

Project duration: 4 weeks

Role Overview

This role provides senior architectural leadership within a first phase discovery and strategy engagement focused on data ontology adoption. The architect will own the technology and architecture vision, defining how formal ontologies should be positioned within the client's wider enterprise architecture and information landscape. Working directly with senior stakeholders, the architect will assess the current data management landscape, design a high-level information architecture underpinned by ontological principles, and articulate the strategic rationale for adoption. This is a strategy-shaping role; the focus is on defining the right architecture and making the case for it, not building it.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the architectural assessment of the client's current data landscape, evaluating existing data models, integration patterns, metadata management, and semantic maturity to identify gaps and opportunities for ontology-driven improvement.
• Define a high level target-state information architecture that positions ontologies as the semantic backbone for data interoperability, integration, and reuse.
• Develop the technology strategy for ontology adoption, evaluating tooling, triple stores, graph databases, and knowledge management platforms against the client's operational constraints, security requirements, and existing technology estate.
• Articulate the strategic value of ontology adoption to senior stakeholders, framing the architecture in terms of business outcomes including reduced integration costs, improved data discoverability, and a sustainable foundation for future data and AI initiatives.
• Assess ontology standards and representation frameworks for applicability to the client's domain, making justified recommendations on which standards to adopt.
• Provide architectural governance across the engagement, ensuring all strategy outputs are grounded in a coherent architectural rationale, and advise on the organisational implications of ontology adoption including ownership, stewardship, and lifecycle management.

Required Experience & Qualifications

• Significant experience in enterprise or solution architecture, information architecture, or technology strategy, with significant exposure to data-centric or ontology-driven approaches.
• Experience in Defence, National Security, or other regulated sectors with understanding of security-cleared environments, sovereign technology constraints, and cross-domain information sharing challenges.
• Deep knowledge of ontology and semantic technology standards including OWL, RDF/RDFS, SKOS, and domain-specific frameworks, with an understanding of how these translate into practical architecture decisions.
• Familiarity with the technology landscape for knowledge graphs, triple stores, and graph databases (e.g. Neo4j, Apache Jena, Amazon Neptune, Stardog) and how to evaluate them.
• Exceptional communication skills, with the ability to present complex architectural concepts as clear strategic narratives for non-technical decision-makers.

Candidate Requirements

Due to the nature and urgency of this post, candidates holding or who have held high level security clearance in the past are most welcome to apply. Successful applicants will be required to be security cleared prior to appointment which can take a minimum 10 weeks. We welcome applications from all individuals, regardless of background or identity.