Lead Technical Architect in Leeds

Hippo Digital is a rapidly growing digital consultancy passionate about building and delivering transformative digital solutions for a diverse range of Public and Private sector clients. We are recruiting for a Lead Technical Architect to support in our mission. We work at the intersection of strategy, design, and technology to solve complex problems and create lasting value. Our collaborative and agile culture empowers our teams to make a genuine impact.

Your role in a nutshell:

• Help define and evangelise the architectural vision, standards, and best practices across the entire Hippo Digital delivery practice.
• Serve as a trusted advisor to senior client stakeholders, including C-level executives, to guide their long-term technical strategy and digital transformation initiatives.
• Lead complex and strategic technical engagements, providing architectural oversight and quality assurance.
• Mentor and coach our team of technical architects and senior engineers, helping them grow their skills and impact.
• Drive pre‑sales and business development activities, leading the technical response to bids, conducting technical due diligence, and shaping new opportunities.
• Contribute to Hippo Digital's thought leadership through public speaking, writing, and community engagement.
• Act as a technical authority, making and communicating key architectural decisions that impact multiple projects or clients.

About the Candidate:

• Extensive, senior‑level experience as a Technical Architect, with a proven track record of leading large‑scale digital transformations.
• Demonstrated expertise in designing and implementing complex architectures across one or more major public cloud platforms (e.g., Azure, AWS, GCP), including proven experience with multi‑cloud strategies.
• A deep, strategic understanding of cloud‑native technology stacks, with hands‑on experience in containerization (Docker, Kubernetes) or serverless deployments and advanced CI/CD tooling (GitLab CI/CD).
• Exceptional skills in Infrastructure‑as‑Code, with extensive experience using Terraform for complex, repeatable deployments.
• A history of providing technical leadership and mentoring to other architects and engineering teams.
• Proven ability to influence and communicate effectively with C‑suite and executive‑level stakeholders.
• Experience in a consultancy environment, including contributing to pre‑sales, proposals, and business growth.
• Expert‑level knowledge of security, networking, and governance principles in a cloud context.

About The Company:

Hippo Digital is a rapidly growing digital consultancy that delivers bespoke digital services to public and private sector clients. We combine data‑informed evidence, human‑centred design, and software engineering to create impactful solutions.

Benefits:

• Competitive salary with transparency from the outset.
• Contributory pension scheme (Hippo 6% with employee contributions of 2%).
• 25 days holiday plus UK public holidays.
• Perkbox access for a wide range of discounts.
• Critical illness cover.
• Life assurance and death in service cover.
• Volunteer days.
• Cycle‑to‑work scheme for avid cyclists.
• Salary sacrifice electric vehicles scheme.
• Season ticket loans.
• Financial and general wellbeing sessions.
• Private health cover.
• Private dental cover.
• Additional company pension contributions.
• Additional holidays (up to an extra 2 days).
• Wellbeing contribution.
• Charity contributions.
• Tree planting.

Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging at Hippo:

At Hippo, we’re dedicated to creating a diverse, equitable and inclusive workplace that works for everyone. We actively encourage applications from underrepresented groups including women, ethnic minorities, LGBTQ+, neurodivergent and people with disabilities. We are a registered Disability Confident Employer, Mindful Employer, Endometriosis Friendly Employer and a member of the Armed Forces Covenant. Hippo continually strives to remove barriers, provide accommodations and offer reasonable adjustments to ensure equity throughout our practices.

Hippo Locations:

We are headquartered in Leeds and have offices across the UK in Glasgow, Manchester, Birmingham, London and Bristol. You should be located within reasonable travelling distance from one of our offices, as you may need to work on‑site at a Hippo office or at an in/out‑of‑town client location for a number of days per week. We offer a generous relocation support package of up to £8k to help make your move smooth.