Solutions Architect - SC Clearance Required in Southampton

Location: Farnborough (4–5 days per week onsite) - Relocation package available to those who are committed to moving local.

Salary: Up to £105,000 (some flexibility for the right person).

Clearance: UK DV required to start (Sole UK Nationals with SC will be considered).

The Opportunity: We're looking for a Senior / Lead level Solution Architect to join a National Security & Defence programme that's already live and evolving. This is not a “greenfield transformation” role; it's about immersing yourself in a complex environment, understanding how it really works, and then making it better through ongoing, incremental change. The programme has momentum, long-term ambition, and senior backing. What it needs now is a trusted technical authority who can lead customers, shape solutions, and help the organisation move forward pragmatically rather than redesigning everything from scratch.

The Role: This role sits at a larger scale than a single-system or enterprise architecture position. You'll operate across multiple projects and workstreams, balancing delivery today with shaping what comes next. You'll work closely with engineering and service delivery teams end to end. From early solution shaping, through design and implementation, and into live service. There's also a strong growth element: helping identify opportunities, guiding strategy, and applying wider domain knowledge to customer challenges.

Key responsibilities include:

• Acting as a trusted technical authority across multiple programmes and customers.
• Leading solution design that responds directly to customer needs and operational realities.
• Immersing yourself in existing environments and driving continuous improvement.
• Supporting incremental change rather than wholesale transformation.
• Working across engineering, delivery and service to ensure solutions are operable long-term.
• Shaping new opportunities, contributing to bids and growth activity.
• Bringing broader domain awareness — understanding what's emerging and what's viable.
• Helping guide longer-term ambitions around zero trust, cloud adoption, and evolving security posture.

The Person: This role suits someone who has grown beyond being a pure Enterprise Architect. You'll need strong engineering roots, but also the credibility to lead conversations with customers and influence direction across programmes. You may come from a consulting or prime contractor background, and you'll likely have spent time shaping opportunities as well as delivering them. Curiosity matters, particularly around where technology is heading, including areas like agentic AI and modern cyber capabilities.

Essential experience includes:

• Proven experience operating as a Solution Architect at scale across multiple programmes.
• Strong technical breadth across cloud, infrastructure, applications, data, security and service delivery.
• Experience working in defence or national security environments.
• Ability to lead customers, not just respond to requirements.
• Comfortable balancing delivery, improvement and growth activities.
• Engineering credibility combined with strong stakeholder engagement skills.

Nice to have / future exposure:

• Zero Trust architecture patterns.
• Cloud modernisation in constrained environments.
• Exposure to emerging AI capabilities and modern cyber approaches.

Security & Location: UK DV required to start (Sole UK Nationals with SC will be considered). Sole UK national (not required to be UK-born). Farnborough-based role, 4–5 days per week onsite due to programme nature. Relocation package available to those candidates eligible and committed to moving local.