Security Architecture Consultant in Bristol

Salary Range: £44,171 - £63,000

Leonardo UK operates a grade-based salary framework with broad bands. The salary range shown reflects the approved grade band for this role, or a narrower hiring range published within that band, and is benchmarked against the external market. Exceptions above the standard range are managed through governance controls to protect internal equity.

Responsibilities

• As a Cyber Security Architect, you’ll work at the design and decision‑making layer of major programmes, helping customers build security in from the start.
• Building trusted relationships with customers and understanding their missions, constraints and operating environments.
• Engaging confidently with engineers, project managers, security professionals and senior stakeholders.
• Analyzing complex IT environments, even where information is incomplete.
• Applying recognised security principles, architectural patterns and frameworks to real‑world systems.
• Thinking in terms of risk and identifying architectural risks, threats and vulnerabilities.
• Explaining security trade‑offs in clear, business‑relevant language rather than just technical detail.
• Designing secure solutions and defining layered, secure‑by‑design architectures across people, process and technology.
• Recommending practical security controls and patterns that support project delivery.
• Providing assurance and reviewing designs and implementations against agreed standards and regulatory expectations.
• Supporting architecture governance, compliance and security assurance activities.
• Contributing to reusable architectural patterns, frameworks and offerings.
• Providing technical leadership in bids, proposals and early solution shaping.

Career Development

• Grow the practice by sharing expertise, mentoring junior engineers, architects or consultants and contributing to the evolution of our security architecture methodology.

What You’ll Bring

• Strong communication and stakeholder engagement skills; ability to explain complex technical concepts clearly and confidently.
• A consulting mindset: adaptable, dependable and focused on high‑quality outcomes.
• Technical background with solid understanding of core IT fundamentals such as TCP/IP, networking, protocols and system interactions.
• Experience designing or supporting complex IT, cloud, application or networked systems and decomposing large systems into logical, secure architectural components.
• Security and architecture experience: translating high‑level functional or mission objectives into technical or security requirements, understanding security controls, threat mitigation and architectural trade‑offs.
• Ability to justify why a control or design decision is needed to both technical and non‑technical audiences.

Additional Experience

• Previous exposure to security architecture, risk assessment or design assurance.
• Experience mentoring junior engineers, architects or consultants.
• Familiarity with UK MOD, defence or national security environments.

Certifications

• Security+ (preferred)
• CISMP, CCSP, TOGAF, AWS or Azure cloud certifications.

Security Clearance

This role is subject to pre‑employment screening in line with the UK Government’s Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS). Additional Personnel Security Controls referred to as National Security Vetting (NSV) may apply, possibly including the Security Check (SC) or Developed Vetting (DV).

Location & Contract

• Primary Location: Bristol – Coldharbour Lane, UK
• Contract Type: Permanent
• Hybrid Working: Hybrid (International, multicultural, innovative, technological)