Lead Solution Architect, Infrastructure Modernisation in London

Location: London hybrid with 50% on-site

Active security clearance, or the ability to obtain it

The opportunity

Our client, a major public-sector financial institution, is looking for a Lead Solution Architect to support its technology modernisation programme. You'll sit within the central architecture function, working alongside business analysts and other architects to ensure IT change is aligned to business priorities and the technical architecture is right. This is a hands-on leadership role in an operationally critical, security-conscious environment. You'll set architectural direction, shape solutions from the earliest stages through to implementation, and ensure legacy platforms, technical debt and unnecessary complexity are reduced rather than carried forward.

What you'll be doing

• Developing current, transition and target solution architectures for infrastructure and technology change, aligned to enterprise direction and governance
• Translating business, service, security and operational needs into clear architecture requirements and solution options
• Producing proportionate architecture artefacts, including High-Level Designs, Solution Designs, context diagrams, roadmaps, non-functional requirements and decision records
• Leading technical design workshops across cloud, networks, compute, storage, identity, cyber security, automation and service management
• Setting architectural direction and assuring detailed designs from engineering teams and suppliers, without taking over their accountability for implementation
• Evaluating options and recommending the best fit, weighing value, whole-life cost, risk, complexity, supplier dependency, exit implications and strategic fit
• Providing design assurance through build, testing, migration, implementation and transition
• Identifying technical dependencies and integration risks, and escalating wider implications early through governance
• Supporting programme shaping, business cases, procurements and supplier evaluations
• Presenting recommendations to architecture and programme governance forums in clear, accessible language
• Challenging lift-and-shift approaches that would preserve avoidable cost, complexity or operational risk
• Engaging service owners and operational teams early, so supportability, resilience, monitoring, recovery and security are designed in

What we're looking for

Essential

• Significant experience as an infrastructure, solution or technology architect delivering complex change in a large organisation
• Demonstrable experience of technology modernisation, including legacy migration, adoption of strategic technologies and reduction of technical debt
• Proven delivery of enterprise-scale infrastructure modernisation or transformation, from early shaping through to implementation
• Broad enterprise infrastructure knowledge, with real architecture depth in at least two domains such as public and hybrid cloud, networks, datacentres, compute, virtualisation, storage, backup, identity, platform services, automation and cyber security
• Experience creating target architectures, transition states, technology roadmaps and solution designs
• Strong understanding of non-functional requirements, including availability, capacity, performance, recoverability, operability and security
• Experience of architecture governance, design assurance, technical risk management and handling exceptions or waivers
• Ability to explain trade-offs across strategic alignment, delivery risk, cost, complexity and operational impact
• Experience maintaining architectural oversight across multidisciplinary teams and suppliers
• Pragmatic judgement, balancing control requirements against delivery urgency and cost
• Excellent stakeholder engagement and influencing skills, including with senior and non-specialist audiences
• Experience in a regulated, security-conscious or operationally critical environment
• Active security clearance, or willingness and eligibility to obtain it

Desirable

• Experience in central banking, financial services, government, defence or Critical National Infrastructure
• Architecture certification, such as TOGAF, BCS, Azure or equivalent
• Practical knowledge of Azure, Azure Local, hybrid cloud and modern platform engineering
• Experience with Zero Trust, privileged access, secrets or certificate management, and secure-by-design delivery
• Experience of Infrastructure as Code, configuration automation, CI/CD and self-service platforms
• Knowledge of DevSecOps, modern service management and product operating models
• Experience of platform engineering, cloud-native architecture or AI-assisted operations
• Experience supporting network refresh, datacentre transformation or technology obsolescence reduction
• Commercial awareness, including contributing to procurements, vendor selection and contract mobilisation
• Experience shaping investment cases and linking architecture decisions to measurable outcomes

Guidant, Carbon60, Lorien & SRG - The Vertage Group Portfolio are acting as an Employment Business in relation to this vacancy.