M365 Architect in Bristol

Following a period of significant investment in our technology and infrastructure, Osborne Clarke is expanding its IT Strategy & Architecture function. As part of this evolution, we are creating a dedicated Microsoft 365 Architect role to shape and mature our modern workplace and collaboration capabilities across the firm. This architecture role will be central to defining and delivering our Microsoft 365 strategy, ensuring secure, well-governed and highly adopted services across our global business. This is a permanent position offering hybrid working from our Bristol office.

The Microsoft 365 Architect will sit within our IT Strategy & Architecture team in the Information Technology department, reporting to the Head of IT Architecture & Infrastructure. You will act as a key technical authority for our Microsoft 365 estate, working closely with Cyber Security, Operations & Applications, the Change & Transformation team and key business stakeholders including OC Solutions (legal tech), Finance, HR and Risk & Compliance. You will be responsible for architecting end-to-end Microsoft 365 solutions, setting standards and reference architectures, and ensuring that our collaboration, productivity and endpoint services are secure, compliant, cost-effective and aligned to our business strategy.

Other key responsibilities include:

• Architecture & Solution Design
  • Architect end-to-end solutions across the Microsoft 365 suite, including OneDrive, SharePoint, Teams (including Teams Calling), Intune, Power Automate and Windows 365 Cloud PCs.
  • Lead tenant-level design decisions covering domains, identity, conditional access and security baselines in partnership with Cyber Security.
  • Develop and maintain governance blueprints, information architecture and lifecycle management approaches for content, collaboration, devices and applications.
  • Maintain and evolve reference architectures, standards and runbooks; own the M365 architectural backlog and best-practice patterns.
  • Support complex modern workplace designs integrating Entra ID, Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD) and Windows 11 as part of a modern EUC strategy.
  • Act as the Technical Design Authority on relevant projects, providing clear architectural guidance and oversight.
• Security, Compliance & Data Governance
  • Drive adoption and configuration of Microsoft Purview for data governance, DLP, records management and compliance reporting.
  • Implement and optimise Microsoft Defender for Identity, Defender for Endpoint / M365 Defender and related M365 security tools to strengthen our security posture.
  • Collaborate with Cyber Security to align to CIS benchmarks, Zero Trust principles, conditional access policies and secure configuration baselines.
  • Guide and operationalise Secure Score improvements and reporting across tenants and services, embedding this into BAU practice.
  • Contribute to cloud security and governance frameworks, ensuring alignment with ISO 27001 and internal Information Security policies.
• Adoption, Insights & Value Realisation
  • Use Microsoft Adoption Score and Secure Score to drive service utilisation, adoption and security hardening, integrating insights into continuous improvement activities.
  • Provide clear roadmaps, executive-ready documentation and stakeholder briefings to increase adoption and maximise business value from M365 investments.
  • Champion automation, workflow optimisation and productivity improvements through Power Automate and related platform capabilities.
  • Work closely with the Change & Transformation team to ensure best practice in project delivery and user adoption for M365 initiatives.
• Migration & Modernisation
  • Lead technical migrations from legacy EUC environments to Windows 11 and M365-based solutions.
  • Design and oversee the migration from on-premises Group Policy (GPO) to Intune management, translating legacy GPOs into modern policies.
  • Align Intune configurations with CIS standards and modern device management best practice.
  • Ensure that modernisation initiatives are secure, well-governed and minimise disruption to users.
• Operations, Reliability & Service Continuity
  • Collaborate with Operations & Applications teams to ensure service continuity, incident response and robust root cause analysis for M365 services.
  • Define and hand over operational runbooks, monitoring, alerting and standard operating procedures to support stable BAU operations.
  • Contribute to reliability engineering practices to improve resilience and performance of the Microsoft 365 environment.
  • Maintain a heightened awareness of the risks associated with elevated access permissions, acting in line with Information Security policies and best practice.
• Licensing, Cost Optimisation & Commercial Support
  • Optimise Microsoft 365 licensing models and cost structures to ensure value for money.
  • Provide presales-style licensing guidance and technical input into commercial decisions relating to M365.
  • Support scoping, solution design, estimates and proposals for M365-related engagements and initiatives.
  • Present architectural options and trade-offs clearly to internal clients and stakeholders.
• Partnering & Delivery
  • Work closely with third parties and internal project teams to ensure a common technical understanding across planning, delivery and service acceptance.
  • Serve as a trusted advisor for internal stakeholders, translating complex technical topics into clear, business-focused language.
  • Promote effective communication and a culture of mutual understanding across ITS and the wider firm, contributing to process improvement and best practice.
  • Support continuous review and improvement of architecture and delivery processes within the IT Strategy & Architecture function.

We are looking for:

• Strong experience designing and delivering Microsoft 365 and modern workplace solutions in a complex, preferably global, professional services environment.
• Proven ability to engage stakeholders, build consensus and align solution designs with organisational priorities.
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills, with the ability to influence senior leaders and explain complex technical concepts to non-technical audiences.
• Ability to demonstrate and articulate the business impact and return on investment of technology solutions.
• Industry certification to TOGAF Level 2 or equivalent enterprise architecture qualification.
• Good understanding of Microsoft Azure and Microsoft 365, including Office 365 client-side requirements and how these interact with back-end M365 services.
• Good understanding of modern Identity and Access Management, ideally with hands-on experience of Entra ID.
• Experience developing cloud security and governance frameworks, with an understanding of ISO 27001 and ITIL.
• Familiarity with enterprise architecture (EA) tools and methods, and a broad understanding of current technology trends, vendor offerings and industry developments.
• Experience identifying technology risks, proposing mitigating recommendations and supporting the management of those risks.
• Demonstrable experience acting as a Technical Design Authority within projects and programmes.
• Experience integrating AI technologies into existing systems in a workplace setting.
• Highly organised, with strong analytical skills and the ability to manage competing priorities across multiple initiatives.
• A collaborative, professional service mindset and a commitment to continuous improvement in how technology supports our clients and our people.

Salary and benefits:

We offer competitive salaries and generous benefits. We value the health and wellbeing of our people and our wide range of initiatives and benefits support this.

Our recruitment process:

Please note that although we include closing dates for our roles as a guide, we review and progress applications on a rolling basis. At Osborne Clarke we do not make any recruitment decisions using automated decision-making. We are committed to providing an environment where you can perform to the best of your abilities at every stage of your recruitment experience and beyond. If you require any adjustments to be made during the application stage, interview process, or when working with us, please let us know in confidence.

About Us:

Osborne Clarke is an international legal practice with over 330 Partners and more than 1,260 talented lawyers in 26 locations. Our sector-based approach enables us to help our clients tackle the issues they are facing today, and prepare for the ones that they will face tomorrow. Advising them both comprehensively and commercially. We love working closely with our clients on new deals, products and solutions which will transform their businesses, markets and even sectors. And our unique approachable culture is not an added extra, it's fundamental to our success. At Osborne Clarke we value difference and encourage applicants from all backgrounds. We want everyone to feel that OC is a place where you can be yourself and belong, and our range of interest groups and diversity networks - not to mention our great teams - are a part of making that a reality.