NPPV3 Cleared Data Architect in Stockport

We are currently hiring for an SC and NPPV3 Cleared Data Security and Integration Architect - for an initial 6 months contract assignment. (Duration is very likely to extend).

You must hold current active SC and NPPV3 Clearance.

This is a predominantly remote role, but some travel to Client site may be required (estimate 1-2 times per month to London and/or the South/South East).

You will be a technically strong data integration architect who can help design and prove a secure, federated data-sharing capability across differently configured source systems.

Focus areas will be: Access controls, auditability, resilience, information governance and operating model.

Mandatory requirements

Candidates should have

• Active SC clearance and NPPV3.
• Senior-level data architecture experience within secure, complex or regulated environments.
• Proven experience designing integration solutions across multiple heterogeneous source systems.
• Experience of federated or distributed data-access architectures where data remains under the control of the source organisation.
• Strong API architecture experience, including RESTful APIs, Open API specifications, contract management, versioning, pagination and error handling.
• Experience designing common or canonical data models and mapping different source schemas into a consistent target model.
• Strong understanding of data provenance, lineage, metadata, source attribution and end-to-end auditability.
• Experience separating reusable integration capabilities from source-specific adapters and configuration.
• Knowledge of authentication, authorisation, policy-based access control, encryption and secure audit logging.
• Experience dealing with partial results, timeouts, unavailable sources, performance constraints and operational resilience.
• Ability to produce architecture diagrams, data-flow models, mapping specifications, API contracts, operating models and technical roadmaps.
• Experience working collaboratively with engineers, security specialists, information-governance teams, data owners and non-technical stakeholders.
• Availability from approximately late October 2026 through to 31 March 2027.
• Willingness to attend secure UK locations and central meetings when required.
• Particularly valuable experience

The following would significantly strengthen a candidate

• Information Exchange Standard, particularly IES or IES Next.
• Enterprise Data Headers or comparable metadata standards.
• Policing Records Management Systems or other operational policing data.
• Working with differently configured implementations of the same source product.
• Secure inter-organisational or cross-government data sharing.
• Semantic data modelling and relationship modelling.
• Federated search, data virtualisation, data mesh or comparable non-centralised patterns.
• Schema evolution, compatibility testing and API contract testing.
• Alpha or proof-of-concept delivery using synthetic or governed test data.
• Threat modelling, information-governance assessments and data-protection controls.
• Monitoring, observability, diagnostic logging and integration-layer resilience.
• Producing repeatable onboarding patterns for new organisations or data sources.
• Defining RACI models covering access approval, data ownership, policy changes, incidents, audit and support.
• Moving a capability from Alpha into Beta or live delivery.
• Multi-supplier or agile public-sector delivery.
• Important recruitment distinction

I would treat IES experience as highly desirable rather than mandatory.

It is specialised, and insisting that all three architects already have it may unnecessarily reduce the available cleared market.

The true technical essentials are

• Secure data integration across heterogeneous systems.
• Common data modelling and source-to-target mapping.
• Federated API-based access without centralising operational data.
• Provenance, lineage and auditable access controls.
• Active SC and NPPV3.
• Full job-board advert
• Data Architect - Secure Data Integration
• SC and NPPV3 Cleared

Location: Hybrid UK, with travel to secure customer locations and occasional central London meetings