AMS PSR

On behalf of the MOD, we are looking for a Senior Solutions Architect Inside IR35 for a contract based hybrid Bristol.

SC Clearance is an essential requirement for this role, as a minimum you must be willing & eligible to undergo checks. Please note, due to the exceptional requirements of this position (short-term nature of this role and speed at which we require a postholder in situ) preference may be given to candidates who meet all of the essential criteria and hold active SC clearance. 

The Ministry of Defence (MOD) is a central government department with a mission to protect our country and provide the ultimate guarantee of its security and independence, as well as helping to protect its values and interests abroad.

The MOD is one of the biggest public procurement organisations in Europe and the single largest customer for UK industry. It currently manages approximately £20 billion of spend on capital investments in equipment and infrastructure every year. Over the next decade the MOD is committed to spending over £190 billion on equipment and support. The MOD’s customers include both the armed forces and national security agencies, and it has a diverse range of requirements, including military fighting vehicles, education services, nuclear submarines and facilities management.

The MOD’s aim is to provide its armed forces with the best capabilities to enable them to protect the UK’s security and advance national interests, both now and in the long term.

To do this the MOD has an annual budget of almost £53 billion and a workforce comprising 197,000 people. of which 54,000 are civilians working for the UK MOD.

The work really matters; the MOD offers a range of engaging roles which have a direct impact on the quality of services they provide, in many locations across the UK. We support teams working in HR, Primary Health Care, Corporate Services, and many others.

As a Senior Solution Architect, your main responsibilities will be:

Roles and Responsibilities:

1. 
   
   1. Work with multiple stakeholders across the program and the Defence Digital to maintain the technical coherence and make sure the solutions are fully compliant and optimised.
   2. Lead the architecture, design, and delivery of secure, scalable, and resilient enterprise solutions across AWS, Azure, and Oracle Cloud environments.
   3. Define and implement optimised technical solutions aligned with business, operational, functional and non-functional and security requirements.
   4. Ensure the solutions are compliant with industry standards, GOV.UK service design standards, technical governance frameworks, and technical standards and Defence Digital architectural principles.
   5. Provide technical leadership across multiple projects and programmes within a complex multi-cloud ecosystem.
   6. Design and govern cloud-native and containerised solutions using Kubernetes and modern DevOps practices.
   7. Collaborate with engineering, security, delivery, and operational teams to ensure successful end-to-end solution implementation.
   8. Drive adoption of UCD, Agile, DevOps culture, CI/CD pipelines, Infrastructure as Code (IaC), automation, and platform engineering best practices.
   9. Support integration of enterprise systems, APIs, and data platforms, including Data Lake architectures and large-scale data integration solutions.
   10. Conduct architecture reviews, risk assessments, technical assurance, and solution governance activities.
   11. Produce high-quality architecture artefacts, including HLDs, LLDs, integration diagrams, and technical roadmaps.

Technical Skills:

• 
  
  • BizzDesign, ArchiMate, TOGAF, NATO Architecture Frameworks (NAF), Data Architecture, Data Modelling, UML, API, Open API Spec
  • AWS Cloud, Azure Cloud, Oracle Cloud,
  • ETL, IBM WebMethods, Java, SpringBoot, NodeJS, API Gateway, Microservices, Webservices, WSDL, SOAP, Oracle DB
  • DevOps, Kubernetes, RedHat OpenShift, Docker, Tekton, GitHub, GitHub Actions, ArgoCD, Trivy Scan.

Please be aware that this role can only be worked within the UK and not Overseas.

Disability Confident 

As a member of the Disability Confident Scheme, the MOD guarantees to interview all candidates who have a disability and who meet all the essential criteria for the vacancy. In cases where we have a high volume of candidates who have a disability who meet all the essential criteria, we will interview the best candidates from within that group.

This scheme encourages candidates with a disability and/or neurodivergence to apply. In exceptional circumstances, we may also need to apply the desirable criteria in our shortlisting process which may include holding active security clearance.

Armed Forces Covenant

The MOD guarantees to interview veterans or spouses / partners of military personnel who meet all the essential criteria for the vacancy. In cases where we have a high volume of ex-military candidates / military spouses or partners, who meet all of the essential criteria, we will interview the best candidates from within that group. In exceptional circumstances, we may also need to apply the desirable criteria in our shortlisting process which may include holding active security clearance.

In applying for this role, you acknowledge the following “this role falls in scope of the Off Payroll Working in the Public Sector legislation. Any rates of payment quoted will reflect the gross rate per day for the assignment and will be subject to appropriate taxes and statutory costs. As such the payment to the intermediary and your income resulting from this contract will be different.