Solution Architect

• Design end-to-end technology solutions covering applications, infrastructure, networking, security, data, and operational platforms
• Translate business, functional, and non-functional requirements into robust technical architectures
• Define architecture principles, standards, patterns, and technology choices
• Evaluate architectural options and provide recommendations based on scalability, availability, security, performance, maintainability, cost, and operational complexity
• Produce and maintain architecture documentation, solution designs, diagrams, technical specifications, and architecture decision records
• Identify technical dependencies, constraints, risks, and architectural gaps
• Ensure solutions are aligned with the existing technology landscape and long-term technology strategy
• Support engineering teams throughout implementation and ensure delivered solutions remain aligned with the agreed architecture

Infrastructure and platform architecture

• Design and evolve highly available infrastructure and platform architectures
• Contribute to the evolution of virtualization, containerisation, and private or public cloud environments
• Work with technologies such as VMware, Docker, Kubernetes, and OpenStack-based platforms
• Define architectural approaches for compute, storage, operating systems, networking, and platform services
• Ensure infrastructure designs address resilience, redundancy, capacity, lifecycle management, and disaster recovery
• Assess emerging infrastructure technologies and determine their suitability for the organisation
• Ensure architectural decisions are practical to implement, automate, monitor, and operate in production

Distributed systems and integration

• Design architectures for complex distributed systems and business-critical services
• Define appropriate integration patterns, including APIs, messaging, asynchronous processing, and event-driven architectures
• Work with application technologies such as Java and Python and understand their interaction with underlying infrastructure
• Design solutions that address scalability, performance, fault tolerance, and dependency management
• Identify failure scenarios and ensure appropriate resilience and recovery mechanisms are incorporated
• Ensure systems are designed with operational support and maintainability in mind

Automation, DevOps and observability

• Promote automation and Infrastructure as Code as core architectural principles
• Define and support approaches using technologies such as Ansible, Terraform, GitLab CI/CD, and related tools
• Ensure solutions support automated deployment, configuration, testing, and lifecycle management
• Incorporate observability requirements into solution designs from the outset
• Work with monitoring and observability technologies such as Prometheus, OpenTelemetry, Grafana, ELK, and Graylog
• Promote engineering practices that improve reliability, deployment efficiency, and operational visibility

Data and database architecture

• Design and review architectures involving relational and distributed data platforms
• Work with PostgreSQL and understand concepts such as replication, backup, recovery, availability, and performance
• Ensure data flows, dependencies, retention, security, and recovery requirements are appropriately addressed
• Collaborate with database specialists and external providers where advanced database expertise is required
• Ensure database architecture supports the overall availability, scalability, and resilience requirements of the solution

Networking and security

• Design and review network architectures supporting critical applications and infrastructure
• Work with networking and security teams on routing, firewalls, traffic flows, load balancing, segmentation, and connectivity
• Apply a strong understanding of TCP/IP, DNS, routing, and BGP fundamentals
• Incorporate security principles into solution design, including identity and access management, encryption, secrets management, and secure communications
• Contribute to security assessments, threat modelling, and architectural risk analysis
• Ensure solutions comply with relevant security, regulatory, and organisational requirements

Technology strategy and lifecycle management

• Contribute to the evolution of the technology roadmap and target architecture
• Evaluate emerging technologies and assess their potential business and technical value
• Lead or contribute to technology evaluations, proof-of-concepts, and architectural assessments
• Identify opportunities to simplify platforms, reduce technical debt, improve reliability, and increase operational efficiency
• Contribute to technology lifecycle management, including adoption, evolution, replacement, and decommissioning
• Balance innovation with stability, security, supportability, and operational risk

Collaboration and technical leadership

• Act as a technical bridge between business stakeholders, architecture, development, infrastructure, security, and operations teams
• Facilitate technical discussions and drive architecture decisions towards clear outcomes
• Communicate complex technical concepts clearly to both technical and non-technical stakeholders
• Provide technical guidance and mentoring to engineering teams
• Challenge assumptions constructively and promote pragmatic, evidence-based decisions
• Participate in architecture reviews and ensure decisions are properly documented
• Collaborate with technology vendors and external service providers where required
• Contribute to continuous improvement of architecture practices, standards, and documentation

• Degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Information Technology, or a related technical field
• 8+ years of experience in software, infrastructure, systems, platform, or solution architecture roles
• Proven experience designing and evolving complex production environments
• Strong background in infrastructure, distributed systems, software architecture, platform engineering, or a combination of these areas
• Experience working in environments where availability, security, resilience, and operational continuity are critical
• Proven ability to take ownership of architectural decisions from requirements through implementation and operational adoption

Technical skills

• Strong understanding of Linux-based production environments
• Strong knowledge of infrastructure and platform technologies such as VMware, Docker, Kubernetes, and cloud/private-cloud platforms
• Strong understanding of distributed systems, high availability, scalability, redundancy, and disaster recovery
• Good understanding of DNS and distributed network architectures
• Solid knowledge of networking fundamentals, including TCP/IP, routing, BGP, firewalls, load balancing, and network security
• Experience with Infrastructure as Code and automation, particularly Ansible, Terraform, or equivalent technologies
• Strong understanding of CI/CD and DevOps practices
• Experience with cloud-native and containerised architectures
• Good understanding of software development principles and technologies such as Java and Python
• Good understanding of PostgreSQL and database availability, replication, backup, recovery, and performance concepts
• Experience with messaging and integration technologies such as RabbitMQ or equivalent
• Understanding of observability platforms such as Prometheus, OpenTelemetry, Grafana, ELK, or Graylog
• Good understanding of identity and access management principles
• Familiarity with GitLab, Jira, Confluence, Nexus, and modern engineering collaboration tools
• Knowledge of enterprise architecture frameworks and modelling approaches is an advantage
• Experience with architecture modelling and documentation tools is an advantage

Architecture capabilities

We are looking for someone who can:

• Think end-to-end across application, infrastructure, networking, security, and data
• Translate complex requirements into clear and actionable technical solutions
• Make architecture decisions based on measurable requirements and technical trade-offs
• Design for resilience, security, observability, scalability, and maintainability
• Identify architectural risks before they become operational problems
• Understand the difference between theoretical architecture and solutions that can be reliably operated in production
• Challenge existing solutions constructively and identify opportunities for simplification
• Balance long-term architectural objectives with short-term operational realities
• Remain technically credible when working with experienced engineers and specialists
• Move comfortably between high-level architecture discussions and detailed technical conversations

Soft skills

• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills
• Excellent communication and stakeholder-management skills
• Strong sense of ownership and accountability
• Pragmatic and service-oriented mindset
• Ability to influence without relying on formal authority
• Collaborative approach and ability to work effectively across technical disciplines
• Comfortable challenging assumptions and facilitating technical discussions
• Structured and disciplined approach to architecture and documentation
• Curious and continuously interested in emerging technologies and industry practices
• Ability to balance strategic thinking with practical execution
• Strong English communication skills, both written and spoken

The opportunity to shape the architecture of business-critical technology platforms

A highly technical environment where architecture decisions have tangible impact

Exposure to a broad technology landscape spanning infrastructure, software, networking, security, data, cloud, and distributed systems

A hands-on architecture role within a highly skilled and collaborative technical organisation

An international and dynamic working environment

A long-term freelance contract