Senior Technical Architect PAYE Rate: £508.77 per day Umbrella Rate: £652.82 per day Contract | Inside IR35 | Duration: 6 months initially (with potential extensions up to 24 months) Hybrid Milton Keynes (approx. 60% onsite) Were supporting a major UK government organisation delivering critical national security capabilities and are seeking an experienced Senior Technical Architect to join a high-profile, secure programme. This role sits at the heart of a complex technology landscape, working closely with senior stakeholders, customers, and delivery teams to design and govern secure, resilient solutions. The Role You will: Work directly with key customers to deliver a mission-critical national security product Translate business requirements into secure, scalable technical solutions Lead technical workshops with stakeholders and customers Provide senior technical oversight and 4th-line support to engineering teams Produce and maintain high-level and low-level technical designs Assess the impact of functional, capability, and security changes Review and approve technical change requests in line with architectural standards Support CTO-level governance and assurance activities Evaluate emerging technologies and articulate options, risks, and cost benefits Essential Skills & Experience Excellent stakeholder engagement skills with the ability to communicate complex technical concepts clearly Proven experience as a Technical / Solution / Infrastructure Architect within secure environments Strong technical background across: Microsoft & Linux server environments Networking technologies Hybrid cloud architectures VMware platforms (VCD, vSAN, NSX) Gateways, PKI, and email platforms SASE architectures Cisco and Palo Alto technologies Experience producing architectural documentation (options assessments, HLDs, LLDs) DevSecOps experience, including CI/CD and automation Cloud design and migration experience (Azure/M365 and AWS) Solid understanding of UK government security frameworks (NCSC, GDS, NIST, CIS, Cyber Essentials) Experience with security tooling, auditing, and compliance Desirable Experience working in matrixed or complex organisational structures Infrastructure as Code (IaC), containerisation, and microservices Constraints: Candidates submitted for this role must be British nationals, to confirm: They are a British citizen or hold dual nationality, and They have been a resident in the UK for at least two of the last 5 years Due to the nature of this work Government security clearance if not already held will need to be obtained. The minimum clearance required for this role is SC. (Although advantageous, it is not a requirement that an individual already holds Security Clearance.) Candidates who do not currently hold clearance must be able to obtain the appropriate level of clearance for the role specified. Short-listed candidates will be submitted for vetting procedures before being formally offered the position. This process can take 6-8 weeks. If this role is of interest and you meet the above criteria, then please apply immediately.