Role Title: DDI Architect
Start Date: 16 February 2026
End Date: 30 November 2026
Contract Rate:£447 day rate inside ir35
Location: Sheffield
Onsite Requirement: 3 days per week
Number of Positions: 2
We are seeking an experienced DDI Architect to act as a Subject Matter Expert (SME) across DNS, DHCP, and IP Address Management (IPAM) technologies. The successful candidates will play a critical role in the design, delivery, and ongoing support of enterprise-scale DDI platforms, ensuring resilience, scalability, and operational excellence across multiple environments.
This role will support complex infrastructure programmes involving both physical and logical DDI transformations, including migrations, upgrades, and service redesigns. The DDI Architect will work closely with network engineering teams, security teams, service owners, and programme delivery functions to ensure DDI services are robust, consumable, and aligned to business needs.
Key Responsibilities
DDI Architecture & Engineering
* Act as the DDI Subject Matter Expert across DNS, DHCP, and IPAM services.
* Design, implement, and maintain enterprise-grade DDI architectures that meet availability, performance, and security requirements.
* Define DDI standards, design patterns, and best practices for use across the organisation.
* Ensure DDI services are scalable, resilient, and aligned with wider network and infrastructure architecture.
Infrastructure Projects & Transformations
* Lead and contribute to large-scale DDI infrastructure projects, including:
o Platform upgrades and technology refreshes
o Data and service migrations
o Introduction of new DDI products or services
o Decommissioning of Legacy platforms
* Support both physical infrastructure (Servers, appliances, virtual platforms) and logical infrastructure (software versions, configurations, data models).
* Produce detailed low-level designs (LLDs), high-level designs (HLDs), and implementation plans.
Design, Deployment & Operationalisation
* Design and deploy DDI services into new and existing environments, including on-premise and hybrid infrastructures.
* Ensure services are operationalised effectively, including:
o Monitoring and alerting
o Backup and recovery
o Documentation and handover to operational teams
* Enable DDI services to be easily consumed by internal teams and dependent services.
Risk Management & Impact Assessment
* Perform risk assessments related to DDI changes, upgrades, and migrations.
* Identify potential service impacts, dependencies, and downstream effects on users and applications.
* Proactively manage technical risks, constraints, and headwinds throughout project delivery.
* Support change management and governance processes to minimise disruption.
Stakeholder Engagement & Communication
* Work collaboratively with cross-functional teams including Network, Security, Platform, and Service Management.
* Communicate complex technical concepts clearly to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
* Operate effectively across distributed teams, time zones, and geographies.
* Provide expert guidance and recommendations to senior stakeholders and project boards.
Project & Delivery Management
* Contribute to project planning, estimation, and delivery using industry-standard methodologies.
* Produce and maintain technical documentation, implementation plans, and progress updates.
* Work within established governance frameworks and change control processes.
* Support delivery through Agile and hybrid delivery models where applicable.
Agile Ways of Working
* Participate in Agile ceremonies including stand-ups, sprint planning, reviews, and retrospectives.
* Collaborate closely with product owners, scrum masters, and delivery teams.
* Use Agile tooling such as JIRA to manage tasks, defects, and delivery milestones.
Required Skills & Experience
Essential
* Extensive hands-on experience as a DDI Architect or Senior DDI Engineer.
* Expert-level knowledge of DNS, DHCP, and IPAM in large, complex enterprise environments.
* Proven experience with one or more of the following DDI technologies:
o Cygna VitalQIP
o EfficientIP
o Infoblox
o F5 BIG-IP DNS
o Associated management modules (AMS, AMM, etc.)
* Strong understanding of core networking protocols including:
o TCP/IP
o UDP
o DNS
* Demonstrable experience delivering large-scale infrastructure changes and migrations.
* Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English.
Desirable
* Experience with automation and Scripting technologies such as:
o Shell Scripting
o Ansible
o Python
o JavaScript
o VBA
o JSON and REST API integration
* Exposure to infrastructure-as-code or automated DDI provisioning models.
* Experience working in Agile delivery environments.
* Familiarity with enterprise tooling such as JIRA and Confluence.
If you are interested in this opportunity, please apply now with your updated CV in Microsoft Word/PDF format.
Disclaimer
Notwithstanding any guidelines given to level of experience sought, we will consider candidates from outside this range if they can demonstrate the necessary competencies.
Square One is acting as both an employment agency and an employment business, and is an equal opportunities recruitment business. Square One embraces diversity and will treat everyone equally. Please see our website for our full diversity statement.