Salary: £41,000 - 81,000 per year Requirements: We are looking for an experienced Architect with a strong track record of designing and governing service-oriented or microservice-based systems. We need someone with deep expertise in Service-Oriented Architecture and distributed system design. We require experience with messaging, data interoperability, communication protocols, service contracts and integration approaches. We need proven ability to break down monolithic patterns and design scalable service boundaries. We expect confidence in evaluating performance, resilience and maintainability trade-offs. We are looking for someone who can guide development teams and influence stakeholders effectively. We need an architect who can work in environments where the architectural direction is not yet fully defined. Responsibilities: We will need you to gain a deep understanding of our current architecture and identify how services are implemented and interact. We expect you to assess where legacy monolithic behaviours are still influencing design. We will rely on you to identify architectural gaps, risks and technical debt. You will define how our services communicate and how data moves across the environment. You will determine appropriate service boundaries and integration patterns. You will evaluate whether a message bus or event-driven architecture is the right approach. You will examine our mix of real-time, configuration and scientific data to establish reliable data flow patterns. You will develop architectural detail including diagrams, logical models, communication patterns, service contracts, API standards and integration principles. You will work closely with engineers, product teams and scientific stakeholders. You will challenge assumptions, lead architectural conversations and provide clear direction. You will help align every service to SOA best practice and long-term sustainability. Technologies: API Architect Cloud Flow More: We are a nationally significant scientific and engineering organisation operating in one of the UKs most complex technical environments. We are undertaking a long-term digital modernisation to move away from legacy monolithic applications and build a cloud-based, service-oriented ecosystem that supports our experimental workflows, data services and operational capabilities. This is a 12-month contract role based near Reading, with 3 to 4 days onsite initially, offered inside IR35 at £750 per day. Joining us means shaping the architectural foundation of a highly advanced environment, with the opportunity to influence how our services communicate, how data flows and how our systems evolve for years to come within an engineering-focused, forward-thinking culture. last updated 24 week of 2026