Daily rate: £550 outside IR35
Location: Remote - Occasional Travel to London
Duration: Initially until the end March 2026 with a view to extend
Clearance: active SC clearance
Role Purpose
As a Technical Architect, you will shape the technology approach for the discovery and early design of new digital and data capabilities across the Criminal Justice Sector (CJS)
You'll balance hands-on technical design with strategic guidance, ensuring proposed solutions are secure, scalable, and align with CJS standards and Azure best practice.
You'll collaborate closely with architects, data specialists, developers, and delivery teams to define patterns, simplify integration, and de-risk future delivery.
Key Responsibilities
* Discover, define and document end-to-end technical architecture for cloud-hosted services on Microsoft Azure (AKS, Functions, App Services, networking, storage, Databases).
* Lead technical discovery workshops, assessing existing systems and identifying modernisation opportunities.
* Produce discovery and solution diagrams, interface specifications, and integration patterns that balance security, performance, and cost.
* Work with data architects and engineers to design data flows and pipelines supporting analytics and MI reporting.
* Guide engineering teams on technology choices, testing frameworks, and CI/CD standards.
* Collaborate with security and DevOps teams to ensure compliance with security and data-protection standards.
* Contribute to design assurance reviews, risk assessments, and technical governance activities.
* Proven experience discovery, remediation and design of enterprise solutions on Azure (eg, App Services, AKS, Azure SQL, Storage, databases, KeyVault, Data transit and data at rest).
* Strong understanding of microservice and API-driven/event driven architectures (Java/Spring Boot preferred).
* Working knowledge of Python, TypeScript, Java, Angular for integration or Front End design
* Familiarity with containerisation (Docker, Kubernetes) and infrastructure-as-code (Terraform).
* Demonstrable background in system integration, Authentication and authorisation, and event-driven design. ForgeRock experience is advantageable.
* Experience in secure design, encryption, and compliance within UK Government frameworks.
* Excellent communication and stakeholder engagement skills - able to explain complex technology in plain English, both written and verbal.
Essential Skills & Experience
Desirable Skills
* Experience in data-driven programmes (Data Science or MI) with exposure to analytics or data-governance tooling.
* Familiarity with DevSecOps pipelines, automated testing, and continuous deployment.
* Understanding of CJS or wider public-sector digital standards (GDS Service Standard, TDA reviews).
* Prior experience in discovery and planning for remediation, shaping options papers and delivery roadmaps