Solutions Architect

Solution Architect – Cyber, Security & Compliance (Contract) 📍 Bristol/Leeds/Edinburgh/Manchester, UK (Hybrid) | 💷 £475 per day (Inside IR35) 🕒 6-month contract Our client, a top global organization, is seeking an experienced Solution Architect to support the architecture of a Cyber & Physical Defence Centre, with a strong focus on regulatory, compliance, and security monitoring. This role blends deep technical architecture expertise with strong security and cryptographic knowledge, helping shape secure, compliant, and future-proof solutions across complex platforms. Key Responsibilities * Develop and maintain solution architecture supporting regulatory and compliance monitoring capabilities. * Design end-to-end solution architectures that consider technical, regulatory, commercial, and organisational factors. * Apply industry best practices, standards, frameworks, and policies to drive value and architectural consistency. * Elicit requirements and shape designs or prototypes aligned to target architectures for security and compliance. * Act as a subject matter expert, defining guiding principles, architectural standards, and success criteria. * Provide architectural oversight to ensure modern, decoupled, and secure solutions are delivered. * Support Product Owners and Platform Leads in identifying and assessing software, infrastructure, and security risks. * Offer clear architectural options and recommendations, including ever-greening and modernisation strategies. * Contribute to architecture governance, risk management, and compliance processes. Essential Skills & Experience * Proven experience in solution architecture or systems engineering within multi-disciplinary product or platform teams. * Strong knowledge of regulatory and compliance frameworks. * Solid understanding of secure configuration and deployment practices, including Infrastructure-as-Code. * Hands-on experience with Terraform, and familiarity with tools such as Harness and GitHub. * Strong expertise in Google Cloud Platform (GCP) and its security services. * Good understanding of cryptographic principles and experience reviewing or designing cryptographic solutions. * Experience collaborating closely with Enterprise, Security, Data, and Infrastructure Architects. * Proven experience contributing to architecture governance, risk management, and compliance activities. * Excellent communication skills, with the ability to present complex technical topics clearly to non-technical audiences. Desirable Experience * Previous experience working in a Cyber Defence, Security Operations, or SOC environment. * Strong visual communication skills and experience storytelling with architecture artefacts and data. If this is relevant to your experience, please apply with your CV and we’ll be in touch