Drupal Architect

Drupal Architect

Outside IR35

£525.00

Until end of July initially

Website Transformation

Higher Education Organisation

Drupal Architect to support the discovery phase of a large-scale public website transformation within a higher education organisation. The programme is moving multiple public-facing websites from a Legacy CMS to Drupal and requires senior architectural input to gather, rationalise and harmonise requirements across distinct product groups.

This role works under the Head of Web and alongside an existing Solutions Architect and internal Business Analyst. The focus is squarely on requirements, solution design and reuse strategy, not build or delivery.

Programme Context

The organisation currently operates multiple Legacy CMS sites serving different audiences and product areas, including international and UK-focused content and assessment-related material. These will be migrated to separate Drupal instances per product group, aligned through a shared design and reuse approach.

Most capability is expected to be common across sites, with some product-specific bespoke requirements. The immediate aim is to step away from Legacy platforms and establish a clear, reusable Drupal blueprint that can be taken to market through a formal RFP for delivery partners.

The Assignment

The initial discovery phase is already underway. This contract strengthens the architecture and design capability by adding a business-facing Drupal technical architect who can:

• Work with stakeholders to understand what they need
• Assess how Drupal can fulfil those needs
• Harmonise overlapping requirements across product groups
• Shape high-level designs that balance reuse with necessary variation

The outputs from this engagement will form the baseline set of requirements and designs used across all product groups ahead of vendor procurement.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead and support requirements discovery workshops with business and product stakeholders
• Consolidate, de-duplicate and harmonise requirements across multiple product groups
• Work alongside the Drupal Solutions Architect to define high-level solution options
• Translate agreed approaches into High-Level Technical Designs (HLDs), covering:
• Content models
• Component and pattern choices
• Reuse versus bespoke decisions
• Integration considerations where relevant
• Assess requirements against reusable Drupal assets and patterns, identifying where common solutions apply
• Maintain clear traceability between business goals, requirements and architectural outcomes
• Write user stories and acceptance criteria to support backlog refinement
• Contribute to knowledge transfer across the programme during discovery

In Scope/Out of Scope

In scope

• Requirements elicitation, consolidation and harmonisation
• High-level solution outlining
• High-Level Technical Design (HLD) creation
• Reuse and consistency assessment
• Discovery-phase knowledge transfer

Out of scope

• Detailed or low-level technical architecture
• Platform governance
• Build or implementation delivery
• BAU support or infrastructure operations
• Vendor selection or supplier management

Skills & Experience Required

Essential

• Extensive experience (circa 10+ years) in hybrid Business Analysis/Solution Design roles
• Strong, hands-on Drupal expertise, including:
• Content modelling
• Site building
• Clear understanding of what Drupal can and cannot deliver without custom development
• Demonstrable experience producing High-Level Technical Designs
• Familiarity with modern Drupal concepts such as Recipes, Install Profiles, Distributions, SDC and Storybook
• Confident facilitating workshops and challenging stakeholders to align on shared solutions
• Comfortable operating in complex, multi-stakeholder environments

Desirable

• Drupal certification (Acquia or equivalent) or community contributions
• Previous experience supporting a Solutions Architect within a platform or multi-site model
• Familiarity with Figma, design tokens or design-system processes
• Working knowledge of WCAG 2.2 accessibility standards
• Experience with Jira, Confluence or requirements traceability tooling