Solution Architect [SC CLEARED]

Job Title: Solution Architect

Contract Length: 6 Months (with scope to extend)

Clearance Required: SC

Location: Hybrid (2 office days per week - office in Southwest England)

Start: ASAP

We are looking for an experienced Solution Architect to support the architecture, assurance, and design governance of complex digital systems within a highly regulated environment. This role focuses on defining and governing solution architecture for critical applications, ensuring that platform design, hosting environments, and security requirements align with enterprise architecture standards and programme delivery objectives.

Working closely with project teams, platform providers, and senior stakeholders, the successful candidate will play a key role in shaping solution design, maintaining architecture models, and ensuring that solutions are robust, secure, and aligned with future platform roadmaps.

Key Responsibilities

• Define and govern solution architecture for LIMS / LOCATE platforms, ensuring alignment with enterprise architecture standards and programme objectives
• Provide architecture and design leadership, producing and maintaining high-level and detailed solution designs (HLD / SDD / LLD)
• Manage solution assurance and accreditation activities across security, hosting and network platforms during testing and implementation phases
• Maintain and update architecture models using Sparx Enterprise Architect (EA) and associated documentation in SharePoint and Confluence
• Collaborate with platform providers and project teams to understand target platform availability, hosting strategies and infrastructure dependencies
• Provide architectural guidance to project teams and participate in technical governance and design review boards
• Contribute to project planning activities, ensuring architectural considerations are embedded within delivery timelines
• Engage with senior stakeholders and enterprise architecture teams to align solution designs with strategic technology roadmaps

Required Skills & Experience

• Proven experience operating as a Solution Architect or Enterprise Architect within complex technology environments
• Strong experience delivering solution architecture for enterprise platforms and legacy modernisation programmes
• Demonstrated experience producing high-level and low-level technical design documentation (HLD, SDD, LLD)
• Experience using architecture modelling tools and frameworks, including ArchiMate and Sparx Enterprise Architect (EA)
• Experience supporting solution assurance, governance, and architecture review processes
• Experience working in distributed, deployed, or low-connectivity environments, including client or healthcare-related systems
• Experience collaborating with technical delivery teams including architects, engineers, and platform specialists
• Experience contributing to technical evaluation and selection of products or platforms
• Strong understanding of Agile delivery models, including SAFe Agile frameworks

Desirable Experience

• Experience working within regulated environments such as government, defence, or healthcare
• Experience supporting legacy system modernisation and complex enterprise transformation programmes
• Experience with platform hosting, infrastructure and network architecture considerations
• Familiarity with enterprise architecture governance frameworks and architecture capability models