Solution Architect
Defence | R&D | Interoperability | Secure Systems
Location: UK – Home Based with UK Travel
Salary: £70,000 – £90,000 + Benefits
How do you securely move and share information between systems, organisations and operational domains that weren't necessarily designed to work together?
How do you explore new technologies and architectural concepts before the final solution even exists?
And how do you turn experimentation into something that could ultimately become an operational Defence capability?
Applause IT are hiring for a specialist UK technology organisation solving exactly these kinds of problems across Defence, National Security and other high-assurance environments.
They're looking for a Solution Architect who enjoys conceptual thinking, technical problem solving and working with emerging technologies to help design the next generation of secure, interoperable systems.
This isn't a traditional infrastructure architecture position.
You'll work much earlier in the technology lifecycle – exploring operational problems, developing architectural concepts, assessing technologies and helping customers understand how new ideas could be turned into real-world capability.
The Role
Working alongside Principal Architects, Systems Engineers, cyber specialists and delivery teams, you'll help develop solutions across Defence experimentation, secure information exchange, interoperability and capability development.
Projects can involve ambiguous problems without an obvious technical answer.
You'll need to understand the operational challenge, explore different approaches, identify constraints and trade-offs, and develop architectures that bring together systems, data, security and technology into a coherent solution.
Depending on the programme, this could include experimentation and demonstrator environments, systems-of-systems challenges, secure data exchange between different trust domains, integration of emerging technologies or developing concepts that inform future Defence capability.
What You'll Be Doing
- Designing conceptual and high-level solution architectures for complex Defence and National Security challenges
- Translating operational needs into technical requirements and architectural concepts
- Exploring how information can be securely exchanged across systems, networks, organisations and security domains
- Supporting R&D, experimentation, demonstrations and proof-of-concept activities
- Investigating emerging technologies and assessing how they could solve operational problems
- Designing solutions involving multiple systems, suppliers and technology domains
- Working through interoperability, integration and systems-of-systems challenges
- Considering cyber security, Information Assurance and Secure by Design throughout the architecture
- Running technical workshops and engaging directly with customers, engineers and subject matter experts
- Producing architecture models, technical documentation and solution designs
- Supporting technical reviews and architecture governance
- Working with engineering teams as concepts progress towards implementation and operational capability
What We're Looking For
We're less interested in someone who has spent their career designing conventional enterprise infrastructure.
Instead, we're looking for someone who enjoys working with complex, conceptual and sometimes undefined technical problems.
You could already be a Solution Architect, or you may be a Systems Engineer, Systems Architect or Technical Consultant whose work has increasingly moved towards architecture and solution design.
You'll ideally bring experience across several of the following:
- Solution or Systems Architecture
- Systems Engineering
- Requirements Engineering
- Systems Integration and interoperability
- Systems-of-systems environments
- Concept development or technical R&D
- Experimentation, demonstrators or proof-of-concepts
- Secure information exchange
- Cross-domain or multi-domain environments
- Data security and information flows
- Defence, National Security or Critical National Infrastructure
- Customer-facing technical consultancy
- High-level architecture and solution design
Experience with approaches or frameworks such as MBSE, SysML, MODAF, NAF, TOGAF or UAF would also be valuable, although we're more interested in how you approach complex problems than any particular methodology.
Security & Defence Knowledge
Previous experience working within Defence or another high-assurance environment would be particularly valuable.
Exposure to areas such as Secure by Design, Information Assurance, NCSC guidance, Defence security standards or ISO 27001 would be advantageous.
Knowledge of areas such as Federated Mission Networking, Multi-Domain Integration, Defence experimentation or multinational interoperability would be particularly relevant.
Why Consider It?
The attraction here isn't simply the opportunity to become another Solution Architect.
You'll have the chance to work on problems where the answer often hasn't been designed yet.
You'll work alongside experienced technical specialists on R&D, experimentation and future capability programmes, gaining exposure to emerging technologies and some genuinely challenging interoperability and secure information exchange problems.
For someone coming from Systems Engineering, technical consultancy or an existing architecture position, there's also significant scope to develop towards Principal Solution Architect and technical leadership as your experience grows.
If you're someone who enjoys asking "how could we make this work?" rather than simply implementing an established architecture, we'd be very interested in speaking with you.
Pay: £70,000.00-£90,000.00 per year
Benefits:
- Company pension
- Life insurance
- On-site parking
- Private medical insurance
- Sick pay
- Work from home
Work Location: Remote
