Job Description

Technical Architect
Permanent
Location: Didcot
Salary: £100,000 - £110,000 (+ benefits)

We are looking to recruit a Technical Architect for a leading technology consultancy. The initial focus of this role will be on the evolution of a complex, business-critical software platform.

They are looking for an experienced Technical Architect to review the current architecture, assess key technical uncertainties, define the next level of solution design, and provide hands-on architectural guidance to development teams.

This role would suit a Technical Architect with strong experience across service-oriented architecture, Java-based systems, APIs, data flows, integration patterns, non-functional requirements and technical design documentation. You will need to be comfortable working closely with engineering teams, understanding complex existing systems, and turning architectural ambiguity into clear, actionable recommendations.

Key responsibilities

• Review and assess the existing high-level architecture, including key components, services, interfaces and deployment approach.
• Analyse the current service-oriented architecture and identify strengths, gaps, risks and areas of emerging technical debt.
• Assess alignment with strategic objectives and non-functional requirements, including reliability, determinism, maintainability, scalability and resilience.
• Evaluate integration options across a hybrid architecture, including how existing Java-based applications interact with newer services.
• Assess inter-service communication needs and provide recommendations on messaging, message bus patterns, protocols and associated trade-offs.
• Analyse and document system data flows, including real-time data, configuration data, core operational data, processed data and metadata.
• Evaluate whether a graph layer or alternative integration pattern would provide value as a primary interface between services.
• Define appropriate standards for APIs, messaging frameworks, data models, configuration management and service testing.
• Produce clear architectural documentation, including logical diagrams, high-level designs, service interaction models and data flow diagrams.
• Record key architectural decisions and rationale.
• Work closely with development teams to ensure a shared understanding of the architecture and support incremental delivery.
• Provide technical guidance, challenge and direction to help create a scalable, adaptable and operationally resilient architecture.

Key deliverables

• Current-state architecture assessment.
• Next-level architectural design documentation.
• Logical and high-level diagrams showing services, integrations and data flows.
• Recommendations covering message bus usage, service communication, data flow management and graph/integration layer design.
• Documented architectural decisions and guiding principles.
• Roadmap for future architectural development and technical improvement.

Essential experience

• Proven experience as a Technical Architect, Solution Architect or Software Architect on complex software systems.
• Strong understanding of service-oriented architecture, distributed systems and integration patterns.
• Experience working with Java-based applications or Java-heavy technical environments.
• Strong knowledge of APIs, messaging, data models, configuration management and service communication.
• Ability to analyse complex existing systems and produce clear architectural recommendations.
• Experience documenting data flows, system interactions, logical architecture and technical design decisions.
• Strong understanding of non-functional requirements such as reliability, scalability, maintainability, resilience and performance.
• Experience working closely with software engineering teams in an Agile or iterative delivery environment.
• Strong stakeholder communication skills, with the ability to explain complex technical concepts clearly.
• Ability to work onsite in Didcot 5 days per week.
• Eligible for BPSS clearance.

Desirable experience

• Experience with message bus technologies, event-driven architecture or asynchronous communication patterns.
• Experience evaluating or implementing graph-based interfaces, graph schemas or related integration approaches.
• Experience with scientific, engineering, research, data acquisition, instrumentation or highly technical software environments.
• Experience defining API standards, service boundaries and architectural governance.
• Experience assessing technical debt and creating pragmatic architecture roadmaps.
• Familiarity with DevOps, CI/CD, automated testing and service deployment practices.