Service Architect

Our defence sector client is recruiting for an SC cleared Service Architect to advise and assure that the OpNET design is capable of integration with the extant defence Communications and Information Systems estate. This is a contract role starting ASAP until the end of March 2025 initially., The OpNET Design Office is responsible for the coherence and assurance of the design activity for the entirety of the OpNET Platform. This role reports directly to the Design Office Lead under governance of the System Design Authority and Core Product Owner., Support

• Act as the point of contact for Core Service architecture and design on behalf of the Design Office Lead.
• Interact with programme, project and engineering team leads to ensure cross team, cross technology coherence to satisfy the requirements of the OpNet system.
• Interacting with programme, project, and engineering team leads to ensure good awareness and communication of legacy and current solution integrations and dependencies.
• Support design vision creation, design decisions and design review as part of the end-to-end assurance process.
• Supporting Programme and Project Stakeholder engagement and RAIDO management.
• Liaise with external stakeholders to ensure end-to-end designs are being delivered across the wider Defence landscape.
• Liaise with team leads across the OpNET Programme and wider Defence Digital organisations to ensure a robust solution is delivered within Time, Cost and Performance.
Design
• Identify, create, communicate, and own High Level Designs across Design Office and the programme teams.
• Support the review of all high and low-level designs for coherence, technical content and quality.
• Align standards, frameworks and security with overall business and technology strategy.
• Participate in Preliminary and Critical Design Reviews with stakeholders, both presenting and challenging design decisions, requirements alignment and supportability aspects.
• Supporting the design of Core Services architecture elements to enable the system to function as part of the wider defence estate, during inception, transition, and operations.
Assure
• Ensuring that standards, frameworks and security postures align with overall business and technology strategies and policies e.g. Federated Mission Networking and JSPs.
• Identify capability gaps in existing architectures and recommend changes or enhancements in line with Agile and continuous improvement methods.
  
  Architecture and development of secure Hardware and Software solutions with successful delivery on complex, large scale programmes utilising emerging technologies where possible.
• Integration of legacy and current operational and deployed MoD systems, services, and applications.
• Writing technical requirements and producing detailed solution architectures.
• Delivering accredited secure solutions within the UK Public Sector.
• Defining scope for product selections against complex requirements, specifically measuring performance, cost, and time.
• Detailed knowledge and understanding of JSP and over-arching HMG policy.
• An understanding of Defence Lines of Development (DLOD) and MOD Capability Integration.
• Comprehensive knowledge of UK Defence deployed architectures, federations with coalition partners, security enforcing gateways and modern techniques for enforcement of security principles including VPN, VDI, hardware encryption and information flow handling.
• Hands on design of:
+ Microsoft Windows Server 2012, 2016, 2019, 2022; o IDAM, AD, NTFS permissions o DNS o DHCP o Group Policy (Including Security Hardening) o NTP o PKI + Mail o Microsoft Exchange + Voice and Video Conferencing o Skype for Business o Microsoft Teams o SIP with TLS federation + Database Services o Microsoft SQL Server inc Always On o PostgreSQL + SharePoint 2019 + MECM / SCCM + Desktop Management o Windows 10/11 Deployment
• At least one of the following professional certifications that have been obtained within the last five years:
+ Windows Server certification, MCSA (Microsoft Certified Solutions Associate) / MCSE (Microsoft Certified Solutions Expert) or similar.
• Hold a valid Security Clearance (SC)
• Competency in MS Office Suite., Public and Private cloud architectures utilising Software Defined Datacentre (SDDC) techniques.
• Virtualisation technologies such as VMware ESXi, vCentre, vSAN and Horizon.
• A firm grasp of MOD Service management tooling and ITIL.
• Excellent communication skills with diverse and adverse audiences.
• Strong critical thinking and analytical skills.
• Ability to identify risks associated with business processes, operations, information security programmes, and technology projects.
• Working within the public sector, preferably Defence, and ideally with Defence Digital.
• Automation and Orchestration technologies and principals.
• Delivering in Agile and Waterfall project management environments
• Experience of capturing architectures utilising Archimate architecture modelling language.
• Experience with the Atlassian Toolset - JIRA, Confluence and BitBucket for delivering Agile based projects.