Lead Technical Architect - Networking Datacentre Design

6 Month Contract | £790/day Inside IR35

3 Days OnSite (Milton Keynes Area)

DV Cleared Site

We are seeking an experienced Lead Technical Architect with strong networking expertise and endtoend datacentre design experience to support a secure government programme. This role sits within a high;security environment and requires candidates who hold or can obtain DV clearance (sole British nationals only).

You will lead the design and governance of secure, scalable, and resilient architectures across on;premise, private cloud, and multi;cloud environments, while guiding a team of architects and shaping long;term technical roadmaps.

Key Responsibilities

• Design and govern secure network architectures across VMware private cloud, Microsoft on;premise, and Azure/AWS.
• Lead creation of scalable, resilient LAN, WAN, hybrid cloud, and datacentre solutions.
• Translate business/security needs into conceptual, logical, and physical architectures.
• Produce high;quality HLDs/LLDs aligned to TOGAF.
• Lead and mentor technical architects, providing direction and coaching.
• Act as escalation point for complex technical incidents.
• Evaluate design options and advise on cost, security, quality, and delivery trade;offs.
• Design secure architectures, ideally with government/defence exposure.
• Develop DDoS, firewall, WAF, IDS/IPS, EDR/XDR/NDR protection strategies.
• Design business continuity, disaster recovery, and resilient datacentre solutions.
• Review and assure complex solutions for compliance and performance.
• Use operational data to identify optimisation opportunities.
• Maintain technical roadmaps aligned with organisational goals.
• Stay current with emerging tools and technologies.

Essential Skills Experience

• STEM degree or equivalent experience.
• One or more major certifications, or equivalent experience. e.g.: CCNP, VCP#8209;NV, PCNSE, Microsoft Azure Network Engineer Associate, AWS Solutions Architect - Associate
• Proven experience designing secure enterprise networks across on-prem, private cloud, and public cloud.
• Experience with network automation, orchestration, and provisioning.
• Strong datacentre design and infrastructure integration capability.
• Skilled in producing architecture across conceptual logical physical layers.
• Experience leading and developing technical architecture teams.
• Ability to influence senior stakeholders with evidence;based recommendations.

Clearance Requirements

This is a DV cleared site. Candidates must be sole British nationals and hold or be eligible for DV clearance