Defence Solution Architect

hackajob is collaborating with Envitia to connect them with exceptional professionals for this role.

1. Company Introduction 

Join Envitia, a leader in the UK's digital and software services landscape, where your work in cutting-edge technology empowers our customers to manage, share, and exploit data more effectively: 

• Influence significant digital and data transformation projects within the UK Defence and Public Sector. 

• Utilise AI and Machine Learning to innovate sophisticated decision support systems. 

• Make an impactful contribution to society by harnessing the power of data. 

1.2 Role Summary  

We need a Defence Solution Architect who can connect mission need, data modelling, interoperability and secure technical delivery who does not just design systems but demonstrates how data moves, transforms, and creates operational value across the enterprise.

As a Defence Solution Architect, you will support the design, integration, and evaluation of interoperable Defence capabilities. Working across Defence stakeholders, mission experts, engineering teams and delivery partners, you will develop solution architectures that enable secure data discovery, transformation and exchange across heterogeneous systems.

You will translate operational mission threads, user needs and experimentation objectives into scalable, secure and interoperable technical solutions. This will include producing architectural artefacts, interface specifications, data models and integration views that support the appropriate data policies and standards and demonstrate operational value.

Sitting in our consulting division, reporting to the Architecture team lead, you will contribute to delivery, technical assurance and capability development, helping to ensure that solution designs are coherent from concept through implementation and aligned with security, information assurance and enterprise architecture principles.

The successful candidate is also expected to actively support Envitia’s sales effort, from a pre-sales perspective, where you will own the technical solution process, by defining the approaches and associated effort/cost estimates, but equally maintain a marketplace presence with attendance at events and conferences where you will have the opportunity to present the advancements of our products, concept demonstrators and perspectives.

To be successful in this role, you will present extensive experience with the Defence sector, evidenced through a sound understanding of Defence standards.

1.3 Key Responsibilities & Accountabilities

• Design and assure end-to-end solution architectures that support experimentation, integration, and Defence data interoperability.

• Translate operational mission threads, user requirements and experimentation objectives into scalable, secure and deliverable technical solutions.

• Produce and maintain architectural artefacts, including solution views, data flow diagrams, interface specifications, data models, integration views and decision records.

• Define integration approaches that enable data discovery, transformation, exchange and exploitation across heterogeneous Defence systems.

• Work collaboratively with mission engineering, software development, data engineering, experimentation and operational analysis teams to ensure architectural coherence from concept through implementation.

• Support the definition and assurance of Information Exchange Requirements, interface contracts, non-functional requirements and security constraints.

• Identify technical risks, interoperability challenges, architectural trade-offs and delivery dependencies, providing clear recommendations to Defence and delivery stakeholders.

• Support experimentation planning, execution and technical reviews, ensuring lessons learned are captured and fed into future capability development.

• Ensure solutions align with security, information assurance, Defence standards and enterprise architecture principles.

• Provide technical leadership in solution reviews and Technical Design Authority forums.

• Contribute reusable architecture patterns, methods and learning from customer work into Envitia’s wider architecture capability.

• Ensure solution and data architectures are subject to robust cost and effort estimation, covering design, development, transition, operation, maintenance and exit costs.

• Guide, mentor and coach junior members of the team

1.4 Core Competencies

Defence interoperability, mission data and experimentation

• Experience working in Defence, national security, operational analysis, mission engineering or experimentation environments.

• Understanding of Defence interoperability principles, including the need to connect systems, users, data flows and operational effects across multi-domain environments.

• Experience designing architectures that support secure data exchange between heterogeneous systems, including data discovery, transformation, integration and exploitation.

• Ability to develop and interpret mission threads, operational workflows, Information Exchange Requirements and data flow views.

• Strong data modelling skills, including conceptual, logical or exchange-level models that support interoperability and operational decision-making.

• Familiarity with data integration, interoperability or mission data platforms.

• Understanding of NATO, MOD or Defence standards relevant to interoperability, information sharing and secure architecture.

• Experience supporting experimentation, capability demonstrators, technical reviews or iterative capability development.

Solution Architecture

• Strong understanding of solution and enterprise architecture frameworks and modelling approaches, including TOGAF, ArchiMate or equivalent.

• Experience translating functional, non-functional, operational and security requirements into coherent solution designs.

• Experience producing architecture artefacts for complex systems, including context views, logical views, integration views, data flow views, deployment views and assurance documentation.

• Familiarity with cloud-native, containerised or distributed architectures, including Azure, AWS, Docker, Kubernetes, APIs, event-driven integration and COTS integration.

• Experience designing secure, resilient and scalable integration patterns across legacy and modern technology stacks.

• Ability to explain architectural trade-offs clearly, including security, interoperability, cost, performance, delivery risk and technical debt.

• Experience presenting solution designs to Technical Design Authority, Design Review or equivalent assurance forums.

Core

• Excellent communication, stakeholder management, and presentation skills.

• Extensive experience with Defence client.

• Ability to operate in ambiguous, fast-moving delivery or experimentation environments, balancing architectural rigour with pragmatic delivery.