Associate, Technical Architect (London, GB)

Job Review: Associate, Technical Architect (London)

This review provides an in-depth look at the Associate, Technical Architect position based in London, offering potential candidates valuable insights to guide their career decisions. The role is a fixed-term contract for two years, based within the Information Technology division.

The Opportunity: Shaping Tomorrow's Technology

As an Associate, Technical Architect, you will be instrumental in translating the architectural vision of both technology and business units into tangible solutions. This role is hands-on, requiring close collaboration with a multidisciplinary team, including Engineers, Product Owners, and Technical Business Analysts. You will be involved in the selection, design, and implementation of cutting-edge technology solutions that address critical business and technological challenges.

Key Responsibilities & Your Impact:

This position offers a broad scope of responsibility and the chance to make a significant impact. Your core accountabilities will include:

• Driving Infrastructure Architecture: You will be responsible for the architecture of technologies within Infrastructure Squads and their seamless integration into the broader Platform Engineering landscape.
• Platform Design and Integration: This includes the support, design, and integration of infrastructure platform technologies, contributing directly to the overall Platform Architecture.
• Ensuring Operational Excellence: You will play a crucial role in ensuring the effective operation and alignment of enterprise infrastructure services, covering compute, storage, networking, hypervisors, operating systems, and container platforms.
• Enabling DevSecOps: A key aspect of this role is to enable squads to adopt DevSecOps tooling and practices, thereby optimizing on-premises workloads.
• Data Protection and Availability: You will support the implementation and management of enterprise backup, Continuous Data Protection (CDP), and workload availability solutions.
• Observability and Forecasting: Maintaining and developing observability platforms for monitoring, logging, and forecasting across infrastructure services is a vital component.
• Hybrid Cloud Integration: You will support the integration of on-premises platforms with hybrid cloud environments.
• Compute and Data Protection Platforms: The design and implementation of these critical platforms, aligned with enterprise strategy, will be under your purview.
• Independent Problem Solving: You are expected to operate without supervision, holistically managing complexity to ensure infrastructure platforms are secure by design, resilient, scalable, and cost-effective.

Advantages for Your Career Path:

This role presents several compelling advantages for ambitious professionals:

• Hands-On Technical Leadership: You'll be actively involved in the design and implementation, gaining practical experience and solidifying your technical expertise.
• Broad Technological Exposure: The responsibilities cover a wide spectrum of modern infrastructure technologies, from on-premises data centres to cloud-native services and DevSecOps practices.
• Strategic Impact: Your work will directly influence the architectural direction and operational efficiency of the organisation, contributing to its overall success.
• Collaborative Environment: Working within agile squads and collaborating with diverse teams fosters knowledge sharing and professional growth.
• International Exposure: Being part of a pioneering and diverse international organisation provides a unique perspective and networking opportunities.
• Meaningful Contribution: The opportunity to use your talents to make a real difference to people's lives and shape the future of the regions the organisation invests in is a powerful motivator.
• Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion: The organisation actively embraces inclusion and celebrates diversity, fostering a respectful and equal opportunities environment.
• Flexible Working: The promotion of flexible working, with a 50% office attendance expectation, offers a good work-life balance.

Key Considerations for Candidates:

To excel in this role, consider the following:

• Depth of On-Premises Experience: Strong, proven experience in designing, implementing, and supporting on-premises data centre architectures is essential.
• Compute and Storage Proficiency: A solid understanding and practical experience with compute infrastructure (physical servers, hypervisors), enterprise storage (SAN, NAS, object), and cloud-native services are required.
• Data Protection Expertise: Demonstrable experience in designing, implementing, and supporting enterprise backup and data protection platforms is critical.
• High Availability and DR Skills: Experience in designing and implementing high availability infrastructure architectures and disaster recovery solutions is a key requirement.
• Infrastructure Management Principles: A good grasp of infrastructure management, observability, capacity forecasting, and resource optimization practices will be beneficial.
• Performance Monitoring Knowledge: Familiarity with various performance monitoring approaches is expected.
• Vendor Collaboration: Experience working effectively with Managed Service Providers and Professional Service Partners will be an advantage.
• Fixed-Term Contract: Be aware that this is a fixed-term contract for two years.

This Associate, Technical Architect role offers a dynamic and rewarding opportunity for seasoned professionals looking to contribute to significant architectural initiatives within a globally recognized organisation. If you possess a strong technical foundation and a passion for building resilient and efficient infrastructure, this position could be an excellent step in your career progression.