AWS Cloud Architect - eSC or eDV Clearance Required

IBM; Leicester; On-site; GBP 85,000 - 120,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Flexible working

Sabbatical programs

Paid paternal leave

Maternity leave and maternity return‑

25 days holiday

Private medical

Dental & optical cover

Employee Assistance Program

Life assurance

Pension plan

Job summary

IBM Consulting UK FutureNow is seeking an AWS Cloud Architect to join the team, leading secure, scalable cloud solutions for public sector and defence clients. You will drive architecture across AWS, with hands-on delivery, modern cloud-native patterns, and a bias for operational excellence within Agile teams.

The role requires a Bachelor’s degree, AWS certification (Professional/Expert preferred), and expertise in Kubernetes, Terraform, CI/CD, security and governance.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in a technical field or equivalent experience.
• Strong experience designing cloud architectures for AWS.
• Hands-on with modern cloud-native engineering and Agile teams.

Responsibilities

• Lead design of scalable, secure cloud architectures for public sector and defence clients.
• Translate requirements into architecture designs and collaborate with stakeholders.
• Provide technical leadership across full-stack development and cloud-native patterns.
• Guide CI/CD pipelines, DevOps practices, and IaC across projects.
• Produce architecture diagrams and reusable design patterns.

Skills

AWS services

Kubernetes

Docker

Helm

Terraform

CloudFormation

CI/CD

Security & IAM

Databases (NoSQL/SQL)

Monitoring & Observability

Education

Bachelor's Degree

Tools

Terraform

CloudFormation

Bicep

ARM templates

Ansible

Azure DevOps

GitHub Actions

AWS CodePipeline/CodeBuild

Jenkins

Job description

Introduction

At IBM Consulting UK FutureNow, you’ll build a career at the forefront of hybrid cloud and AI, working with leading clients across the public and private sectors.

At IBM Consulting UK FutureNow, you’ll build a career at the forefront of hybrid cloud and AI, working with leading clients across the public and private sectors. You’ll collaborate with top industry professionals, gain hands on experience with cutting edge technologies, and deliver solutions that create real business impact. From day one, you’ll work on meaningful, high profile programmes that stretch your skills and accelerate your growth. We invest heavily in you—supporting continuous learning, in demand skills development, and long term career progression. You’ll thrive in a flexible, inclusive environment that values curiosity, encourages reinvention, and recognises what makes you unique.

We Offer

• Tools and policies to support your work‑life balance from flexible working approaches, sabbatical programs, paid paternity leave, maternity leave and an innovative maternity returners scheme
• More traditional benefits, such as 25 days holiday (in addition to public holidays), private medical, dental & optical cover, online shopping discounts, an Employee Assistance Program, life assurance and a group pension plan through salary sacrifice.

Your Role And Responsibilities

We are seeking an AWS Cloud Architect to join IBM, supporting public sector and defence clients. This role suits a senior engineer or developer who is ready to move into a broader technical leadership position. You will lead the design and delivery of secure, scalable, and high‑performing cloud solutions, primarily on AWS, while also contributing to wider cloud and infrastructure architecture across complex environments. The ideal candidate is a hands‑on technologist with strong architectural thinking, experience in modern cloud‑native engineering, and a background working within Agile teams.

Responsibilities

• Lead the design of cloud architectures that emphasise scalability, security, performance, and operational excellence for public sector and defence clients.
• Translate business and technical requirements into clear solution designs and collaborate with stakeholders across engineering, product, and delivery.
• Provide technical leadership across full‑stack development, microservices, distributed systems, event‑driven patterns, and cloud‑native application design.
• Use AWS (and occasionally Azure) services to build secure, resilient, and cost‑efficient solutions.
• Apply AWS Well‑Architected Framework principles to ensure best‑practice implementation.
• Support application modernisation initiatives including containerisation, serverless adoption, refactoring, and cloud migration.
• Guide teams in CI/CD pipeline creation, automation practices, DevOps workflows, and infrastructure‑as‑code.
• Produce architecture diagrams, documentation, standards, and reusable design patterns.
• Work closely with developers, cloud engineers, product owners, and business leaders across Agile delivery teams.

Preferred Education

Bachelor's Degree

Required Technical And Professional Expertise

Cloud

• Strong experience with AWS services across compute, storage, networking, APIs, serverless, and managed database offerings.

Architecture

• Skilled in designing microservices‑based systems, distributed architectures, and event‑driven or serverless patterns.

Containerisation

• Proficient with Kubernetes (EKS or AKS), Docker, and Helm for container orchestration and deployment.

Infrastructure as Code

• Hands‑on experience with Terraform, CloudFormation, Bicep, ARM templates, and Ansible for automated infrastructure provisioning.

CI/CD

• Practical knowledge of Azure DevOps, GitHub Actions, AWS CodePipeline/CodeBuild, Jenkins, and Git‑based workflows.

Databases

• Familiarity with relational databases (Postgres, MySQL, SQL Server) and NoSQL platforms (DynamoDB or Cosmos DB), with optional exposure to graph or vector data stores.

Monitoring & Observability

• Experience with cloud‑native monitoring and logging systems such as CloudWatch or Azure Monitor, plus tools like Application Insights, Prometheus, and Grafana.

Security & Governance

• Strong understanding of IAM/RBAC, Key Vault/KMS, cloud security services, policy enforcement, and secrets management.

This role is subject to pre‑employment screening in line with the UK Government’s Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS). An additional range of Personal Security Controls referred to as National Security Vetting (NVS) may apply, this could include meeting the eligibility requirements for The Security Check (SC) or Developed Vetting (DV).

Preferred Technical And Professional Experience

• AWS Solutions Architect certification, ideally at the Professional or Expert level
• DevOps‑focused certifications (AWS DevOps Engineer, Azure DevOps Engineer, or equivalent)
• Kubernetes certifications such as CKA, CKAD, or CKS
• Terraform certification (Terraform Associate or higher)
• Enterprise architecture frameworks such as TOGAF or Zachman
• Red Hat Certified Architect (beneficial but not essential)
• Security certifications such as CISSP, CCSP, Security+, or AWS Security Specialty
• Cloud architecture and engineering specialties (AWS Advanced Networking, AWS Data Engineering, Azure Security Engineer, etc.)
• ITIL Foundation or higher (optional)