Cloud Platform Architect

Hargreaves Lansdown; West of England; Hybrid; GBP 120,000 - 170,000; Full time

Job summary

Hargreaves Lansdown is seeking an experienced Platform Architect with deep AWS expertise to lead the design of scalable, secure, and compliant cloud platforms in a hybrid Bristol-based environment.

You will define standards, drive IaC with Terraform or CloudFormation, partner with security and engineering, and mentor teams while ensuring ISO 27001 and PCI DSS alignment.

Qualifications

• Strong track record designing scalable, secure AWS platforms in enterprise environments.
• Experience working in regulated industries with UK financial services awareness.
• Familiarity with IaC, CI/CD pipelines, and cloud governance.

Responsibilities

• Mature the cloud architecture strategy and define standards for deployment and management.
• Develop reference architecture assets and patterns aligned with HL vision for cloud platforms.
• Lead the AWS design of secure, scalable cloud platforms with resilience and cost efficiency.
• Collaborate with security, compliance, and engineering teams for seamless cloud integration.
• Develop and mature governance for AWS including cost optimisation and risk management.
• Advise on cloud platform topics, migration strategies, and cloud solutions (cloud-native and hybrid).
• Support operations and engineering through monitoring and automation to optimise resources and cost.
• Ensure compliance with ISO 27001, PCI DSS, and UK financial regulations.
• Mentor internal cloud capabilities and best practices across DevOps and IaC approaches.
• Evaluate and recommend cloud services, tools and technologies.

Skills

AWS Architecture

Cloud Networking

Security & Compliance

Kubernetes

Infrastructure as Code

CI/CD

Stakeholder Communications

Regulated Industry Experience

Tools

Terraform

CloudFormation

Jira

Jenkins

Job description

We are evolving our technology, adopting a cloud ecosystem to support our digital strategy. We are seeking an experienced Platform Architect with deep expertise in AWS to join our team. You will be leading, developing and optimising our AWS architecture ensuring it is scalable, secure and compliant, meeting regulatory requirements. This is an exciting opportunity to shape the AWS technical strategy in a transformative environment.

What you will be doing

• Mature the cloud architecture strategy, defining architectural standards and best practices for deployment and management.
• Develop and maintain reference architecture assets e.g. roadmaps, blueprints and patterns that are aligned with the HL vision and strategy for cloud platforms.
• Lead the AWS design of secure and scalable cloud platforms, ensuring resilience and cost efficiency.
• Collaborate with security, compliance, and engineering teams to ensure seamless cloud integration with existing and future platforms.
• Develop and mature robust technical governance for AWS including cost optimisation and compliance. Manage any architectural issues (e.g. technical debt), risks and escalations, documenting and raising via the appropriate governance structures.
• Advise on cloud platform topics, migration strategies, and cloud solutions (cloud native and hybrid).
• Support operational and engineering colleagues through identifying opportunities to optimise cloud resources, performance and cost through continuous monitoring and automation.
• Ensure compliance with relevant frameworks, including ISO 27001, PCI DSS, and UK financial regulations.
• Support cloud capabilities internally through the mentoring of new colleagues and technical teams such as Operations and Engineering, on strong architectural discipline, cloud best practices, DevOps, and infrastructure-as-code approaches.
• Evaluate and recommend cloud services, tools and technologies.

About you

• Strong cloud experience designing scalable, secure and highly available systems on AWS.
• Deep expertise in cloud networking, security, database and storage solutions.
• Knowledge of containerisation, orchestration (Kubernetes), and serverless architectures.
• Experience with Infrastructure-as-Code (IAC) using tools like Terraform or Cloud Formation, CI/CD pipelines, Jira and Jenkins.
• Awareness and use of architectural frameworks.
• Strong problem-solving abilities and stakeholder communication skills.
• Experience working in a regulated industry.

Desirable

• Cloud certification (e.g. AWS Solutions Architect) and strong experience in hybrid environments.
• Knowledge of financial services sector and regulatory framework in UK.
• Experience in cloud migration (design and implementation support) with deep understanding of techniques and best practice.
• Familiarity and use of common Enterprise Architecture (EA) tooling.

Interview process

The interview process for this role is two stages including a technical competency-based scenario task.

Working Schedule

This role is based in Bristol head office, BS1 5HL. This role is permanent, full time, 37.5 hours per week, Monday to Friday. We have returned to the office, however for this role we offer a hybrid flexible working pattern.