Platform Architect

Barlowe LLP; Greater London; On-site; GBP 70,000 - 100,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Highly competitive compensation

Lunch provided

30 days' annual leave

9% company pension contributions

Job summary

Barlowe LLP is looking for an experienced Infrastructure Architect to join their Platform and Solution Architecture team. This role involves owning the infrastructure roadmap and defining standards across hybrid environments, impacting operational efficiency and competitive advantage.

The ideal candidate has extensive experience with virtualization, container platforms, and public cloud technologies while leading architecture efforts that influence engineering teams. Benefits include a competitive salary, 30 days of annual leave, and additional perks.

Qualifications

• Extensive experience in infrastructure architecture with focus on private cloud.
• Deep expertise in virtualization and container platforms.
• Strong leadership and influence skills.

Responsibilities

• Own and develop the on-premises infrastructure roadmap.
• Establish infrastructure principles and standards.
• Evaluate infrastructure technologies and make informed recommendations.

Skills

Infrastructure architecture

Private cloud expertise

Cloud technologies

Technical communication

Tools

VMware

Kubernetes

AWS

Job description

Overview

We tackle the most complex problems in quantitative finance, by bringing scientific clarity to financial complexity. From our London HQ, we unite world‑class researchers and engineers in an environment that values deep exploration and methodical execution – because the best ideas take time to evolve. Together we’re building a world‑class platform to amplify our teams’ most powerful ideas. You’ll shape the platforms and tools that drive high‑impact research – designing systems that scale, accelerate discovery and support innovation across the firm.

Role

We are seeking an experienced Infrastructure Architect to join our Platform and Solution Architecture team. In this role, you’ll own the infrastructure roadmap and help define architectural standards across our hybrid environment of private and public cloud platforms. Working closely with other architects in the team, you’ll focus primarily on private cloud and on‑premises infrastructure while defining integration strategies with our public cloud platforms. Your expertise will guide critical decisions on workload placement, technology selection and infrastructure governance, directly influencing how our engineering teams build and deploy systems at scale. This role is critical to our technology strategy. You’ll be shaping infrastructure that processes billions of data points daily, supports latency‑sensitive workloads and must scale seamlessly. Your architectural decisions will impact our competitive advantage and operational efficiency for years to come.

Key Responsibilities

• Owning and developing the on‑premises infrastructure roadmap, ensuring alignment with business objectives and collaborating with Platform and Solution architects to deliver integrated strategies.
• Establishing infrastructure principles, standards and patterns that drive consistency, interoperability and quality across our environment.
• Evaluating and selecting infrastructure technologies, assessing both traditional vendors and cloud providers to make informed recommendations.
• Acting as the technical authority for on‑premises architecture, providing leadership on key decisions and serving as an escalation point for engineering teams.
• Championing architectural best practices across the organisation, ensuring infrastructure designs support broader technology initiatives.
• Partnering with engineering teams to translate architectural vision into delivered capabilities, using influence and collaboration to drive adoption.
• Ensuring infrastructure governance and compliance, proactively managing risk while maintaining pragmatic balance between security and business agility.

Required Qualifications

• Extensive experience in infrastructure architecture with a strong focus on private cloud and on‑premises environments.
• Deep expertise in virtualization and container platforms (VMware, OpenStack, KVM, Kubernetes) and in Infrastructure‑as‑Code practices.
• Comprehensive networking knowledge, spanning physical infrastructure (switching, routing), network virtualization (SDN, VXLAN), and container networking (overlay networks, CNIs).
• Hands‑on experience with public cloud platforms (AWS preferred) and hybrid connectivity patterns.
• Proven ability to design and deliver infrastructure roadmaps for complex organisations, translating detailed technical design into actionable, strategic plans.
• Strong leadership and influence skills, driving consensus across diverse stakeholder groups and influencing without authority.
• Excellent technical communication, making complex infrastructure decisions clear and accessible to both technical and executive audiences.

Desirable Qualifications

• Experience in performance‑critical environments with low‑latency and data gravity requirements.
• Experience with forward proxy and perimeter security solutions, such as explicit / transparent proxy.
• Hands‑on knowledge of Kubernetes and container orchestration platforms.
• Infrastructure automation and observability platforms experience.
• Emerging technology awareness, keeping an eye on the latest in AI/ML infrastructure and edge computing.
• Industry certifications, such as AWS Solutions Architect, VMware VCP or similar.

Benefits

• Highly competitive compensation plus annual discretionary bonus.
• Lunch provided (via Just Eat for Business) and dedicated barista bar.
• 30 days’ annual leave.
• 9% company pension contributions.
• Informal dress code and excellent work/life balance.
• Comprehensive healthcare and life assurance.
• Cycl‑to‑work scheme.
• Monthly company events.

EEO Statement

G‑Research is committed to cultivating and preserving an inclusive work environment. We are an ideas‑driven business and we place great value on diversity of experience and opinions. We want to ensure that applicants receive a recruitment experience that enables them to perform at their best. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation please let us know in the relevant section.