IT Security Architect - Leeds - Hybrid

W Talent; Leeds; Hybrid; GBP 72,000 - 88,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Good Benefits

Job summary

The Lead Security Architect role in Leeds offers a permanent position with a flexible hybrid working pattern, attending site roughly 50% of the time and with adaptable hours. You will champion a modern security posture, define patterns and roadmaps, and partner with delivery teams to embed secure-by-design principles across projects.

Strong communication and influencing across senior stakeholders are essential.

Qualifications

• Demonstrated security architecture expertise across complex environments.
• Ability to define security patterns, standards and roadmaps.
• Secure-by-design delivery with threat-led thinking.

Responsibilities

• Champion a modern security posture with measurable risk reduction.
• Define security patterns, standards, and roadmaps for projects.
• Embed controls across discovery, design, build and delivery; ensure standards compliance.
• Lead high-impact initiatives, aligning security capabilities to business risk.
• Drive architecture governance with design reviews and sign-offs.
• Collaborate across Technology and business domains for target designs.
• Partner with Assurance to land the right controls at the right stages.
• Communicate complex security choices to senior stakeholders.

Job description

I am recruiting for a Lead Security Architect for our very well established client within the Financial Services industry.

This position offers a flexible hybrid role, where you will only need to attend site approx. 50% of the time, with flexibility on working hours.

Lead Security Architect

Permanent

Location: Leeds - Hybrid working model

Salary: to £80,000 + Good Benefits

Key skills:

• Champion a modern security posture - threat informed and focused on measurable reduction of attack surface.
• Security architecture strategy & guardrails – define and evolve the security patterns, principles, standards, and roadmaps that guide projects and platforms.
• Secure-by-design delivery – partner with solution architects, SMEs and delivery teams to embed controls and use threat-led thinking throughout discovery, design, build, and delivery; ensure designs meet policy and technical standards.
• Act as senior architectural voice for high impact initiatives, aligning security capabilities to business outcomes and risk profiles, and shaping option analysis with clear trade-offs.
• Architecture governance – drive effective design reviews and signoffs; document how solutions interact with the wider enterprise and ensure compliance with our delivery and assurance frameworks.
• Cross-Technology influence – collaborate across Technology and business domains to translate strategy into target designs, balancing resilience with productivity and simplification.
• Partner with our Assurance team to land the right controls at the right stages, ensuring risk is actively surfaced and owned.
• Communicate complex security choices simply - at meetings/workshops, in option papers, and roadmaps that influence senior stakeholders and unblock decisions.
• Breadth and depth in IT/security architecture, with a track record delivering secure designs and steering multiteam programmes.
• Stakeholder leadership—comfortable influencing senior leaders and guiding engineers/SMEs; strong documentation and communication skills.

Desirable Skills:

• Knowledge of well-known Frameworks (e.g., NIST, MITRE ATT&CK, ISO 27001) and the ability to apply them pragmatically within delivery.
• Team leadership experience either as a virtual team or direct line management experience.
• Relevant certifications (e.g., CISSP, CISM).