Lead Architect

F5 Consultants; Manchester; On-site; GBP 38,000 - 78,000; Full time

Job summary

F5 Consultants in Manchester is seeking an established Lead, Chief or Enterprise Architect to manage end-to-end architecture for a large managed-services estate. This role requires governance over complex technology environments and strong leadership to guide engineering teams onsite five days a week.

You will influence senior stakeholders, shape strategy, and ensure technical decisions align with contractual and operational needs. A UK national with SC clearance eligibility is required.

Qualifications

• Must be an established Lead/Chief/Enterprise Architect.
• Experience governing large, complex technology estates.
• Broad knowledge across multiple infrastructure and technology domains.
• Strong architecture governance and leadership credentials.
• Experience leading architects and influencing engineering teams.
• Excellent senior stakeholder and customer engagement skills.
• Commercial awareness gained within managed services or similar.
• Technical/engineering background before progressing into architecture leadership.
• UK national, eligible for SC clearance, onsite in Manchester five days a week.

Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end architecture of the managed-services estate.
• Govern technical change and key architecture decisions.
• Define technology strategy, roadmaps and future-state architecture.
• Lead Domain Architects and direct engineering teams.
• Build trusted relationships with senior client stakeholders.
• Balance technical quality with contractual, commercial and operational requirements.
• Drive resilience, modernisation and continuous service improvement.
• Ensure architectural decisions support the stability and development of live services.

Skills

Leadership

Stakeholder engagement

Governance

Technical leadership

Tools

Cloud

Security

Infra

Job description

Salary: £38,000 - 78,000 per year

Requirements:

• We are looking for an established Lead, Chief or Enterprise Architect.
• We need experience governing large, complex technology estates.
• We need broad knowledge across multiple infrastructure and technology domains.
• We need strong architecture governance and technical leadership credentials.
• We need experience leading architects and influencing engineering teams.
• We need excellent senior stakeholder and customer engagement skills.
• We need commercial awareness gained within managed services or similarly complex live-service environments.
• A technical or engineering background before progressing into architecture leadership is required.
• You must be a sole UK national, eligible to obtain SC clearance, and able to work onsite in Manchester five days per week.

Responsibilities:

• We own the end-to-end architecture of the managed-services estate.
• We govern technical change and key architecture decisions.
• We define technology strategy, roadmaps and future-state architecture.
• We lead Domain Architects and provide direction to engineering teams.
• We build trusted relationships with senior client stakeholders.
• We balance technical quality with contractual, commercial and operational requirements.
• We drive resilience, modernisation and continuous service improvement.
• We ensure architectural decisions support the stability and development of live services.

Technologies:

• Architect
• Support
• Cloud
• Security

More:

We offer a senior architecture leadership role within a large, complex managed-services account in Manchester. This is a genuinely senior position with end-to-end architecture ownership, close work with account leadership, and the opportunity to shape future technology direction. The role is onsite five days per week due to the secure nature of the environment. The salary is up to £115,000 plus bonus and benefits.

last updated 36 week of 2026