Managed Services Lead Architect

F5 consultants; Manchester; On-site; GBP 90,000 - 110,000; Full time

Job summary

F5 consultants in Manchester is seeking an experienced Lead, Chief, Enterprise or Infrastructure Architect to drive account-level technical leadership and own end-to-end architecture for a major managed-services estate.

You will govern designs, roadmaps and technical debt, lead domain architects, engage senior stakeholders, and ensure live-service readiness while balancing cost, risk and resilience. Onsite five days a week with a salary up to £100,000 plus bonus and benefits.

Qualifications

• Experience leading architects and challenging technical teams.
• Experience owning large, complex live-service environments.
• Strong architecture governance and design assurance experience.
• Commercial awareness from managed services, outsourcing or similar environments.
• Ability to obtain UK SC clearance.
• Willingness to work onsite in Manchester five days per week.

Responsibilities

• Own the end-to-end architecture of a major managed-services estate.
• Set the overall technology strategy and future direction.
• Lead Domain Architects across multiple technology areas.
• Govern technical designs, changes and architecture decisions.
• Manage technology roadmaps, technical debt and obsolescence.
• Ensure new solutions are operationally supportable before entering live service.
• Balance modernization with resilience, cost, risk and contractual commitments.
• Provide senior technical leadership during major incidents and operational risks.
• Advise senior client stakeholders and the wider account leadership team.
• Drive continuous improvement across live services.

Skills

Enterprise Architecture

Infrastructure Architecture

Stakeholder engagement

Technology strategy

Job description

Salary: £100,000 - 100,000 per year

Requirements:

• We are looking for an experienced Lead, Chief, Enterprise or Infrastructure Architect who has progressed into account-level technical leadership while maintaining technical credibility.
• We need broad infrastructure architecture knowledge across several technology domains.
• We need experience owning or governing large, complex live-service environments.
• We need experience leading architects and challenging specialist technical teams.
• We need strong architecture governance and design assurance experience.
• We need experience with technology strategy, roadmaps, technical debt and lifecycle management.
• We need experience in operational resilience, disaster recovery and major-incident involvement.
• We need experience ensuring solutions can transition successfully into live service.
• We need senior client and stakeholder engagement experience.
• We need commercial awareness gained within managed services, outsourcing or another complex operational environment.
• We need the ability to work onsite in Manchester five days per week.
• We need the ability to meet the requirements to obtain UK SC clearance.

Responsibilities:

• We own the end-to-end architecture of a major managed-services estate.
• We set the overall technology strategy and future direction.
• We lead and challenge Domain Architects across multiple technology areas.
• We govern technical designs, changes and architecture decisions.
• We manage technology roadmaps, technical debt and obsolescence.
• We ensure new solutions are operationally supportable before entering live service.
• We balance modernisation with resilience, cost, risk and contractual commitments.
• We provide senior technical leadership during major incidents and operational risks.
• We advise senior client stakeholders and the wider account leadership team.
• We drive continuous improvement across live services.

Technologies:

• Architect
• Cloud
• Security
• PLC

More:

We are recruiting for a senior Managed Services Lead Architect role based in Manchester, working five days onsite within a secure environment. This is a large, complex, live managed-services account where we provide oversight across infrastructure, cloud, networks, security, workplace and other core technology services. The salary is up to £115,000 plus bonus and benefits. We are seeking a technically credible infrastructure leader who can govern an entire client estate while still challenging the detail.

last updated 38 week of 2026