Principal Technical Architect - Active Security Clearance required.

Appvia; London; Hybrid; GBP 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

A cloud-native technology provider in London is looking for a Principal Technical Architect with active security clearance. This role involves guiding the design and governance of a secure government cloud platform, ensuring compliance with standards while influencing senior stakeholders. Candidates should have deep cloud expertise, especially in AWS, alongside experience in technical governance and stakeholder management. The position offers a salary of £90,000 - £120,000 plus benefits and is hybrid, requiring only one office day a month.

Benefits

Flexible working hours

25 days holiday plus bank holidays

Enhanced maternity and paternity

Full Private Healthcare coverage

Learning budget of £1,000

Qualifications

• Proven experience as a Principal Technical Architect in complex environments.
• Deep expertise in cloud infrastructure and platform engineering.
• Strong understanding of governance and compliance for UK government.

Responsibilities

• Define technical architecture for large-scale secure government cloud platform.
• Engage with senior government stakeholders on technical decisions.
• Lead documentation and governance of architectural decisions.

Skills

Cloud infrastructure

Kubernetes

Terraform

CI/CD pipelines

Stakeholder management

Education

Certification in relevant cloud technologies (AWS, Azure, GCP)

Tools

AWS

Azure

GCP

Job description

Job Title

Principal Technical Architect - active UK Security Clearance/ Developed Vetting required.

Location: London, UK (Hybrid ~ 1 day in-office per week)

Contract: Permanent/Full-time or Contract (6 months with view to extend)

Package: £90,000 - 120,000 + 10% Bonus + 10% Shares + Benefits (see more below)

Day rate: £700 per day (Outside IR35)

About Us

At Appvia, we"re committed to helping our customers navigate their journey to Cloud and DevOps maturity. As a leading provider in the industry, we offer cutting-edge technologies and services to support our clients" cloud adoption journey.

Our mission is to enable every company to deliver apps in the cloud. We dedicate ourselves to building a cloud infrastructure layer that allows platform engineering teams to manage, monitor and update with ease - at the same time, offering devs the flexibility to deploy their apps in the cloud without a hassle. We are passionate about driving value to our clients and have a desire to make their organisation succeed.

About the role

We are seeking an experienced Principal Technical Architect to join Appvia and play a leading role on one of the most significant government cloud initiatives in the UK, consulting on a critical national platform for a secure government client, ensuring this platform is designed and operated to the highest standards of resilience, security, and compliance. You’ll combine your technical expertise with excellent consultancy and stakeholder management skills, working directly with senior government stakeholders and partner organisations.

In this role, you’ll report directly into Appvia’s COO and act as a senior technical authority, shaping the design and governance of a cloud platform. While not heavily hands-on day-to-day, you will bring deep experience in cloud infrastructure, platform engineering, and solution architecture, enabling you to guide technical decision-making across teams. This is an opportunity to make a meaningful impact on one of the most important and high-profile secure cloud programmes in the country.

Interview process - 3 stage

• Initial conversation with our Talent Acquisition Manager
• Technical Interview
• Final Interview with Leadership

Important

This is an urgent requirement for a public sector client and will require ACTIVE Security Clearance or Developed Vetting.

About you

Proven experience as a Principal Technical Architect in secure, complex environments, including the following:

• Deep expertise in cloud infrastructure and platform engineering, preferably with a strong AWS background (other major cloud providers also valuable).
• Strong technical foundation in:
• Infrastructure-as-Code (Terraform)
• Kubernetes and container orchestration
• CI/CD pipelines and DevSecOps toolchains
• Strong understanding of governance, compliance, and security requirements for UK government, including NCSC Cloud Security Principles and relevant frameworks.
• Experience operating at the technical design authority (TDA) level, shaping architecture and providing oversight across multiple delivery teams.
• Ability to influence and engage senior government stakeholders, with excellent consultancy and stakeholder management skills.

Skills & Experience

Platform Architecture

• Define the technical architecture vision and governance for a large-scale secure government cloud platform.
• Shape design patterns, standards, and guardrails to meet national security and compliance requirements.
• Provide oversight across platform-focused engineering teams (e.g. CI/CD, Observability, Security, Networking).

Stakeholder Engagement

• Act as a trusted technical authority for both partner organisations and government stakeholders.
• Facilitate architecture boards, workshops, and reviews to align technical and business priorities.
• Communicate complex technical decisions and risks clearly to both technical and non-technical audiences.

Governance & Assurance

• Lead on documentation, governance, and assurance of architectural decisions.
• Identify and mitigate technical risks and dependencies.
• Embed security, resilience, and compliance into every stage of platform design and delivery.

Desirables

• Multi-cloud experience (Azure, GCP) in addition to AWS.
• Knowledge of FinOps principles and cloud cost optimisation.
• Background in hands-on software engineering or platform delivery, bringing credibility with engineering teams.
• Experience in large-scale agile delivery environments (SAFe, LeSS, dual-track agile).

Qualifications

Certification in relevant cloud technologies (AWS, Azure, GCP) at an expert/professional level is highly desirable, e.g.:

• AWS Solutions Architect Professional
• Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert (AZ305)

Certification in Kubernetes or Terraform administration is desirable:

• Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA)
• Certified Kubernetes Security Specialist (CKSS)
• HashiCorp Certified: Terraform Associate

Why join Appvia?

We are a self-funded, London based startup; providing businesses with a fast and secure way to deploy containerised applications into the cloud.

We are on a mission to enable organisations to make cloud-based software delivery simple and efficient, whilst having the insights into costs, security and cadence. As a company that holds customers at the heart of everything we do, we are looking for candidates that want to make a real change to how Dev and Ops is working in the industry.

With us our customers, like the UK’s Home Office & Bank of England, are harnessing cloud-native technologies, limiting the challenges of infrastructure management and rapidly delivering digital products.

What’s on offer? (Permanent Employees)

Work-life balance

• Flexible working with core hours of 10-4pm because we know life happens outside of work
• Hybrid working - only one compulsory office day per month
• 25 days’ holiday a year, plus bank holidays
• An additional day off for your birthday
• Enhanced maternity and paternity to full pay
• Workplace Nursery Benefit to help working parents

For your well-being

• Full Private Healthcare cover for you with partners and children covered 50%
• Death in Service
• Cycle to Work scheme
• Electric Car Scheme
• Pension plus a salary sacrifice option for even greater savings
• Employee Assistance Programme
• Free hygiene products available in the London office

Mental health support

• Free therapy through AXA
• Access to the Headspace App
• Trained Mental Health First Aiders

Other fun perks

• Learning budget of £1,000 a year
• Your own MacBook Pro while you work at Appvia
• Dog friendly office
• Wear what makes you comfortable
• Free snacks in the office
• Pool table & ping pong table
• Regular team socials, board game nights, industry meetups and more!

But don’t just take our word for it, you can check out what our Appvians say about us on Glassdoor and by following us on LinkedIn, Twitter and TikTok.

We are proud to be an equal opportunities employer and actively encourage, respect, and recognise diversity of thought and background throughout the business. All applicants will be considered for employment without attention to age, ethnicity, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, family or parental status, national origin, or veteran, neurodiversity, and disability status.

Note: While all roles are active and approved at the time of posting, the dynamic nature of our start-up means some applications may be processed to pipeline talent for future opportunities rather than current openings. We will strive to keep you informed of any changes to the status of your application.