Senior AI Architecture Lead – Secure Cloud & Governance

Manchester Digital; Manchester; On-site; GBP 85,000 - 110,000; Full time

Job summary

Defra’s AI Technical Architect leads the definition and assurance of the agency’s AI technical architecture, ensuring secure, scalable and reusable AI-enabled systems. The role shapes guardrails, reference architectures and design patterns for use by multiple teams across the department.

The candidate will drive responsible AI, oversee model lifecycle, data pipelines and monitoring, and collaborate with CTO and data offices to align with enterprise standards and regulatory requirements.

Qualifications

• Technical architecture design for cloud-based digital systems (Azure/AWS).
• Secure-by-design architecture with IAM, encryption, logging and resilience.
• Deep understanding of AI/ML components and lifecycle (data pipelines, model development, deployment, monitoring).
• Experience with cloud-native/data-intensive systems requiring high availability and regulatory compliance.

Responsibilities

• Define and maintain Defra’s AI technical reference architectures and guardrails.
• Provide architectural advice and assurance for AI initiatives and design reviews.
• Collaborate with Digital Delivery and enterprise teams to align AI architectures with standards.

Skills

Technical leadership

AI/ML architecture

Security & compliance

Cloud architecture

Data pipelines

Model lifecycle management

Architectural governance

Tools

Azure

AWS

Job description

Defra’s AI Technical Architect leads the definition and assurance of the agency’s AI technical architecture, ensuring secure, scalable and reusable AI-enabled systems. The role shapes guardrails, reference architectures and design patterns for use by multiple teams across the department.

The candidate will drive responsible AI, oversee model lifecycle, data pipelines and monitoring, and collaborate with CTO and data offices to align with enterprise standards and regulatory requirements.