Senior Technical Consultant - Daily Rate Contract

VanRath; Belfast City District; Hybrid; GBP 101,000 - 138,000; Part time

Job summary

VanRath in Belfast seeks a Senior Technical Consultant to provide technical assurance and advisory support across a portfolio of enterprise technology projects. This is an individual contributor role with no hands-on development.

You'll challenge designs, identify risks, ensure security, supportability and alignment with standards, while coordinating with Project Managers, PMO, and third-party suppliers.

Qualifications

• Breadth of technology experience across enterprise IT
• Ability to review designs and supplier proposals
• Strong governance and documentation discipline

Responsibilities

• Providing technical assurance and oversight throughout the project lifecycle.
• Acting as a trusted technical adviser to Project Managers and PMO.
• Reviewing and challenging technical designs and third-party proposals.
• Asking questions of technical teams, MSPs and external suppliers.
• Identifying technical risks, dependencies and potential delivery issues early.
• Ensuring solutions align with architecture, security and technical standards.
• Producing and contributing to technical documentation, including high-level designs.
• Ensuring governance and change processes are followed.
• Considering security, resilience, disaster recovery, integration, support and operational requirements.
• Ensuring transition into BAU/live operations.
• Providing pragmatic technical direction without hands-on configuration.
• Helping projects maintain momentum while ensuring quality.

Skills

Technical assurance

Architectural governance

Stakeholder engagement

Risk identification

Problem solving

Threat modelling

Job description

Senior Technical Consultant - Daily Rate Contract

Belfast | Hybrid - 3 days onsite / 2 days WFH
550-750 per day | Inside IR35
Initial 3-month contract | Potential extension | ASAP start

We are looking for a highly experienced Senior Technical Consultant to provide technical assurance and advisory support across a varied portfolio of enterprise technology projects.

This is an individual contributor role with no team management responsibility, and it is not a hands-on engineering, development or support position.

Instead, you'll work alongside Project Managers, PMO, technical teams and third-party suppliers, using your breadth of technology experience to challenge designs, identify risks, ask the right questions and ensure solutions are secure, supportable and technically sound.

The role

As Senior Technical Consultant, you'll act as a trusted technical adviser across a portfolio of technology projects, including upgrades, migrations, SaaS implementations, enterprise applications and wider technology change.

You'll bring the technical experience and judgement needed to help project teams avoid pitfalls, make informed decisions and address the right technical considerations throughout delivery.

Your responsibilities will include:

• Providing technical assurance and oversight throughout the project lifecycle.

• Acting as a trusted technical adviser to Project Managers and PMO.

• Reviewing and challenging technical designs and third-party proposals.

• Asking the right questions of technical teams, MSPs and external suppliers.

• Identifying technical risks, dependencies and potential delivery issues early.

• Ensuring solutions align with architecture, security and technical standards.

• Producing, reviewing and contributing to technical documentation, including high-level designs.

• Ensuring appropriate documentation, governance and change processes are followed.

• Considering security, resilience, disaster recovery, integration, support and operational requirements.

• Ensuring solutions can be successfully transitioned into BAU/live operations.

• Providing pragmatic technical direction without becoming responsible for hands-on configuration.

• Helping projects maintain momentum without compromising technical quality.

A particular focus of the role will be technical oversight, supplier engagement, architecture standards and the successful transition of solutions into live operations.

What we're looking for

You'll be a seasoned technology professional with significant breadth of experience across enterprise IT.

You may have started your career in infrastructure, applications, engineering or technical support before progressing into roles such as Technical Lead, Technical Architect, Solutions Architect, Technical SME or technical project delivery.

We're not looking for a specialist in one particular technology. We're looking for someone who has worked across enough technologies, systems and projects to understand what good technical delivery looks like - and, importantly, to recognise when something doesn't look right.

You'll ideally have knowledge across several (not all) of the following:

• Enterprise infrastructure and platforms

• Windows, Linux and/or Unix

• Cloud and SaaS

• Microsoft 365

• Networking

• Identity and access management

• APIs and integrations

• SQL and database technologies

• Enterprise/business applications

• Disaster recovery and backup

• Cyber and information security

Breadth is more important than deep specialism in any single technology.

Your project experience

You'll need strong experience delivering or supporting significant technology projects within complex organisations.

This could include:

• Enterprise system implementations

• Migrations and major upgrades

• SaaS adoption

• Infrastructure transformation

• Enterprise application projects

• Other business-critical technology change

You'll understand the questions that need to be asked throughout delivery:

Is the design appropriate? How will it integrate? Is it secure? What are the dependencies? Is the documentation sufficient? What happens if it fails? How will it be supported? Is the business ready to accept it into service?

Experience producing or reviewing HLDs/LLDs would be beneficial. More important is your ability to understand a technical design, challenge it intelligently and ensure the appropriate governance, documentation and operational considerations are in place.

The person

This role is fundamentally about experience, judgement and technical credibility.

You'll have accumulated lessons from delivering technology across different environments and projects and be able to use that experience to steer teams away from common pitfalls.

You won't need to be the person configuring the infrastructure, developing the application or implementing the solution. You will, however, need enough technical credibility to sit across the table from those who are and ask intelligent questions, challenge assumptions and identify gaps.

You'll be comfortable working with Project Managers, BAs, PMO, technical specialists, MSPs and third-party vendors. You'll be able to translate technical issues into straightforward language and provide clear, pragmatic recommendations.

We're looking for someone collaborative, personable and confident, with no ego and no desire to over-engineer. You'll know when to challenge, when to advise and when to help the team find a practical way forward.

Experience with Waterfall project delivery would be particularly useful. Experience within highly governed or regulated organisations, PRINCE2, GDPR or similar environments would also be advantageous.

Sector-specific experience is useful but not essential.

Contract details

Location: Belfast
Hybrid: 3 set days onsite / 2 days WFH per week
Parking: Free onsite parking
Hours: Generally 9-5, with flexibility around 8-4 or 10-6
Rate: 550-750 per day
IR35: Inside IR35
Contract: Initial 3 months, with potential to extend
Start: ASAP
Interview: 1-2 stages

If you're an experienced technology professional who has worked across a broad range of technologies and major projects, and you now operate best as the person providing technical assurance, challenge and trusted advice, this Senior Technical Consultant contract could be an excellent fit.