Solution Architect (Senior Manager), Utilities Industry

Cognizant; Greater London; On-site; GBP 75,000 - 95,000; Full time

Job summary

A global IT consulting firm in Greater London is seeking an experienced Architect with expertise in the Utilities sector. The role involves designing transformative cloud solutions and leading architecture assessments, ensuring alignment with client needs and industry standards. Candidates should have extensive experience with Azure or AWS, and a proven track record in developing scalable data platforms. Strong leadership and stakeholder management skills are essential, combined with technical expertise in analytics and operational technologies.

Qualifications

• Several years of experience in IT architecture and utilities sector.
• Experience in process and asset-heavy industries.
• Strong understanding of customer service and asset management.

Responsibilities

• Lead the architecture design for water utilities on cloud solutions.
• Serve as a subject matter expert in water utilities.
• Mentor engineering teams during solution delivery.

Skills

IT architecture experience

Cloud architecture (Azure/AWS)

Data platform expertise

Leadership skills

Stakeholder management

Education

Microsoft Azure or AWS Architect certification

TOGAF or architecture certifications

Tools

Azure Data Services

Databricks

Job description

The Company

Cognizant (NASDAQ:CTSH) is a leading provider of information technology, consulting, and business process outsourcing services, dedicated to helping the world's leading companies build stronger businesses. Headquartered in Teaneck, New Jersey (U.S.), Cognizant has over 280,000 employees as of January 2021. Cognizant is a member of the NASDAQ-100, the S&P 500, the Forbes Global 1000, and the Fortune 500 and is ranked among the top performing and fastest growing companies in the world.

Cognizant Consulting

At Cognizant, our consultants orchestrate the capabilities to truly change the game across strategy, design, technology and industry/functional knowledge to deliver insight at speed and solutions at scale. Our consulting services elevate the unique abilities and business aspirations of customers and employees and build relationships based on trust and value.

Energy & Utilities Consulting

Energy & utilities in the UK are going through a transformation journey with the focus on making data-centric Asset Investment decisions, enhanced customer experience (through digital and data enablement), sustainable and reliable infrastructure(green energy driven water treatment, fewer leakages etc.), digitalisation of the aging infrastructure, visualisation of their disparate decision support systems in a single pane of glass and most importantly disruption from innovative technologies entering the marketplace. Cognizant has engagements with multiple energy & utilities clients in the UK where we are helping them being customer obsessed and lead the transformation initiatives to build new offerings, solutions and innovative business models aligned to the market trends and regulatory commitments.

Role Overview

We are seeking an experienced Architect with deep domain expertise in Utilities, preferably water, and a proven track record in designing and delivering transformation programs involving cloud, data and operational technologies. The ideal candidate will have deep experience with Azure or AWS cloud architectures, Azure Data Platform, Azure Databricks, and advanced analytics. You will play a pivotal role in shaping digital transformation strategies for water sector clients, architecting scalable, secure, and innovative solutions.

Key Responsibilities

Solution Architecture & Design

• Architecture experience to conduct as-is architecture assessment, develop target architecture and transition architectures

• Lead the architecture and design of end-to-end cloud solutions for water utilities, leveraging Azure and AWS platforms.

• Architect robust data platforms using Azure Data Services (Data Lake, Microsoft Fabric, Data Factory etc.) and Databricks.

• Design and oversee the implementation of AI/ML solutions for predictive analytics, asset management, and operational optimization.

Domain Leadership

• Serve as a subject matter expert in water utilities, advising clients on best practices, regulatory compliance, and digital transformation trends.

• Translate complex business requirements into scalable technical architectures.

Technical Leadership

• Guide and mentor engineering teams through solution delivery, ensuring adherence to architectural standards and best practices.

• Conduct architecture reviews, risk assessments, and performance tuning.

Stakeholder Engagement

• Collaborate with business and IT stakeholders to define solution roadmaps and ensure alignment with organizational goals.

• Present architectural concepts and solutions to both technical and non-technical audiences.

Innovation & Continuous Improvement

• Evaluate emerging technologies and recommend adoption to enhance solution capabilities.

• Drive continuous improvement in architecture frameworks, methodologies, and tools.

Required Skills & Experience

Domain Expertise

• Good years of experience in IT architecture & good years in the utilities sector.

• Experience of working in any process and asset heavy industries

• Exposure to the following business process areas – customer service, smart metering, asset management, asset operations

Cloud & Data

• Extensive experience architecting solutions on Azure and AWS.

• Deep expertise with Azure Data Platform (Data Lake, Data Factory, Synapse, etc.) and Databricks.

• Proven ability to design secure, scalable, and cost-effective cloud architectures.

• Any exposure to IoT, IIoT and Operational technologies would be an added advantage

Leadership & Communication

• Strong leadership, mentoring, and stakeholder management skills.

• Excellent communication and presentation abilities.

• Business Development and Mentorship

• We expect the person to not just deliver on a defined scope, but be able to shape up ideas and conversations into actionable proposals. The person will further be required to work with wider Cognizant team to monitor and mentor them to ensure quality products are being delivered. Clients expect Cognizant to lead not just on “Cognizant scope items” but provide the leadership and drive on client items as well.

• This is a central role within an account. Right from leading to planning to driving including business development will be essential.

Preferred Qualifications

• Microsoft Azure and/or AWS Architect certifications.

• TOGAF or any other architecture certifications

Travel requirements

• Will need to be flexible to travel to one or two accounts on a regular basis. Client engagement and relationship building is key. We expect the role to establish strong working relationship and working models with the client stakeholder group and not just travel for meetings.