Solutions Architect

Hedgehog Lab; Manchester; Hybrid; GBP 70,000 - 110,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

28 days annual leave + bank holidays

5 Impact Days for learning, innovation

Flexible working environment

Enhanced parental leave

Mental health support

Company Mac

Job summary

Hedgehog Lab in Manchester, England, United Kingdom is seeking a Solutions Architect who loves building. You’ll go from discovery to design and help guide early versions with the development team.

You’ll shape cloud setups, bring AI into delivery workflows, and stay close to code while translating complex concepts for clients. This mid-level role offers a clear path to senior architecture and variety across projects.

Qualifications

• Broad, hands-on technical background rooted in engineering
• AI software engineering experience to run work through AI tooling
• Comfort writing and shipping code, close to the codebase

Responsibilities

• Go into discovery, understand the problem, and shape the technical solution
• Translate between engineers and clients, so both sides stay clear on what is being built
• Build the early versions and stay close to the code
• Define the infrastructure and cloud setups behind the solutions you design
• Build awareness of the commercial and scoping side, picking up pre-sales estimation as you go

Skills

AI software engineering

Cloud / infrastructure

Code writing

Technical background

Communication

Tools

AI coding tools

Job description

Solutions Architect hedgehog lab•Manchester, England, United Kingdom

Plenty of architect roles have you writing documents nobody reads. This one has you building.

You go into a client, work out the solution, then help build the early versions yourself. You are working alongside the development team, not producing artefacts that get filed and forgotten.

This is a mid-level role in our architecture function, with a clear path into senior architecture as you grow.

The work varies a lot. You might be shaping a cloud setup one week and pulling AI into a delivery workflow the next.

Why you'd want it

You stay close to the code, writing it yourself where it makes sense, increasingly with AI tooling.

You get condensed experience. A couple of years in a consultancy is worth more than a couple internal, because you have to do more.

And you get variety, in the technology you touch and the clients you work with.

What you'll do

• Go into discovery, understand the problem, and shape the technical solution
• Translate between engineers and clients, so both sides stay clear on what is being built
• Build the early versions and stay close to the code
• Define the infrastructure and cloud setups behind the solutions you design
• Build awareness of the commercial and scoping side, picking up pre-sales estimation as you go

What comes with the role

• 28 days annual leave plus bank holidays
• 5 Impact Days for learning, innovation or volunteering
• Flexible working environment
• Enhanced parental leave
• Mental health support
• Company Mac

What you'll bring

Essential. The heart of the role, and where your strongest experience needs to be:

• A broad, hands-on technical background, rooted in engineering rather than business
• AI software engineering experience, since a large part of our work now runs through it
• Comfort writing and shipping code, increasingly with AI coding tools
• Cloud and infrastructure experience, defining setups rather than just working within them
• Strong communication, translating between low-level technical detail and non-technical stakeholders
• A fast learner who context switches well and stays curious outside their own specialism

Also important:

• Systems and solution design
• Awareness of pre-sales estimation and scoping

Who we are

We make digital products that help clients do what they set out to do. We do our best work when the problem is hard and the constraints are real.

We are a certified B Corp with a Flexa-certified culture, with offices in Edinburgh, Newcastle, Leeds, Manchester and London. Our work speaks for itself. You can see some of it here .

Where you'll be based

Hybrid: home, office, or a mix. We just ask that you are within 50 miles of one of our offices: Edinburgh, Newcastle, Leeds, Manchester or London.

Interested?

If you want the range of consultancy work and a role that keeps you building rather than just designing, we want to hear from you.

Full-time

We deliver measurable value for clients across defence, private and public sector environments.We have an extensive range of service capabilities and expertise provided by our best-in-class team wh...