SRE Lead Architect

JR United Kingdom; Sheffield; Hybrid; GBP 70,000 - 110,000; Full time

Job summary

An innovative firm is looking for a Lead Technical Subject Matter Expert to enhance capacity planning and observability controls within their technology framework. This role requires a blend of hands-on engineering and architectural oversight, focusing on performance and resilience across diverse platforms. The ideal candidate will leverage their extensive experience in engineering and infrastructure to drive scalable solutions, ensuring alignment with internal control frameworks and regulatory expectations. Join a forward-thinking team and contribute to the evolution of operational excellence in a hybrid work environment.

Qualifications

• 10+ years in engineering or technical architecture roles in complex environments.
• Strong understanding of compute, storage, and network capacity planning.

Responsibilities

• Lead design and evaluation of capacity management and observability controls.
• Collaborate with teams for validating designs and plans.

Skills

Engineering

Infrastructure

Technical Architecture

Capacity Planning

SRE Principles

Performance Monitoring

Communication Skills

Operational Controls

Risk Frameworks

Tools

Geneos

Prometheus

Grafana

AppDynamics

Job description

Location : Birmingham/ Sheffield (Hybrid - 3 days a week)

Lead Technical SME – Capacity Planning & Control Uplift

Role Overview:

We are seeking a Lead Technical Subject Matter Expert (SME) with strong systems thinking and a solid grasp of SRE principles to drive the technical uplift of capacity and observability controls across our technology estate. This role combines hands-on engineering depth with architectural oversight, focusing on enhancing performance, resilience, and control effectiveness across services and platforms.

The ideal candidate has operational sensibility and the ability to drive scalable solutions — aligning technical capabilities with internal control frameworks and regulatory expectations.

Key Responsibilities:

1. Lead the design and evaluation of capacity management, utilization monitoring, and observability controls across platforms.
2. Apply SRE practices to identify control gaps, performance risks, and automation opportunities.
3. Assess existing tooling, data flows, and operational practices to identify gaps and propose improvements.
4. Collaborate with engineering, infrastructure, architecture, and risk teams for validating designs and plans.
5. Define reusable patterns and tooling strategies to enhance operational readiness and control sustainability.
6. Support roadmap development, tooling assessment, and documentation for governance and operational readiness.

Required Skills & Experience:

1. 10+ years in engineering, infrastructure, or technical architecture roles in complex environments.
2. Strong understanding of compute, storage, and network capacity planning in diverse deployment models.
3. Familiarity with SRE disciplines such as observability, SLIs/SLOs, and automation.
4. Ability to interpret and apply control requirements in technical designs.
5. Hands-on experience with performance monitoring and diagnostic tools (e.g., Geneos, Prometheus, Grafana, AppDynamics).
6. Excellent communication skills for conveying technical concepts to senior stakeholders.
7. Experience in implementing operational controls related to capacity, performance, and availability.
8. Knowledge of risk frameworks or regulatory requirements (e.g., DORA, EBA, PRA).
9. Background in service reliability, diagnostics, or incident response.