Strategic Lead Architect — Hybrid, Cloud & Security

Skipton Building Society Group; Skipton; Hybrid; GBP 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Annual discretionary bonus scheme

25 days annual leave + bank holidays +

Employer pension contribution up to 10

Mortgage access and Skipton products

Flexible working

Private medical insurance and health/w

Wellbeing app

Volunteering opportunities

Cycle-to-work scheme

Disounted gym memberships

Home and Tech voucher

Job summary

Skipton Building Society Group is seeking a Senior Lead Architect to provide architectural leadership across Technology and Security domains. The role demands strategic thinking, deep technical expertise, and strong stakeholder influence to align technology with business outcomes.

You’ll define roadmaps, govern architecture, and mentor teams while partnering with product, security and vendor teams. The hybrid role requires three days in head office per week in Skipton.

Qualifications

• Proven experience leading solution architecture across complex enterprise technology environments.
• Deep expertise in architecture frameworks, governance, best practices and delivering secure, scalable solutions.
• Strong knowledge across cloud, infrastructure, data, security and software engineering, with Azure experience highly desirable.
• Ability to balance strategic thinking with hands-on delivery, translating business goals into practical technology outcomes.
• Strong leadership and stakeholder management skills, with the credibility to influence senior decision-makers and technical teams alike.
• Excellent communication skills, able to simplify complex technical concepts, risks and trade-offs for diverse audiences.
• Collaborative and pragmatic approach, with a passion for mentoring others, driving continuous improvement and solving complex challenges.

Responsibilities

• Lead the design and delivery of secure, scalable and resilient solution architectures from concept through to implementation.
• Provide technical leadership, governance and architectural assurance across solution design, integration and delivery.
• Define and maintain architecture roadmaps, standards and design principles that support business and technology strategy.
• Partner with senior stakeholders, engineering, product and security teams to shape technology decisions and outcomes.
• Evaluate design options, change requests and technical risks, providing clear recommendations and governance oversight.
• Mentor and support technical teams, promoting consistent application of architecture best practice and building organisational capability.
• Collaborate with vendors, suppliers and subject matter experts to resolve complex challenges and support effective delivery, compliance and resource planning.

Skills

Solution architecture

Architecture frameworks

Azure

Strategic delivery

Leadership

Communication

Mentoring

Tools

Azure

Job description

Skipton Building Society Group is seeking a Senior Lead Architect to provide architectural leadership across Technology and Security domains. The role demands strategic thinking, deep technical expertise, and strong stakeholder influence to align technology with business outcomes.

You’ll define roadmaps, govern architecture, and mentor teams while partnering with product, security and vendor teams. The hybrid role requires three days in head office per week in Skipton.