Systems Architect

Era4; United Kingdom; On-site; GBP 90,000 - 140,000; Full time

Job summary

Era4 is building national-scale AI infrastructure in the UK, transforming brownfield sites into scalable data-centre capabilities backed by renewable energy. The Systems Architect will define end-to-end architecture for Kubernetes-based AI workloads, ensuring security, performance, and resilience across multi-tenant SaaS offerings and GPU cloud infrastructure.

Lead architecture work with Platform Engineers, ML engineers and leadership to deliver scalable, cost-aware solutions, incorporating IaC,

Qualifications

• Clear specifications and boundaries for platform engineers to build and operate the AI infrastructure.
• Experience designing Kubernetes and cloud-native solutions at scale.
• Ability to translate business and regulatory requirements into scalable architectures.

Responsibilities

• Produce high-level and low-level designs (HLDs/LLDs) for platform components.
• Establish reference architectures for multi-tenant AI workloads.
• Specify system integrations across Kubernetes, IAM, PaaS, Observability, automation, ITSM, security, and billing.
• Define solutions for multi-tenant SaaS offerings for GPU cloud offerings.

Skills

Kubernetes

Cloud architecture

Platform engineering

SLA/SLO design

IaC/GitOps

Tools

Ceph

GitOps tooling

Job description

Era4 develops, owns and operates AI infrastructure across the UK, powered by renewable energy. Converting legacy industrial and energy sites into modern data-centre facilities, Era4 is combining brownfield regeneration opportunities with cleaner, efficient, scalable compute capacity for healthcare, research, finance, enterprise, and public-sector organisations.

We are seeking a Systems Architect to define, design, and govern the architecture of our Kubernetes-based AI infrastructure. This role is responsible for translating business, customer, and regulatory requirements into scalable platform designs and technical specifications that guide platform engineering and operations teams.

Work closely with Product Managers, Platform Engineers, ML engineers, and leadership to ensure the platform is secure, performant, resilient, and future-proof, enabling AI workloads at national-scale.

This is an opportunity to define the end-to-end architecture of our AI platform, defining how Kubernetes, GPU infrastructure, networking, storage, and automation components integrate into a cohesive system.

This Is a Design Authority Role, Responsible For

• Technical standards
• Long-term scalability and evolution

Provide clear specifications and boundaries that enable Platform Engineers to build and operate the platform effectively.

Key Responsibilities:

• Produce high-level and low-level designs (HLDs/LLDs) for platform components.
• Establish reference architectures for multi-tenant AI workloads.
• Specify system and integrations across Kubernetes, IAM, PaaS, Observability and automation, ITSM, Security, Billing – the complete cloud service provider stack.
• Define solutions for multi-tenant SaaS offerings for GPU cloud related offerings.

Scalability, Reliability & Performance:

• Provide inputs for SLOs/SLAs across: Infrastructure, SaaS services, Storage services.
• Architect: Capacity planning (compute + storage), Performance optimisation across workloads.
• Proven results designing scaled end to end systems (not just components, or end services).
• An expert of infrastructure, cloud, or platform related Architecture/Engineering.
• Exceptional experience designing Kubernetes and cloud native solutions at scale.
• Commercial aptitude to enable performance, cost, time trade-offs and evolutions.
• Proven experience defining target architectures and technology roadmaps.
• Strong understanding of Infrastructure-as-code, automation, GitOps.
• Experience of Open Source stacks including scale-out storage/object stores (Ceph).

One Or More Would Be An Advantage:

• Contribution to open-source projects in the IaaS/PaaS space.
• Experience of building and consuming significant cloud services.Commercial success of turning technology into a commercially successful product offering.AI/ML System design and consumption practises.

  Why Join Era4:

  You’ll be joining a mission-driven start-up building critical national infrastructure, where operational excellence directly enables growth. This role offers high visibility with leadership, real autonomy, and the chance to shape how a next-generation company operates at scale.

  Diversity & Inclusion:

  Era4 is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees.