Systems Architect

Era4; United Kingdom; On-site; GBP 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

Era4 develops, owns and operates AI infrastructure across the UK, converting legacy sites into modern data-centre facilities powered by renewable energy. We are seeking a Systems Architect to translate business and regulatory requirements into scalable Kubernetes-based platform designs that guide platform engineering and operations teams.

Join Era4 to define end-to-end architecture of our AI platform, shaping how Kubernetes, GPU infrastructure, networking, storage, and automation integrate to

Qualifications

• Proven results designing scaled end-to-end systems (not just components).
• Expertise in infrastructure, cloud, or platform architecture/engineering.
• Exceptional experience designing Kubernetes and cloud-native solutions at scale.
• Commercial aptitude for performance, cost, time trade-offs and evolutions.
• Proven experience defining target architectures and technology roadmaps.
• Strong understanding of IaC, automation, and GitOps.
• Experience with Open Source stacks including scale-out storage (Ceph).

Responsibilities

• Platform Architecture & Design Authority: produce HLDs/LLDs for platform components.
• Establish reference architectures for multi-tenant AI workloads.
• Specify system integrations across Kubernetes, IAM, PaaS, Observability, automation, ITSM, Security, Billing.
• Define solutions for multi-tenant SaaS offerings for GPU cloud related offerings.
• Provide inputs for SLOs/SLAs; capacity planning and performance optimisation.

Skills

Kubernetes

Cloud architecture

Platform design

Automation

Open Source

Tools

Ceph

GitOps

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

• Platform blueprints


• Technical standards


• System-level decisions


• Long-term scalability and evolution

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

Key Responsibilities

• Platform Architecture & Design Authority:


• 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.

Essential Experience

• 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.