Job Description:
Leonardo is a global industrial group, among the main global players in Aerospace, Defence and Security that realises multi-domain technological capabilities in Helicopters, Aircraft, Aerostructures, Electronics, Cyber Security and Space. With over 60,000 employees worldwide, the company has a solid industrial presence in Italy, the UK, Poland and the US. It also operates in 150 countries through subsidiaries, joint ventures and investments. A key player in major international strategic programmes, it is a technological and industrial partner of governments, defence administrations, institutions and companies.
Within the GCAP Joint Venture, in the GCAP Technical Leadership UO, we are looking for a Solution Architect (On-Premises) for GCAP HQ in Reading (UK).
The Solution Architect (On-Premises) is responsible for defining secure, scalable, and efficient On-Premises solutions that support the foundation services of the Secure Digital Platform.
Operating under the Product Owner (On-Premises) and in close collaboration with delivery, architecture, and security teams, this role ensures that On-Premises solutions meet both current operational demands and future strategic needs.
The Solution Architect will define On-Premises architecture patterns, evaluate new On-Premises services, and guide implementations that are robust, cost-effective, and aligned with enterprise standards and compliance requirements.
Key Capability Accountabilities and Objectives
- Design and evolve the target architecture for On-Premises hosting, ensuring alignment with enterprise-wide On-Premises hosting strategies and architectural principles.
- Translate business and technical requirements into secure, scalable, and reusable On-Premises hosting solutions (e.g., physical servers, storage systems, and networking equipment).
- Define and maintain architecture patterns, blueprints, and reference implementations to enable consistent and efficient deployment of On-Premises hosting.
- Provide hands‑on architectural guidance to engineering and operations teams during design, build, and deployment phases.
- Act as a key liaison between Product Owners, Technical Leads, Cybersecurity, and Enterprise Architects to ensure hosting solutions address functional and non‑functional requirements.
- Ensure all On-Premises solutions comply with internal policies, regulatory standards, and cybersecurity frameworks (e.g., NIST, ISO 27001).
- Contribute to the On-Premises Product roadmap by identifying technical enablers, dependencies, and risks.
- Lead evaluations and selection of On-Premises technologies and third‑party services that enhance the On-Premises capabilities.
- Participate in incident response and problem resolution related to architecture‑level hosting issues, ensuring root causes are addressed in future designs.
- Engage with infrastructure, security, and platform teams to drive infrastructure‑as‑code adoption, automation, and resilience.
Objectives
- Deliver secure, reusable, and scalable On-Premises solutions that form the foundation for digital services across the enterprise.
- Ensure On‑Premises solutions align with enterprise architecture standards, business needs, and the broader Secure Digital Platform strategy.
- Reduce technical debt and operational overhead by promoting standardisation, automation, and architectural consistency across On‑Premises infrastructure.
Seniority: Senior (5-10 anni).
Essential Skills, Experience and Qualifications
- 5+ years of experience in solution architecture with a strong focus on On‑Premises solutions.
- Demonstrated success in designing, implementing, and evolving On‑Premises environments for enterprise‑scale organisations.
- Strong knowledge of On‑Premises services, networking, identity, and access management (IAM), and cost optimisation strategies.
- Strong knowledge of monitoring tools (e.g., Nagios, Zabbix, SolarWinds).
- Understanding of secure‑by‑design and compliance‑by‑design principles in On‑Premises environments.
- Experience integrating On‑Premises solutions with enterprise systems and platforms.
- Ability to influence stakeholders and effectively communicate architectural decisions and trade‑offs to technical and non‑technical audiences.
- Experience working in Agile and DevSecOps delivery environments.
- Strong verbal and written communication skills.
- High ethical standards when handling confidential information.
Desiderable Skills, Experience and Qualifications
- Networking Certifications (Cisco Certified Network Associate, Professional, or CompTIA Network+).
- ITIL Foundation or relevant service management certification.
- Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) or similar.
- TOGAF (The Open Group Architecture Framework) and related certifications.
- Experience working within highly regulated industries (e.g., Aerospace & Defence, Financial Services).
- Ability to mentor developers and engineers on On‑Premises architecture best practices.
- Proficiency in managing and optimizing relational databases (e.g., Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server, PostgreSQL) and NoSQL databases (e.g., MongoDB).
Language Skills
English C1.
Citizenship
Italian.
Primary Location
IT - Roma - Via Laurentina
Additional Locations
IT - Catania, IT - Chieti Scalo, IT - Genova - Fiumara
Contract Type
Permanent