CYS - GCAP Joint Venture Headquarters - Solution Architect (On-Premises)

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