Infrastructure Architect

Job title: Infrastructure Architect (SC/DV Cleared)

Location: Hybrid - 1 day a week onside in Croydon, London

Rate: Negotiable depending on experience

Duration: 12-month contract

Security Clearance:

• Active SC or DV clearance required (UK nationals only).
• Candidates must be eligible and willing to work within secure, government/defence environments.

Role Overview:

We are seeking a Senior Infrastructure Architect operating at SFIA Level 6 to lead the design, assurance, and governance of secure infrastructure solutions across cloud, hybrid, and on-prem environments.

This role sits within a highly regulated, security-sensitive programme, requiring strong architectural leadership, clear documentation, and the ability to operate confidently within government and defence standards.

Key Responsibilities:

• Lead the architecture and technical design of secure infrastructure platforms
• Own end-to-end infrastructure architecture, from concept through to delivery assurance
• Design solutions aligned to security accreditation, compliance, and governance frameworks
• Architect high availability, disaster recovery, and business continuity solutions for mission-critical systems
• Define and enforce architecture standards, reference architectures, and patterns
• Provide architectural oversight and technical assurance across multiple delivery teams
• Work closely with security, networking, platform, and application teams
• Produce and maintain HLDs, LLDs, security artefacts, and architectural documentation
• Act as a senior technical authority, mentoring engineers and influencing strategic direction

Essential Skills & Experience:

• Proven experience as an Infrastructure Architect or senior technical lead within secure or regulated environments
• Strong expertise in cloud platforms (AWS, Azure and/or GCP), including secure cloud design
• Experience designing hybrid and multi-cloud architectures in government or enterprise contexts

Deep technical understanding of:

• Networking (secure network design, segmentation, Firewalls, load balancing)
• Compute, storage, and virtualization technologies
• Strong experience designing for high availability, resilience, and disaster recovery
• Hands-on experience with Infrastructure as Code (IaC) and automation, including Terraform, ARM and/or CloudFormation

Strong understanding of security architecture principles, including:

• Identity & access management (IAM)
• Encryption and key management
• Network security and zero-trust concepts
• Ability to engage confidently with technical, security, and senior stakeholders

Desirable Experience:

• Experience with MOD, Home Office, Cabinet Office, or other central government programmes
• Familiarity with secure cloud frameworks and accreditation processes
• Exposure to container platforms (Kubernetes, Docker) in secure environments
• Experience with DevOps and CI/CD pipelines within restricted networks

Architecture certifications such as:

• TOGAF
• AWS Solutions Architect
• Azure Solutions Architect
• Experience with monitoring, logging, and observability tools in classified environments

Additional Information:

• Role requires work within secure facilities (on-site/hybrid depending on project)
• Candidates must be comfortable working with sensitive systems and data
• Clearance transferability will be considered where applicable

At Lucid, we celebrate difference and value diverse perspectives, underpinned by our values of Honesty, Integrity, and Pragmatism.

We welcome applications from all suitably qualified or experienced candidates, regardless of personal characteristics. If you have a disability or health condition and seek support throughout the recruitment process, please do not hesitate to contact us.