Solution Architect -Greenfield Cloud Build for Complex Manufacturing Group

Blackburn, Lancashire (hybrid, 2-3 days on site) | £85,000-£105,000 + benefits | Salaried, 2-year fixed term | Immediate start

A long-established, market-leading UK manufacturer has taken a bold decision: rather than implement another ERP, it is building its business system from the ground up - cloud-native, on best-of-breed services from Google Cloud Platform and/or AWS, with machine learning and automated decision-making designed into the core from day one.

This is the role that decides what gets built. Reporting directly to the Group IT Director, you will own the end-to-end technical design and stay hands-on through the build.

What you'll do

• Define and own the target architecture end to end: application services, data platform, integration, identity and security, environments and release pipeline
• Lead provider and service selection, composing the system from managed services wherever they fit - and justifying every build-versus-configure decision on cost, risk and longevity
• Design the ML and automated decision-making layer (pipelines, model lifecycle, decisioning services such as Vertex AI, SageMaker or Bedrock) with proper guardrails and human-in-the-loop controls
• Provide hands-on technical leadership through delivery: reference patterns, infrastructure-as-code standards, design and code review
• Architect for run from the first drawing: cost (FinOps), observability, security, scalability - and a clean handover into the product team

Do you have experience in Machine learning?, * Proven cloud-native solution architecture on GCP and/or AWS, ideally certified at professional level, with genuine fluency in the managed-service catalogue

• Greenfield evidence: you have taken at least one system from blank sheet to live
• Practical ML and decisioning delivery in production - not research credentials
• Hands-on instincts: you design in code and IaC as readily as in diagrams
• The ability to explain complex technical choices simply, to non-technical decision-makers

Pulled from the full job description

• Annual leave
• Sick pay
• Life insurance
• Free parking
• Company pension
• Private medical insurance
• Casual dress, £85,000-£105,000 depending on experience, on a salaried two-year fixed-term basis with full employee benefits and paid holidays. If you currently contract, do the maths: grossed up, with holidays, pension and benefits included and no umbrella deductions, the package compares directly with a market day rate - with two years of certainty attached. Hybrid working anchored on Blackburn, readily commutable from Manchester, Preston and West Yorkshire. Immediate start available.

This search is being conducted on a confidential basis by RBA Partners. To discuss, please call Andrew Clews on 07974 346 526

Pay: £85,000.00-£105,000.00 per year

Benefits:

• Casual dress
• Company pension
• Free parking
• Life insurance
• On-site parking
• Private medical insurance
• Sick pay
• Work from home