> Markdown version of [/jobs/ext/3100828-enterprise-architect-digital-backbone-digital-experience](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/jobs/ext/3100828-enterprise-architect-digital-backbone-digital-experience). Every page supports `.md` or `Accept: text/markdown`. Links point to the HTML versions so they work for humans too. Agent guide: [/agents.md](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/agents.md). --- # Enterprise Architect - Digital Backbone & Digital Experience - **Company:** Leonardo DRS - **Location:** Edinburgh, UK - **Salary:** £76,000.0 - £94,000.0 - **Contract:** Permanent contract - **Skills:** Microsoft Windows, Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Cloud Computing, Cyber Security, Data Centers, Monitoring of Systems, Microsoft Office, Open Source Technology, Scientific Computating, Multi-Cloud, Archimate, Technical Debt, Togaf - **Published:** September 27, 2026 - **Apply:** https://www.adzuna.co.uk/jobs/details/5899591417 ## About the Role * Current, hands-on grounding in at least two of hosting and datacentre, networking, public cloud, platform engineering and digital workplace. * Proven ownership of a multi-year technology roadmap that secured funding and was subsequently delivered against. * Experience producing the architecture content behind business cases, with a working understanding of cost, run-cost and affordability as architectural properties. * Fluency in architecture methods and artefacts such as TOGAF, ArchiMate or equivalent, applied pragmatically. * Experience working from risk registers, demand pipelines, lifecycle data and growth forecasts, with sound judgement on emerging technologies. * A track record of design authority or equivalent assurance work that enables pace rather than creating bottlenecks. * Strong peer-leadership skills, credible with engineers and directors, and able to move between a design review and an investment board in the same day. * Substantial experience in an architecture function, ideally including time in highly regulated or defence and aerospace industries. * Desirable experience includes hybrid and multi-cloud estates such as Azure and AWS alongside a substantial on-premises footprint; HPC and scientific computing; NIST CSF and Secure by Design; FinOps and run-cost modelling; large-scale workplace transformation across Microsoft 365, Windows, device lifecycle, identity and access; and certification such as TOGAF, a cloud architect track or CISSP. * Good judgement, curiosity, a collaborative mindset and a willingness to learn. ## Description * Own the target state for both domains, convert it into a funded and sequenced multi-year roadmap, assure delivery against it, and raise the standard of architecture practice across the community that builds it. * Define and maintain the target architecture across Digital Workplace, Network and Hosting, Cloud and Hybrid, and Platform Engineering, including capability-level views, principles, standards and reference patterns. * Maintain an accurate baseline of the current estate, working with domain and service owners so landscape models reflect reality. * Align to Cybersecurity and Monitoring and Observability capability models owned elsewhere in the function, ensuring designs integrate with and are assured against them. * Contribute domain content to cross-cutting standards and represent the domains at architecture governance forums. * Bring together the signals that shape the plan, including risk and obsolescence, programme and bid demand, growth and acquisition activity, supplier and market direction, and the security threat picture. * Translate those signals into a concise, defensible set of domain drivers that underpin the roadmap and investment plan. * Assess emerging technology on evidence rather than hype, using proportionate proof-of-value activity and clear adopt, trial, watch or avoid recommendations. * Maintain awareness of relevant vendor, open-source and industry direction, incorporating it into domain standards and roadmaps where it earns its place. * Own and maintain a rolling three-year domain roadmap with a five-year technology outlook, refreshed on a predictable cycle. * Sequence change around hardware and operating system lifecycle, licence and contract renewals, datacentre and cloud commitments, and the rate of change the business can absorb. * Model options and trade-offs such as buy or build, cloud or on-premises, refresh or replace, making cost, risk and capability impact explicit. * Plan headroom for growth so capacity, licensing and footprint decisions do not become tomorrows constraint. * Maintain a single published view of obsolescence and technical debt, with the cost of inaction quantified. * Convert roadmap increments into investment items with indicative cost, benefit, dependency and delivery-confidence ranges. * Provide the architecture content for business cases, stage gates and portfolio submissions. * Work with Finance, Portfolio and Service Owners on affordability, phasing and the run-cost consequences of design choices. * Advise on prioritisation where demand exceeds available funding, and trace approved investment back to the roadmap so plan and architecture do not drift apart. * Act as a standing member of the design authority for both domains, reviewing and approving high-level designs, patterns and deviations. * Provide the architecture opinion at portfolio and delivery gates, confirming alignment to target state, secure-by-design principles, supportability and affordability. * Own the reference patterns, standards and guardrails that architects reuse, keeping them current and making the compliant path the easy path. * Operate a transparent dispensation process where exceptions are time-bound, owned, costed and logged as debt. * Act as architectural mentor and technical sounding board to Solution and Technical Architects across the delivery portfolio, providing matrix support rather than line management. * Pair on hard problems early, including option analysis, non-functional requirements, integration and migration approach. * Review designs constructively and early enough to change the outcome, rather than acting as a late-stage veto. * Run a domain architecture community of practice, including pattern reviews, worked examples, lessons learned and a shared design library. * Build capability deliberately through development plans, certification pathways and stretch work, and hold supplier architects to the same standard. Technologies: * AWS * Architect * ArchiMate * Azure * Cloud * Hardware * Support * Matrix * Microsoft 365 * Network * Security * TOGAF * Windows * Office 365 * Backbone * CTO ## Related Videos - [We (don't) need a software architect!?!](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/663-we-don-t-need-a-software-architect) - [The Open-source Java SDK for Multi-Cloud Development - Sandeep Pal](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/2113-the-open-source-java-sdk-for-multi-cloud-development-sandeep-pal) - [Building Well-Architected applications](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/691-building-well-architected-applications) - [Leverage Cloud Computing Benefits with Serverless Multi-Cloud ML ](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/78-leverage-cloud-computing-benefits-with-serverless-multi-cloud-ml) - [We adopted DevOps and are Cloud-native, Now What?](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/485-we-adopted-devops-and-are-cloud-native-now-what) - [Winning the Hybrid Cloud](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/432-winning-the-hybrid-cloud) ## Related Articles - [What Are The Top Skills Required For Azure Developers?](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/magazine/77-what-are-the-top-skills-required-for-azure-developers) - [Graph and AI Trends 2026: Why Is AI Running but Not Yet Delivering?](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/magazine/680-graph-and-ai-trends-2026-why-is-ai-running-but-not-yet-delivering) - [6 Emerging Technologies We’ll Learn About in 2025](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/magazine/381-6-emerging-technologies-we-ll-learn-about-in-2025) - [Events like RSAC Get You CISOs. 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