Job Description

MERITUS are recruiting for a Technical Architect to join our client on a permanent basis, supporting the evolution of complex scientific and data-driven platforms within a highly advanced Central Government environment.

TECHNICAL ARCHITECT - DIDCOT - 12 MONTH CONTRACT - £850 PER DAY (INSID IR35) - CENTRAL GOVERNMENT / SCIENTIFIC TECHNOLOGY

As a Technical Architect, you will be responsible for reviewing and evolving an existing service-oriented architecture, helping define the next generation of scalable, resilient, and maintainable systems. You will work closely with engineering and delivery teams to establish architectural standards, improve integration patterns, and support the implementation of modern distributed technologies across complex environments.

This role would suit an experienced architect with strong experience in enterprise architecture, microservices, messaging systems, API strategy, distributed data flows, and Java-based platforms.

Key Responsibilities:

Conduct a comprehensive review of the existing architecture, identifying strengths, technical debt, architectural risks, and opportunities for improvement.

Assess current service-oriented architecture implementations, including core services, interfaces, and deployment models.

Define and document scalable architectural solutions supporting long-term operational resilience, maintainability, and adaptability.

Evaluate the use of message bus technologies and event-driven architecture patterns across distributed systems.

Analyse and document complex system-wide data flows, including real-time data, metadata, configuration data, and processed experimental data.

Assess the suitability of Graph-based API layers and integration models, including GraphQL and federated graph approaches where appropriate.

Produce high-level and low-level architectural documentation, diagrams, standards, and technical roadmaps.

Define architectural standards for APIs, messaging frameworks, configuration management, and data models.

Support the development of hybrid solutions integrating modern services with existing Java-based applications.

Collaborate with multidisciplinary development teams to ensure alignment with architectural strategy and best practice.

Provide technical leadership and governance across software engineering and integration activities.

Support incremental delivery approaches and continuous improvement initiatives.

Review software requirements and ensure technical architecture supports future deployment and scalability needs.

Drive best practice around service testing, integration testing, test data management, and service lifecycle management.

Document key architectural decisions, technical trade-offs, and implementation rationale.

Skills & Experience:

Proven experience working as a Technical Architect within complex enterprise, government, scientific, defence, or highly regulated environments.

Strong background in service-oriented architecture (SOA), distributed systems, and microservices architecture.

Experience designing and governing large-scale API and integration strategies.

Strong understanding of messaging technologies, message brokers, and event-driven architectures.

Experience with GraphQL, graph-based architectures, or alternative API gateway and integration approaches.

Strong understanding of real-time data flows, data processing pipelines, and distributed data management.

Experience working with Java-based enterprise applications and hybrid legacy-modern integration.

Knowledge of cloud-native architecture principles and modern deployment methodologies.

Experience producing detailed architectural documentation, standards, and technical governance artefacts.

Strong understanding of non-functional requirements including resilience, scalability, reliability, determinism, and maintainability.

Experience working within Agile software delivery environments.

Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills with the ability to explain complex technical concepts clearly.

Experience supporting continuous delivery, DevOps practices, and automated testing strategies.

Ability to provide technical leadership across multidisciplinary engineering teams.

Knowledge of secure system design and regulated environments.

Got your attention?

If you believe that you have the skills and experience for this Technical Architect opportunity, then please get in touch. We also offer a referral scheme for any candidates whose details are passed to us that we successfully place. For further information, please contact the MERITUS team today