Lead Technical Architect

Lead Technical Architect (Hands-On) - SC Cleared

Location: Manchester (Hybrid - 2 days per week onsite)Contract Length: 6 monthsRate: £750 per dayIR35 Status: Inside IR35Clearance: Active SC Clearance required Must have worked in central government

We are seeking a Lead Technical Architect with a strong hands on development background to join a major public sector digital programme. This is a technical leadership role for someone who actively writes code and leads by example, rather than operating at an enterprise or purely strategic level.

You will work across multiple agile delivery teams to design, build, and operate internal platforms and tooling used by software engineers.

This role is ideal for a hands on Lead Technical Architect who still loves to code, has deep AWS serverless expertise, and enjoys building platforms that enable other engineers to succeed. This is not a strategic or enterprise architecture role practical delivery experience is essential.

Key Responsibilities

• Write production quality code alongside engineers
• Lead technical design and architectural decision making
• Build and evolve internal platforms used by development teams
• Design and deliver large scale, multi-account serverless architectures on AWS
• Support teams working with TypeScript, Node.js, and AWS CDK
• Define and implement authentication and authorisation patterns using OAuth / OIDC
• Communicate architectural vision clearly to technical and non technical stakeholders
• Work across three delivery teams (approximately 8 people per team)
• Attend occasional in person meetings (Manchester-based, with infrequent UK travel)

• Strong hands on coding experience (not advisory only)
• Proven background as a developer, ideally progressing Junior Developer Developer Architect
• Expert-level experience with:
  • JavaScript / TypeScript
  • Node.js
  • AWS CDK
• Actively comfortable contributing code in live delivery environments
• Enterprise architects will not be considered - this role requires a technical, code focused architect

• Strong AWS experience, particularly:
  • Serverless architectures
  • Multi-account environments
  • Cloud-native design patterns
• Experience building and operating platforms or products of meaningful scale
• Background delivering internal developer platforms or tooling

• Strong knowledge of web-based authentication
• Hands-on experience with OAuth and OpenID Connect (OIDC)

• Able to explain complex technical concepts to a wide range of stakeholders
• Comfortable influencing engineering direction across multiple teams
• Experience working in large, complex delivery environments