Senior Technical Lead
5 days ago
Southampton
Tech Lead / Lead Architect (Contract) 6-Month Contract | Inside IR35 £800–£850 per day Predominantly Remote | Occasional travel to London or Leeds Overview We’re looking for an experienced Tech Lead / Lead Architect to play a pivotal role in shaping and delivering a large-scale greenfield digital platform within a complex, highly regulated healthcare environment. This role is less about hands-on software development and more about technical leadership, architectural direction, and stakeholder alignment. You’ll operate at the intersection of technology strategy, delivery governance, and clinical/operational realities, guiding multidisciplinary teams to build secure, scalable, and user-centred services. Key Responsibilities • Act as the overall technical authority for a greenfield programme, setting architectural vision and ensuring alignment with organisational strategy., • Lead and mentor multi-disciplinary delivery teams, including engineers, devops, product, delivery, and suppliers., • Define and own target architecture, including cloud platforms, integration patterns, data flows, security, and non-functional requirements., • Provide hands-on architectural leadership where needed (e.g. design reviews, assurance, shaping delivery approaches), without being a primary coder., • Establish and uphold engineering standards, technical governance, and best practices across the programme., • Work closely with senior stakeholders (technical and non-technical) to translate policy, clinical, and operational needs into pragmatic technical solutions., • Ensure solutions meet stringent security, data protection, and regulatory requirements, including patient data considerations., • Support supplier management, procurement alignment, and assurance activities., • Contribute to delivery planning, risk management, and dependency management from a technical perspective. Essential Skills & Experience • Proven experience operating as a Lead Architect / Principal Architect / Technical Lead on large, complex programmes., • Strong background in architecture and devops rather than pure software development., • Deep experience delivering within healthcare, public sector, or similarly regulated environments., • Track record of leading greenfield or major transformation programmes from discovery through delivery., • Strong understanding of:, • Cloud-native architectures (AWS, Azure, or GCP), • Platform and integration design (APIs, messaging, interoperability), • DevOps, CI/CD, and modern operating models, • Security-by-design and data protection, • Comfortable working within multi-supplier ecosystems and hybrid delivery models., • Excellent stakeholder management skills, with the ability to influence at senior and executive level., • Able to balance strategic thinking with pragmatic delivery decisions. Desirable Experience • Experience aligning delivery to enterprise architecture standards and technology roadmaps., • Familiarity with national-scale digital services, shared platforms, or cross-organisation integration., • Experience working alongside policy, clinical, or operational stakeholders., • Exposure to service design, user-centred design, or digital transformation at scale. Personal Attributes • Calm, credible, and authoritative leadership style., • Comfortable navigating ambiguity and complexity., • Pragmatic problem-solver with a strong sense of accountability., • Able to “join the dots” between technology, delivery, and real-world outcomes., • Passion for improving services that have a meaningful impact on people’s lives.