Principal Platform Architect £95,000 to 145,000 GBPBonusHybrid WORKINGLocation: Newcastle Upon Tyne, North East - United Kingdom Type: PermanentRole: Principal Platform Architect Work Type & Location: UK-wide / Remote First Role Type: Permanent Start Date: ASAP (SC Cleared to Start)Anson McCade is proud to partner with a high-growth digital consultancy supporting large-scale transformation programmes across the UK's public sector, defence, and healthcare domains. This is a remote-first role with occasional travel to client sites as required.We are seeking a Principal Platform Architect to lead the design and delivery of modern, scalable cloud-native platforms. You'll work as part of a multidisciplinary agile team on complex public sector and defence transformation programmes that demand high performance, strong security, and resilience at scale.This role is perfect for someone from a consulting background who's worked on major transformation projects in sectors such as central government, healthcare (e.g., NHS), or defence. You must hold active SC Clearance and be comfortable taking ownership across both technical and stakeholder leadership.As a Principal Platform Architect, you will:

• Lead the architecture and technical direction for large-scale cloud platform programmes.
• Define and maintain architectural blueprints, platform patterns, and reusable assets to drive consistency and scalability.
• Collaborate with technical teams, delivery leads, and customer stakeholders (including C-level execs) to shape and deliver successful outcomes.
• Design and deliver cloud-native platforms using best practices for resilience, performance, DevOps, and automation.
• Play a key role in pre-sales, bids, and proposal development - contributing to strategy, estimation, and solution assurance.
• Mentor and support other architects and engineers within the team.

Required Experience:

• Proven experience in a consulting environment delivering platform or cloud architecture solutions to public sector, public health (NHS), or defence clients.
• Extensive hands-on experience in the design and delivery of cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP) including IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS components.
• Strong background in DevOps tooling and methodologies including:
  • CI/CD pipelines
  • Infrastructure-as-Code (Terraform, Pulumi, ARM, etc.)
  • Containerisation & orchestration (Docker, Kubernetes, Helm)
  • Automation (Ansible, Bash, Python)
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills, including experience working with senior stakeholders and leadership teams.
• Experience in security-first design, with working knowledge of security accreditation standards in the public sector (e.g. ISO27001, Cyber Essentials+).
• SC Clearance (must be active and valid at time of starting).
• Experience with platform reliability (SRE), service resilience, and scaling services in secure or sensitive environments.

Desirable:

• Experience contributing to and leading large public sector or defence bids/tenders (e.g. G-Cloud, DOS, RM6116).
• Knowledge of platform productisation, shared services, and cross-government platform initiatives.
• Knowledge of relevant frameworks and methodologies such as TOGAF, ITIL, and Agile at scale.
• Past involvement in mentoring, coaching, or community engagement within technical teams.

Principal Platform Architect - Package:

• Base Salary: £100,000 - £145,000+
• Bonus: Performance-based
• Benefits: Excellent pension, private healthcare, and flexible working
• Security Clearance: Must have active SC - no sponsorship available

Not quite sure if this is the perfect fit? We have a variety of opportunities in the cloud architecture and DevOps space, particularly for SC-cleared consultants across the UK public sector. Reach out for a confidential conversation.Reference: AMC-AQU- PPAK1Postcode: ne6 5sn

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