Enterprise Architect - End of Life - Threat Detection

Job Title: Lead Enterprise Architect - End of life - Identity Threat Detection
Location: London - 1/2 x a week on sight
Rate: £680 a day inside IR35
Start Date: Mid to End September
Job Type: Contract 3 months initially

Role Overview

We are seeking a high-caliber, technically broad Lead Enterprise Architect (EA. In this role, you will be the architectural anchor for a high-priority transformation portfolio: designing the multi-year infrastructure roadmap, driving the End-of-Life (EOL) decommissioning and re-platforming pipeline, and providing technical governance for our Identity Threat Detection and Response (ITDR) remediation program.

Crucially, this leader will blend deep infrastructure engineering with financial discipline, embedding FinOps frameworks across our cloud and on-premise environments. You will ensure that every milestone on our strategic roadmap optimizes unit economics, eliminates waste during EOL migrations, and remains tightly aligned with corporate fiscal and security goals.

Core Key Responsibilities

• Architect the target-state vision for a highly resilient hybrid environment, seamlessly blending on-premise data centers with multi-cloud architectures (AWS, Azure, GCP).
• Build & Govern the Strategic Roadmap: Design and maintain a phased, multi-year technology lifecycle roadmap tracking infrastructure dependencies, technical debt, and aggressive EOL asset mitigation.
• Drive FinOps & Cost Optimization: Establish cloud financial accountability by embedding FinOps practices into the architecture lifecycle. Manage cloud spend, model TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) for EOL re-platforming options, and eliminate legacy waste.
• Champion ITDR Remediation: Provide primary technical and architectural governance for the Identity Threat Detection and Response program. Harden hybrid identity environments across Active Directory and cloud IDPs (Entra ID).
• Guide & Influence Engineering Teams: Act as the ultimate technical bridge across diverse infrastructure silos (Compute, Storage, Network, IAM, Cloud). Confidently guide engineering execution toward compliant, budget-aware target states.

Technical Skills & Domain Expertise

1. Hybrid & Multi-Cloud Architecture

• Extensive experience designing, deploying, and migrating applications across hybrid environments (On-Premises to Public Cloud: AWS, Azure, or GCP).
• Strong grasp of container orchestration (Kubernetes, OpenShift) and Infrastructure as Code (Terraform, Ansible) to ensure consistency across cloud environments.
• Proven track record of managing large-scale infrastructure decommissioning, hardware refreshes, and legacy system modernization.

2. FinOps & Financial Modeling

• Deep familiarity with the FinOps Framework (Inform, Optimize, Operate phases) and cloud cost management tooling (e.g., AWS Cost Explorer, Azure Cost Management, CloudHealth, Kubecost).
• Capability to design architectures optimized for cost efficiency, incorporating spot instances, savings plans, auto-scaling parameters, and data egress optimization.
• Strong capability to calculate TCO and ROI comparison models, guiding the team to select the most cost-effective cloud or hybrid landing zones for migrating EOL systems.

3. Identity & Cyber Resilience (ITDR Focus)

• Advanced architectural knowledge of hybrid Identity & Access Management (IAM) ecosystems, including Active Directory tiering models, Entra ID, and PAM solutions (CyberArk, BeyondTrust).
• Understanding of identity threat vectors and security posture assessment tools designed to detect privilege escalation, lateral movement, and misconfigurations.

Leadership & Strategy Capabilities

• Financial & Technical Diplomat: Able to effectively bridge the gap between Enterprise IT Engineering, Finance (CFO office), and Procurement to drive cultural accountability around cloud spend.
• Risk-Aware Decision Maker: Competent at balancing the urgency of security remediation (ITDR) and EOL risk management against immediate financial constraints and operational SLAs.
• Architectural Communicator: Expert visual modeler (Miro, Visio, ArchiMate) capable of distilling complex infrastructure topologies and financial metrics into clear executive roadmaps.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience: Experience with Enterprise, Cloud, or Infrastructure Architecture leadership role driving large hybrid cloud transformations.
• Certifications (Highly Regarded):
  • FinOps Certified Practitioner or FinOps Certified Enterprise Architect.
  • TOGAF, Zachman, or SAFe framework certifications.
  • Professional Cloud Architect certifications (e.g., AWS Certified Solutions Architect Pro, Azure Solutions Architect Expert, Google Cloud Professional Cloud Architect).

If you are interested in this opportunity, please apply now with your updated CV in Microsoft Word/PDF format.

Disclaimer
Notwithstanding any guidelines given to level of experience sought, we will consider candidates from outside this range if they can demonstrate the necessary competencies.
Square One is acting as both an employment agency and an employment business, and is an equal opportunities recruitment business. Square One embraces diversity and will treat everyone equally. Please see our website for our full diversity statement.