Principal Technical Architect - Identity, Productivity & Cloud

Methods Business and Digital Technology Limited

Methods is a £100M+ IT Services Consultancy who has partnered with a range of central government departments and agencies to transform the way the public sector operates in the UK. Established over 30 years ago and UK-based, we apply our skills in transformation, delivery, and collaboration from across the Methods Group, to create end-to-end business and technical solutions that are people-centred, safe, and designed for the future.

Our human touch sets us apart from other consultancies, system integrators and software houses - with people, technology, and data at the heart of who we are, we believe in creating value and sustainability through everything we do for our clients, staff, communities, and the planet.

We support our clients in the success of their projects while working collaboratively to share skill sets and solve problems. At Methods we have fun while working hard; we are not afraid of making mistakes and learning from them.

Predominantly focused on the public-sector, Methods is now building a significant private sector client portfolio.

Methods was acquired by the Alten Group in early 2022.

About the role

We are undertaking a major transformation programme to establish a new University Group, bringing together the digital services, technology platforms and operational capabilities of two large universities into a single organisation.

As the Principal Technical Architect – Identity, Productivity & Cloud, you will act as the overall technical authority for the programme and provide Principal leadership across all technology workstreams directing both university and Methods technical teams. This role is identified within the programme governance structure as the Solution Owner and sits alongside the Programme Manager as a key member of the Programme Board and Technical Design Authority (TDA).

The Solution Owner is accountable for ensuring that all technical components of the programme operate as a single integrated solution and collectively deliver the strategic objectives of the UNIVERSITY merger programme. The role provides technical leadership across all workstreams and acts as the primary technical advisor to programme sponsors, governance boards and senior stakeholders.

This is a highly visible role with responsibility for ensuring that all technical workstreams align to a coherent end-state architecture, are delivered in a coordinated manner, and collectively support the strategic objectives of the university merger programme. You will be the primary technical point of contact for senior stakeholders and will provide guidance, assurance and decision-making across identity, productivity, endpoint, infrastructure, cloud and migration activities.

You will work closely with programme sponsors, technical Principals, architects, delivery teams and Microsoft representatives to ensure the solution remains aligned with business outcomes, manages risk appropriately and delivers a modern, secure and scalable digital foundation for the future UNIVERSITY organisation.

The successful candidate will combine deep technical knowledge with strong leadership, communication and stakeholder engagement skills. You will be comfortable operating at executive level while maintaining oversight of detailed technical architecture decisions across multiple complex workstreams.

Requirements

As the Principal Technical Architect and Solution Owner, you will provide technical leaders across the entire programme lifecycle from strategy and design through implementation, migration and transition.

You will:

• Own the end-to-end technical architecture for the UNIVERSITY transformation programme, ensuring all workstreams align to a common vision and target operating model.
• Act as the programme's senior technical authority and primary escalation point for architecture, design and technical decision-making.
• Provide architectural leadership across Identity, Microsoft Productivity, Endpoint Management, Infrastructure, Network Connectivity, Hosting and Cloud platforms.
• Work alongside the Programme Manager to ensure technical delivery plans, dependencies, risks and milestones are fully understood and managed.
• Chair or contribute to architecture governance activities and act as a core member of the Technical Design Authority (TDA).
• Present technical proposals, solution options and recommendations to programme boards, executive stakeholders and university teams.
• Define and maintain the overall solution architecture, ensuring consistency across all programme workstreams.
• Oversee the development of High-Level Designs (HLDs), Low-Level Designs (LLDs), technical standards, migration approaches and implementation plans.
• Provide technical leadership and assurance to specialist architects and technical Principles responsible for individual workstreams.
• Define the technical strategy and roadmap for the establishment of the new UNIVERSITY Microsoft tenant and associated cloud services.
• Principle architectural decisions relating to identity coexistence, productivity services, endpoint modernisation and cloud adoption.
• Ensure architecture decisions support service continuity and minimise disruption to staff, students, teaching and research activities.
• Oversee application migration strategies, including cloud-to-cloud migrations and future on-premise to Azure migration activities.
• Ensure infrastructure, security and operational considerations are incorporated into all solution designs.
• Manage technical dependencies between workstreams and ensure delivery teams remain aligned throughout the programme.
• Engage with Microsoft, third-party suppliers and university technical teams to validate solution design and implementation approaches.
• Provide technical assurance, design governance and risk management throughout the programme lifecycle.
• Support transition into operational service and ensure the solutions delivered are sustainable, supportable and aligned with future organisational objectives.

Skills and experience required 

• Extensive experience operating as a Principal Architect, Solution Owner, Chief Architect or similar senior technical leadership role within large-scale transformation programmes.
• Proven experience of complex multi-workstream technology programmes involving organisational change, mergers, consolidation or digital transformation.
• Broad architecture knowledge spanning cloud, infrastructure, networking, productivity platforms, identity management, endpoint management and enterprise applications.
• Significant experience designing and delivering Microsoft cloud solutions including Azure, Microsoft 365, Entra ID and associated enterprise services.
• Strong understanding of identity architecture including Entra ID, Active Directory, authentication, federation, access management and hybrid identity environments.
• Experience establishing and governing Azure Landing Zones and enterprise cloud operating models.
• Experience overseeing large-scale Microsoft 365 transformations, tenant migrations and collaboration platform implementations.
• Strong understanding of endpoint management technologies including Intune, device lifecycle management and modern workplace services.
• Experience of application transformation, cloud migration and datacentre exit programmes.
• Strong knowledge of enterprise infrastructure, networking, storage, virtualisation and hybrid-cloud architectures.
• Experience developing target-state architectures, transition roadmaps and phased migration strategies.
• Ability to balance technical excellence with commercial realities, programme constraints and organisational priorities.
• Strong governance and design authority experience, including architecture review boards and programme assurance activities.
• Experience working with executive stakeholders, programme boards and senior leadership teams.
• Ability to communicate complex technical concepts clearly and effectively to both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Excellent stakeholder management, facilitation, negotiation and decision-making skills.
• Strong documentation skills, including production of architecture artefacts, design decisions, standards and technical strategies.
• Experience managing technical risk, technical debt and architectural dependencies within large programmes.
• A collaborative style with the ability to bring together multiple technical teams towards a common objective.

Benefits

By joining us you can expect:

• Autonomy to develop and grow your skills and experience
• Be part of exciting project work that is making a difference in society
• Strong, inspiring and thought-provoking leadership
• A supportive and collaborative environment.

As well as this, we offer:

• Development access to LinkedIn Learning, a management development programme and training
• Wellness 24/7 Confidential employee assistance programme
• Social – Breakfast Tuesdays, Thirsty Thursdays and Pizza on the last Thursday of each month as well as commitment to charitable causes
• Time off 25 days a year
• Pension Salary Exchange Scheme with 4% employer contribution and 5% employee contribution
• Discretionary Company Bonus based on company and individual performance
• Life Assurance of 4 times base salary
• Private Medical Insurance which is non-contributory (spouse and dependants included)
• Worldwide Travel Insurance which is non-contributory (spouse and dependants included)