Lead Physical Infrastructure Architect - Hybrid

Lead Physical Infrastructure Architect - Hybrid – Permanent

United Kingdom

Posted Friday 19 December 2025 at 01:00

Lead Physical Infrastructure Architect - Hybrid – Permanent

Salary: Up to £60,000 per annum (negotiable based on experience) + comprehensive benefits package

Jisc grade:TCY3 (internal use only)

Hours: 35 hours per week

Reports into: Head of Architecture and Engineering

Working style: Hybrid - A blend of working from home and your nominated hub office. We have hubs located in London, Bristol, Manchester and Oxford.

Planned interviews: 12 th – 23 rd January (2 stages)

For 30 years Jisc has pioneered digital solutions for UK education and research, transforming how knowledge is created, shared and used.

We are uniquely positioned to protect, promote and lead the sector in digital and data transformation, making a difference to students, communities and society. Together, we are

working to build a better digital future for education and research.

Raise your potential at Jisc through our culture of lifelong learning. At Jisc, we're all about growth, so embrace new challenges, sharpen your skills and shape a career that excites you.

The Architecture and Engineering team designs, operates, and protects the core infrastructure behind Jisc’s security services. Organised into Critical Infrastructure, Platform Services, and Core Services, the team ensures resilient, high‑performing systems that support trusted services across the UK. Your role will sit within the Core Services team, focusing on data centres, networking, and hypervisors, the backbone of national operations.

This new and pivotal role focuses on data centre management, networking, and appliances. You’ll ensure high availability and performance across nationally resilient data centres.

You will be responsible for architecting, operating, and continuously improving secure and resilient physical infrastructure that underpins Jisc’s critical security services.

In addition, you’ll adopt and implement automation, streamlining processes and operations across the technical estate. You’ll also drive scalable infrastructure‑as‑code management to deliver efficiency and resilience at every level.

You will lead operational engineers while managing nationally resilient data centres, networking, and appliances to ensure high availability and performance, drawing on your expertise in security architecture, core infrastructure, clear leadership, and large‑scale networking operations.

• Identify risks and vulnerabilities in system architecture designs and develop and implement effective mitigations.
• Monitor system performance and security posture, proactively identifying and addressing vulnerabilities and emerging threats in line with defined security policies and procedures.
• Ensure systems are fully documented, operated within Jisc’s policy framework, and compliant with ISO
  9001 and ISO
  27001 standards.
• Foster a collaborative, inclusive culture within the cybersecurity team, encouraging knowledge sharing and continuous learning.

We are seeking a skilled professional who can combine technical expertise with strong leadership to ensure Jisc’s infrastructure remains secure, resilient, and future‑ready. You will bring a proven track record in security architecture and operational delivery, together with the ability to lead and inspire teams.

• Proven experience as a security architect or in a similar role, with expertise in core systems infrastructure.
• Experience of leading teams and managing operational engineers.
• Operational experience with networking services at scale.
• Previous experience of security testing for applications and infrastructure.
• Ideally, knowledge or experience of data centre operations.
• Strong understanding of security principles, protocols, and technologies, with a focus on practical implementation.
• Knowledge of security practices and technologies including identity and access management, encryption, data protection, and compliance frameworks to design and improve architecture.

This…