Principal Strategy & Architecture Lead

Overview of the role

Phoenix is a leading UK IT solutions and managed service provider, with a deep specialism in the public sector. We work with organisations across government, healthcare, defence, public safety, education, housing, and the charity sector – helping them modernise with confidence across cloud, data and AI, cyber security, and managed services.

Our work has a direct impact on the services that millions of people rely on every day.

Due to continued growth, we are hiring a new role to provide senior strategic leadership and architecture expertise, helping public sector organisations navigate complex change, make informed decisions, and deliver successful transformation outcomes.

• Act as a trusted advisor to senior customer stakeholders, providing strategic guidance across technology, digital, and organisational change initiatives
• Lead the development of enterprise, digital, and technology strategies, aligning business objectives with architectural direction
• Define and shape strategic roadmaps, ensuring clear prioritisation, sequencing, and delivery feasibility
• Provide enterprise and security architecture leadership, setting direction, standards, and best practice across complex environments
• Facilitate executive workshops and stakeholder engagements to support decision‑making, alignment, and consensus building
• Design and shape target operating models that enable organisational transformation and improved service outcomes
• Support business case development and investment planning, ensuring alignment to strategic objectives and value realisation
• Establish and contribute to governance forums, providing oversight, challenge, and assurance on key decisions and programmes
• Lead or support transformation planning and mobilisation, ensuring initiatives are set up for successful delivery
• Conduct independent reviews and assurance activities to identify risk, provide insight, and improve delivery confidence
• Provide thought leadership across strategy, architecture, and assurance disciplines within customer engagements and internally
• Collaborate across Phoenix teams to support business development, bids, and the growth of the ESAA capability
• Contribute to the development of ESAA methodologies, frameworks, and propositions
• Build strong, trusted relationships across customer organisations and wider stakeholders
• Help customers navigate complexity, reduce risk, and achieve successful, sustainable outcomes

At Phoenix, our ambition is to be the UK's leading IT solutions and managed service provider – and we know that only happens because of our people. Culture isn't an afterthought here; it's the thing we work hardest on.

We're proud to be certified as a Great Place to Work® and to be recognised on their UK Best Workplaces lists for Women, Wellbeing, and Development.

We believe in encouraging, supporting, and skilling our people up so that you can be the very best you can be at work.

When you join Phoenix, you can expect:

• A culture built on trust and belonging, set out clearly in our Culture Blueprint, lived day‑to‑day, and reflected in our consistently strong colleague feedback.
• Real investment in your development: structured learning pathways, funded industry certifications, mentoring, and the encouragement to stretch into new areas.
• A workplace that takes wellbeing seriously: from mental health support and flexible working to active employee networks and a leadership team that listens.
• A commitment to equity and inclusion: where we actively work to make Phoenix a brilliant place to build a career, whoever you are.
• Work that matters: supporting the public sector organisations that keep the UK running, from government and healthcare to defence, public safety, education, housing, and the charities serving the most vulnerable in our communities.
• Working with the best of the industry: alongside genuine experts, and with strategic partnerships across the world's leading technology providers, you'll be at the front of the conversations shaping how UK public services modernise.

The right person for this role is an experienced strategic practitioner who is…