Senior Technical Lead

Tech Lead / Lead Architect (Contract)

6-Month Contract | Inside IR35

£800–£850 per day

Predominantly Remote | Occasional travel to London or Leeds

We’re looking for an experienced Tech Lead / Lead Architect to play a pivotal role in shaping and delivering a large-scale greenfield digital platform within a complex, highly regulated healthcare environment.

This role is less about hands‑on software development and more about technical leadership, architectural direction, and stakeholder alignment
. You’ll operate at the intersection of technology strategy, delivery governance, and clinical/operational realities
, guiding multidisciplinary teams to build secure, scalable, and user‑centred services.

• Act as the overall technical authority for a greenfield programme, setting architectural vision and ensuring alignment with organisational strategy.
• Lead and mentor multi-disciplinary delivery teams
  , including engineers, devops, product, delivery, and suppliers.
• Define and own target architecture
  , including cloud platforms, integration patterns, data flows, security, and non‑functional requirements.
• Provide hands‑on architectural leadership where needed (e.g. design reviews, assurance, shaping delivery approaches), without being a primary coder.
• Establish and uphold engineering standards
  , technical governance, and best practices across the programme.
• Work closely with senior stakeholders (technical and non‑technical) to translate policy, clinical, and operational needs into pragmatic technical solutions.
• Ensure solutions meet stringent security, data protection, and regulatory requirements
  , including patient data considerations.
• Support supplier management, procurement alignment, and assurance activities.
• Contribute to delivery planning, risk management, and dependency management from a technical perspective.

• Proven experience operating as a Lead Architect / Principal Architect / Technical Lead on large, complex programmes.
• Strong background in architecture and devops rather than pure software development.
• Deep experience delivering within healthcare, public sector, or similarly regulated environments
  .
• Track record of leading greenfield or major transformation programmes from discovery through delivery.
• Strong understanding of:
• Cloud‑native architectures (AWS, Azure, or GCP)
• Platform and integration design (APIs, messaging, interoperability)
• Dev Ops, CI/CD, and modern operating models
• Security‑by‑design and data protection
• Comfortable working within multi‑supplier ecosystems and hybrid delivery models.
• Excellent stakeholder management skills, with the ability to influence at senior and executive level
  .
• Able to balance strategic thinking with pragmatic delivery decisions.

• Experience aligning delivery to enterprise architecture standards and technology roadmaps.
• Familiarity with national‑scale digital services
  , shared platforms, or cross‑organisation integration.
• Experience working alongside policy, clinical, or operational stakeholders.
• Exposure to service design, user‑centred design, or digital transformation at scale.

• Calm, credible, and authoritative leadership style.
• Comfortable navigating ambiguity and complexity.
• Pragmatic problem‑solver with a strong sense of accountability.
• Able to “join the dots” between technology, delivery, and real‑world outcomes.
• Passion for improving services that have a meaningful impact on people’s lives.