Security Architect (Contractor) Cyber Security Consultant

Location: Fully Remote (UK)
Contract Type: Contractor
Contract Length: Immediate start until February 2027
Security Clearance: Active SC Clearance required and must be verifiable

About the Opportunity

What You'll Be Doing

• Providing expert secure design advice and guidance to projects from the Discovery phase through to deployment and eventual service retirement.

• Ensuring solution and product designs adhere to security standards, architectural blueprints and established security patterns.

• Promoting Secure by Design principles and architectural best practice to reduce information risk across services and platforms.

• Validating the design, implementation and effectiveness of security controls, working alongside controls testing and assurance teams where required.

• Delivering security architecture to support the deployment of large data-driven services across private and public cloud environments, with a particular focus on Microsoft Azure.

• Scoping and supporting IT Health Checks (ITHC) and penetration testing activities to identify key security risks and areas for improvement.

• Reviewing security testing outcomes and providing practical recommendations, remediation guidance and action plans for identified vulnerabilities.

• Identifying security risks arising from proposed solution architectures and defining proportionate mitigations and countermeasures.

• Reviewing cyber threat intelligence and emerging attack trends to inform security design decisions and architecture roadmaps.

• Delivering threat modelling, security risk assessments and analysis for applications, systems and infrastructure.

• Designing practical security controls that align risk to organisational appetite while leveraging native cloud capabilities.

• Producing high-quality security architecture artefacts, standards, patterns and blueprints.

What We're Looking For

Essential Skills & Experience

• Proven experience in cybersecurity, security architecture, risk management or related disciplines.

• Significant experience delivering security architecture within central government and/or public sector environments.

• Minimum of five years' experience in a Security Architect or senior technical security role.

• Strong working knowledge of security frameworks including ISO 27001, NIST Cyber Security Framework and CIS Controls v8.

• Good understanding of UK Government and NCSC security standards, policies and guidance.

• Experience securing cloud environments with a strong Azure focus, including technologies such as Entra ID, Azure Key Vault, Azure Policy and Azure IAM.

• Experience working across broader multi-cloud environments including AWS and other cloud platforms.

• Knowledge of event-driven and microservices-based architectures using native cloud technologies.

• Demonstrable experience conducting threat modelling, security risk assessments and security analysis.

• Experience working with controls testing teams and validating control effectiveness.

• Experience planning and supporting IT Health Checks and penetration testing engagements.

• Working knowledge of cloud security posture management, cloud-native security tooling and endpoint security technologies.

• Understanding of Public Key Infrastructure (PKI), cryptography, privileged access management and role-based access control models.

• Strong analytical, problem-solving and stakeholder management skills.

• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to influence technical and non-technical audiences.

Desirable Skills & Certifications

• SABSA certification.

• TOGAF certification.

• CISSP, CISM or equivalent security certification.

• Azure Solutions Architect certification.

• AWS Certified Solutions Architect certification.

• Experience delivering security architecture across large-scale digital transformation programmes.

• Experience operating within Agile and DevSecOps delivery environments.