Digital Workplace Architect - Outside IR35 - upto £425pd

Digital Workplace Architect - Outside IR35 - upto £425 pd

We are seeking a Digital Workplace Domain Architect to shape and lead the architectural roadmap and technical design for a major higher education client, ensuring future-ready digital roadmap for digital workplace and end user compute capabilities, including Microsoft 365, Power Platform, Intune, JAMF, and VDI technologies.

If you are passionate about designing scalable, user-centred, and secure digital environments that empower staff and students to collaborate and thrive, this role offers the opportunity to deliver meaningful change within a complex, multi-disciplinary environment.

This role requires 3 days per week on-site in Manchester, with flexibility for remote work on other days.

About the Role

Architectural Strategy and Roadmap Leadership

• Define, own, and evolve the architecture strategy and roadmap for the digital workplace and end user compute domains aligned with the organisation's digital transformation goals.
• Ensure technology decisions support user needs, sustainability goals, and long-term value delivery, incorporating industry best practices and modern architecture patterns.
• Track and evaluate emerging trends in Microsoft 365, Power Platform, device management, and VDI, ensuring the adoption of future-ready capabilities.

Leading Solution Design Across Delivery Workstreams

• Oversee architecture design and governance for multiple concurrent delivery workstreams, ensuring solutions are scalable, secure, and integrated within a complex systems landscape.
• Collaborate closely with product owners, engineering teams, and business stakeholders to translate business requirements into practical, aligned solutions.
• Maintain technical oversight throughout delivery, balancing technical guardrails with flexibility for teams to deliver effective outcomes.

Stakeholder Engagement and Influence

• Act as a trusted advisor, communicating complex architectural decisions clearly and effectively to senior stakeholders and non-technical audiences.
• Facilitate workshops and discussions with academic, administrative, and technical teams to ensure designs reflect real user needs while aligning with enterprise architecture standards.
• Engage with the architecture community, contributing to reusable patterns and best practices that can be leveraged across VE3's public sector portfolio.
• Build strong client and partner relationships to ensure alignment with technical roadmaps, licensing optimisation, and value-driven technology investments.

Mentoring and Capability Building

• Mentor subject matter experts within digital workplace and EUC domains, building technical capability and fostering a culture of continuous learning.
• Contribute to upskilling teams on new technology approaches, architecture best practices, and security-first design principles.

Documentation and Governance

• Produce high-quality design artefacts including solution blueprints, technical patterns, principles, and architecture decisions.
• Ensure architecture artefacts are aligned with governance requirements, supporting clarity for delivery teams and facilitating compliance and audit readiness.

What We're Looking For

Essential Experience and Skills

• Demonstrated experience in leading architecture for transformational digital workplace initiatives in complex organisations, ideally within regulated or public sector environments.
• Deep technical expertise in:
• Microsoft 365 (Teams, SharePoint Online, Exchange Online, OneDrive, security and compliance capabilities)
• Power Platform (Power Apps, Power Automate, Dataverse, governance frameworks)
• Device management and EUC technologies (Intune, Autopilot, JAMF, Cloud PC, Windows 365, Azure Virtual Desktop, on-prem VDI)
• Strong understanding of secure cloud integration, zero trust principles, and identity management within the Microsoft ecosystem.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills with experience influencing at senior leadership levels.
• Ability to deliver architectural leadership across multiple projects, balancing long-term architectural vision with pragmatic delivery needs.
• Financial and commercial acumen, including experience with supplier selection and licensing optimisation.

About You

You are:

• User-centric, ensuring technology serves and empowers staff and students.
• Comfortable navigating complex, integrated systems environments with multiple stakeholders.
• Passionate about emerging technologies and practical in assessing their applicability in a higher education environment.
• Strategic yet pragmatic, capable of delivering incremental value while aligning to a broader architectural vision.
• Resilient and collaborative, thriving in environments where your influence and leadership can deliver long-term positive impact.

What This Role Offers

• An opportunity to shape the digital workplace environment in a complex, purpose-driven organisation within the higher education sector.
• A role at the intersection of technology, user experience, and strategy, with direct influence on how digital capabilities empower teaching, learning, and research.
• Engagement in a collaborative, supportive environment that values innovation, sustainability, and inclusion.
• Professional development opportunities, with the ability to contribute to architecture communities and emerging technology initiatives.