Infrastructure Architect

Sanderson are seeking a seasoned Infrastructure Architect to lead a complex and high-impact on-premise to cloud migration for a major financial services organisation. With the end of a strategic data centre hosting contract approaching in Summer 2027, our client is accelerating plans to modernise their estate - migrating a large, mixed portfolio of applications to cloud or SaaS platforms.

This is a critical programme of work focusing on Mainframe, open systems (AIX, Solaris, Linux, Windows), and SQL Server-based applications. You'll work closely with SMEs across multiple domains to assess and plan migration strategies that align with the organisation's future-state architecture - including AWS and Azure.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead architectural assessment and strategy for migrating Legacy and Mainframe applications to cloud platforms.
• Evaluate applications for multiple migration paths: decommissioning, replatforming, rewriting, SaaS replacement, or Mainframe lift-and-shift.
• Analyse technical stacks and integrations (CICS Cobol, IMS, VSAM, QSAM, relational databases, flat file systems).
• Collaborate with application and infrastructure SMEs to define optimal target platforms and integration strategies.
• Provide architectural guidance on cloud-native solutions, including AWS Lambda, ECS/EKS, RDS, S3, EFS, and containerised/serverless platforms.
• Explore use of Mainframe migration tooling, cloud-based Cobol runtimes, and compiler compatibility.
• Support migration of storage (NAS) and file systems, potentially to Azure NetApp Files or equivalent.
• Produce high-level and detailed migration approaches, including cost estimation, sizing, and performance projections.
• Ensure alignment with cloud best practices and enterprise standards.

Ideal Candidate Profile

• Proven experience as an Infrastructure Architect delivering on-prem to cloud and SaaS migrations in complex enterprise environments.
• Deep understanding of Mainframe architectures, particularly CICS, Cobol, IMS, batch/online hybrid systems.
• Hands-on experience assessing Legacy workloads and determining appropriate cloud-native migration paths.
• Knowledge of Mainframe file systems and access methods (eg, QSAM, VSAM).
• Familiarity with AWS (PaaS-first strategy): Lambda, ECS, EKS, RDS, EC2 custom builds, S3, EFS.
• Experience with Azure IaaS/PaaS, especially Azure SQL Managed Instance and file migration solutions like Azure NetApp Files.
• Comfortable working with hybrid estates: AIX, Solaris, Linux, Windows.
• Strong analytical skills: able to assess application characteristics (complexity, dependencies, business value, life cycle) to guide migration choices.
• Excellent stakeholder engagement and communication skills - comfortable operating in ambiguous, multi-team environments.

Desirable

• Experience working with or migrating from on prem Mainframe
• Exposure to containerised serverless architecture.
• Financial services or regulated industry background.

Reasonable Adjustments:

Respect and equality are core values to us. We are proud of the diverse and inclusive community we have built, and we welcome applications from people of all backgrounds and perspectives. Our success is driven by our people, united by the spirit of partnership to deliver the best resourcing solutions for our clients.

If you need any help or adjustments during the recruitment process for any reason, please let us know when you apply or talk to the recruiters directly so we can support you.