Lead Cloud Architect

Lead Cloud Architect - GCP - SC Cleared

Outside IR35: £650-£700 per day

Hybrid - 2-4 days per month in London

ASAP - long-term engagement

We are supporting a requirement for a Lead Cloud Architect for a high-profile central-government cloud transformation. This is an opportunity to shape the foundations of a large-scale GCP estate, defining how the platform will be structured, governed, secured and operated for the long term.

Role responsibilities

• Lead the current-state assessment of the GCP estate and identify architectural, governance and operational improvements.
• Define the target GCP landing zone, organisation hierarchy and folder structure.
• Design enterprise-scale organisation policies, IAM controls and role-based access models.
• Develop the cloud operating model, including ownership, responsibilities, controls and service management.
• Define the identity strategy across Cloud Identity, Workforce Identity Federation and Microsoft Entra ID.
• Design security architecture aligned with Secure by Design, NCSC guidance and the Cyber Assessment Framework.
• Establish FinOps governance, billing hierarchies, cost-allocation and chargeback approaches.
• Produce an operational transition model for the transfer of platform ownership and administration.

Key experience and requirements

• Active SC clearance is essential.
• Significant enterprise or cloud-architecture experience within large, complex organisations.
• Strong experience with GCP governance, organisation management and resource hierarchies.
• Experience designing enterprise GCP landing zones and cloud operating models.
• Strong knowledge of GCP IAM, organisation policies and identity-management approaches.
• Experience designing cloud-security architecture within government or regulated environments.
• Strong understanding of Secure by Design, NCSC guidance and CAF requirements.
• Experience designing FinOps and cloud cost-management models, alongside strong stakeholder and architecture-governance skills.