Senior Solution Architect

We are seeking an experienced Senior Cloud Migration Architect to lead complex Data Centre Exit and DC Consolidation programmes, migrating large-scale enterprise estates to Amazon Web Services (AWS). This is a technically demanding, client-facing role that sits at the intersection of cloud architecture, migration engineering, and programme delivery.

You will be responsible for the end-to-end architectural direction of migration programmes — from initial discovery and dependency mapping through to wave execution, cutover, and post-migration optimisation. You will bring deep expertise in AWS infrastructure, licensing portability (BYOL, BYOS, AWS Licence Manager), network transformation using AWS Transit Gateway and Direct Connect, and the unique complexities that arise when exiting or consolidating physical data centres onto AWS.

This role is suited to an architect who is equally comfortable whiteboarding a target-state AWS Landing Zone architecture with a CTO and sitting with an engineering team to resolve a blast-radius dependency conflict the night before a cutover.

Key Responsibilities Architecture & Technical Leadership

• Design and own the target-state cloud architecture for DC Exit / DC Consolidation programmes on AWS, including compute (EC2, ECS, EKS), storage (EBS, EFS, S3), networking (VPC, Transit Gateway), identity (IAM, AWS SSO), and security (AWS Security Hub, GuardDuty, SCPs)
• Lead application and infrastructure discovery using AWS Application Discovery Service (ADS), Migration Evaluator, and dependency mapping to produce migration-ready groupings and blast radius analysis
• Define migration patterns (rehost via AWS MGN, replatform to RDS/EKS, refactor to Lambda/containers, retire, replace with SaaS) per workload with clear technical rationale and risk assessment
• Produce Architecture Decision Records (ADRs), High-Level Designs (HLDs), and Low-Level Designs (LLDs) to programme-grade quality, aligned to the AWS Well-Architected Framework
• Govern architectural consistency across migration waves and enforce AWS Landing Zone / Control Tower guardrails throughout the transition

Licensing Portability & Compliance

• Lead licensing portability strategy for DC exit — BYOL (Bring Your Own Licence) for Windows Server and SQL Server on EC2, AWS Licence Manager configuration, OEM licence impact analysis, and SPLA transition planning for MSP-operated environments moving to AWS
• Advise on AWS Dedicated Hosts as the mechanism for BYOL compliance for Windows Server and SQL Server (per-socket/per-core licence models), ensuring licence counts are correctly mapped to Dedicated Host instance families
• Design licence governance controls using AWS Licence Manager rules, resource tagging strategies via AWS Config, and integration with third-party SAM tooling (Flexera, Snow Software) to prevent compliance drift post-migration