Lead Service Architect

Aker Systems was founded in 2017 by a team of experienced technology professionals who recognised an opportunity to provide highly secure enterprise data platforms to large organisations.  We build and operate ground-breaking, ultra-secure, high performance, cloud-based data infrastructure for the enterprise. Our proprietary technology solutions drive performance and reduce costs while helping our clients to improve the management and sharing of data across their organisations.

In 2024, Aker Systems won the Breakthrough Culture Awards highlighting growth companies putting culture first. In 2020 Aker Systems was recognised as a ‘One to Watch’ on the Sunday Times Tech Track.  The Company was also recognised at the Thames Valley Tech Awards 2020; winning the Thames Valley Tech Company of the year, the Emerging Tech Company and High Growth Tech Business categories.  We encourage people of all different backgrounds and identities to apply.  We are committed to maintaining an inclusive, and supportive place for you to do your very best work.

Duties & Responsibilities

A UK Government Security Check (SC) clearance is required for this role. If you don’t hold SC clearance, we will support you to apply assuming you have lived and worked in the UK for a minimum of 5 years.

As a Service Architect, you will be coming in to a growing delivery team. You will be working closely with the wider delivery team (Service Managers & Operation Leads) alongside the respective Bid teams and will report in to the Delivery Director.

You will identify obstacles and help the team to overcome them and ensure that the focus of the team is driving quality for delivery of the products and services. You will liaise between product owners, project managers, solutions design teams, operations teams, service delivery managers and partners/suppliers communicating between all key stakeholders to ensure the smooth and successful implementation of new and modified products/services.

• You will be working on Projects and Bids from time to time. Your remit will be to ensure that delivery architecture and processes are incorporated within the bid. You will use your experience and knowledge to ensure the architecture is fit for purpose.
• Do a deep dive in to the current ITIL functions to understand strengths and weaknesses, before taking ownership of driving the respective improvements.
• You will have detailed understanding of tooling across the service spectrum (Jira, SNOW etc)
• Ensure all support functions are aware, prepared and capable of supporting any new and changed services, via workshops, briefings and documentation as appropriate
• An understanding of cloud native applications and twelve factor application design
• Where applicable, work with the wider delivery and operations teams to Identify, respond to and work to resolve emerging Service problems
• Develop effective tooling to identify and address reliability risks
• Participate with other engineering teams to triage production outages and carry forward action items to improve ongoing reliability
• Work closely with the Change and Release functions to ensure they are aware of the delivery approach and avoid any Change Freezes or other Conflicts
• You will be able to demonstrate proactive interaction with sales teams
• Analyse complex customer requirements and propose technical and competence developments solutions in new areas and domains, within the framework of the core team activities, required to enhance customer's competitive position
• Recognized as a leader in knowledge sharing communities

Core Competencies

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or other IT-related field or 5 years’ relevant industry experience
• ITIL v3 Foundation
• 7 Years’ experience in an Architecture role
• Preferable experience of Cloud knowledge including SaaS, IaaS and PaaS
• Experienced in the design of technical solutions and integration
• Experienced in project management with skills in agile and/or Waterfall
• Must have strong team management ability, influencing and organizational awareness.
• Vendor or offshore management experience will be advantageous
• Advanced stakeholder management, negotiation, and conflict resolution skills including being comfortable in dealing with challenging and pressurised situations
• Ability to understand complex organisational structures and multi-supplier landscapes

Aker Systems Attributes

At Aker we work as a team, we are collaborative, hardworking, open, and delivery obsessed.  There is no blame culture here: try things, and take responsibility for the outcomes.  You are always part of the wider Aker.  We help out our colleagues and take pride in successfully achieving difficult tasks.  We run towards problems and help solve them.  Communicate always, do so accurately and in a timely fashion.

In return, we offer a competitive salary, 25 days holiday (excluding bank holidays), Company Paid Medical Insurance, Life Assurance (4x times basic salary), Pension scheme, Perks at Work, Cycle Scheme, Tech Scheme and Season Ticket Loan. Plus, a list of voluntary benefits including Dental Insurance, Critical illness cover and Virtual GP.  

Equal Opportunities

Aker Systems fosters a diverse environment that encourages openness in its communications and is committed to providing equal employment opportunity for all people regardless of race, religion, gender or sexual orientation, age, marital status, national origin, citizenship status, disability, veteran status or other personal characteristics. We embrace differences of opinion and diversity because they help challenge us and find new groundbreaking technical solutions.