Senior Solution Architect

Senior Solution Architect
Hybrid – Attached to our Solihull, London or Hook office  
Full Time, Permanent   
Band 3 / Up to £90,000 (dependent on experience)

At Serco, we deliver essential services that make a positive difference to people’s lives, from supporting our Armed Forces to delivering critical public services. We are now looking for an experienced Senior Solution Architect (Defence) to help shape the future of our technology solutions and strengthen our success in major Defence bids.

As a Senior Solution Architect at Serco, you’ll lead the design of innovative, secure, and high-value IT solutions that underpin our Defence bids and programmes. You’ll translate complex customer, security, and operational requirements into scalable architectures that deliver real mission impact while strengthening Serco’s competitive edge.

Working closely with bid and project teams, you’ll take ownership of the IT design - covering infrastructure, applications, data, and integration - to create efficient, resilient, and compliant solutions. With experience across Defence IT systems, from Asset and Task Management to CRM and ITSM, you’ll ensure every solution not only meets technical needs but also drives Serco’s win probability and long-term profitability.

As part of this you’ll:

• Lead the IT design and architecture for Defence bids and programmes, ensuring alignment with MOD standards and Serco’s enterprise architecture principles.
• Act as the Technical Design Authority for proposals and delivery projects, maintaining compliance with security, quality, and architectural standards.
• Capture and translate customer, security, and operational requirements into compelling, deliverable technology solutions.
• Produce high-level designs, use cases, and technical documentation that define system interactions, data exchanges, and service integrations
• Work closely with bid teams to assess the commercial and operational impact of technical decisions, ensuring your designs contribute directly to Serco’s win probability and margin optimisation.
• Engage suppliers and partners to evaluate proposals, ensuring quality, feasibility, and alignment to Serco’s Defence technology roadmap.
• Provide design assurance through transition and delivery, maintaining solution integrity from bid through to operational service.

What you’ll need to do the role:

To succeed in this role, you’ll need to be an experienced and confident Solution Architect who thrives in a fast-paced bid environment. You’ll have:

• Proven track record in architecting IT solutions within Defence or similar secure government environments.
• Extensive bidding experience, including ownership of technical solutions within complex, multi-partner proposals.
• Strong understanding of IT infrastructure, applications, data architecture, and cloud technologies.
• Experience acting as a Design Authority, applying systems engineering principles.
• Excellent communication and influencing skills – able to explain complex ideas clearly to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Ability to work under pressure, prioritise effectively, and meet deadlines in competitive bid environments.
• Eligible to achieve BPSS/SC Clearance.

Why Serco:

Meaningful and vital work: In this position, your work is vital to the business, in terms of decisions and growth. You will gain a world of opportunity working for a globally operating business delivering essential services across 5 vital sectors, personal growth, achievement and development won’t be hard to find. You'll also work with great people. You’ll find yourself working in a highly motivated, supportive environment where no two days are the same, with experienced colleagues who strive for excellence.

What we offer:

• Company car
• Private healthcare
• Bonus scheme of up to 10%
• Flexible working
• Pension – 6%
• Chance to contribute to innovation in the public services
• A company passionate about diversity and inclusion
• Serco discounts which include cinema, merlin entertainment and online shopping discounts, and discounts on mobile phone plans and leisure centre memberships.
• A range of benefits to support the health and wellbeing of you and your family such as Employee Assistance Programme, Simply Health Cash Plans, and more.
• A wealth of career development training to suit your future aspirations. These range from role specific training, leadership coaching, formal study and much more to support you to build your career with Serco.
• A safe and supportive culture.

About Serco
At Serco, not only is the nature of the work we do important, everyone has an important role to play, from caring for vulnerable people to managing complex public services.  We are a team of 50,000 people responsible for delivering essential public services around the world in areas including defence, transport, justice, immigration, healthcare and citizen services. We are innovators, committed to redesigning and improving public services for the benefit of everyone.

By joining Serco you will have unlimited access to our Global Employee Networks – SercoInspire (Gender), SercoEmbrace (Multicultural), SercoUnlimited (Disability) and In@Serco (LGBT & Networks). Serco Employee Networks, led by colleagues who are passionate about diversity, inclusion and belonging. 

Apply
Please click on the apply button to complete your application. Occasionally we receive a large volume of applications for our roles and when that happens we sometimes bring the closing date forward, so please apply promptly to avoid disappointment. 

At Serco, we see people first and foremost for their performance and potential. We are committed to building a diverse and inclusive organisation that supports the needs of all. As such we will make reasonable adjustments at interview through to employment for our candidates and strongly encourage applications from a diverse candidate pool. We are open to discussions around flexibility and flexible working. We operate a hybrid work structure in many of our business areas. We are proudly Disability Confident Leader employers and holder of the Gold Inclusive Employer Standard. Disabled applicants who meet the minimum criteria for the job will be given the opportunity to demonstrate their abilities at an interview.  For help with your application please contact 0345 010 4000.
 

At Serco we support fair access to employment for those with unspent criminal convictions through the ‘Ban the Box’ pledge (some may be exempt due to the nature of the role and the security clearance required). Please contact our recruitment team directly on 0345 010 4000 to discuss.