Data Solutions Architect

Interim Data Solutions Architect £750-900 per day | East Midlands / Hybrid | Initial 4 weeks

I'm looking for an experienced Interim Data Solutions Architect for an assignment with a specialist UK organisation that has recently secured a significant long-term government contract. The business is now moving through the mobilisation period ahead of operational go-live next year. They know what they have committed to deliver and already have proposals from specialist technology suppliers covering elements of the future environment. What they need now is someone independent to come in and establish: What do we have today? What needs to change to support the new contract? Is what's being proposed technically appropriate? And what's the most sensible way of getting there? This is not a high-level data strategy exercise, nor is it a role simply implementing a predefined solution. You'll need to get underneath the existing environment and understand how data currently moves through the organisation, the systems and processes supporting it, where the gaps and risks sit, and how that compares with the future operational requirements. From there, you'll help define the target state and provide a practical roadmap for getting there. The environment will involve a mixture of cloud technology, data integration, operational data, geospatial/GIS, imagery and video, alongside existing business systems and external technology partners. The organisation has already received a detailed proposal from a specialist supplier, so part of the assignment will be independently assessing the proposed architecture and identifying whether it is appropriate, proportionate and complete. You'll also help the business understand what capability it should realistically own internally and where specialist external support makes more sense. I'm particularly interested in people who can demonstrate experience across: Current-state data and technology discovery Data flows, integration and solution architecture Target-state architecture and solution design Cloud data environments Assessing existing systems and technical capability Reviewing and challenging supplier solutions Translating operational requirements into technical solutions Identifying architectural gaps, risks and dependencies Producing practical implementation roadmaps Advising senior non-technical stakeholders Experience with geospatial/GIS, ArcGIS/Esri, imagery, video, sensor or other complex operational data would be particularly interesting, but I don't want to restrict the search purely to GIS specialists. This is a relatively small organisation, so I'm looking for somebody who can be pragmatic and hands-on rather than introducing unnecessary enterprise complexity. Ultimately, the MD needs someone who can understand the requirement, understand what exists today, assess what is already being proposed and give them a clear view of: This is what you have. This is what you need. These are the gaps. And this is what I would do next. £650-£850 per day East Midlands / Hybrid Initial 4-8 week engagement, with potential to extend If you've personally delivered this kind of discovery architecture recommendation roadmap assignment before, I'd be interested in speaking.