Data Architect

Data Architect

Client: Undisclosed

Rate: £700 per day

Start date: ASAP

End date: 30 Nov 2027

Location: Remote, with travel every fortnight or once a month to London or Manchester

Role: Application Architect – Application Modernisation

Eligibility: Must have 5 years’ UK residency and currently be in the UK

We are seeking an experienced Senior Data Architect / Database Administrator (DBA) with deep expertise in Amazon RDS and PostgreSQL to support the design, operation, optimisation, resilience, and recovery of critical database platforms. This is a hands-on technical role within DWP’s Legacy Tech Debt programme, supporting the modernisation of applications that underpin the delivery of more than £150 billion in benefits annually.

Programme context

We are delivering the Legacy Tech Debt programme with DWP, re-factoring legacy applications currently running in on-premise data centres. The programme is migrating COBOL, C++, and Java-based systems to Java-based services hosted on AWS, using a microservices architecture.

You will work directly with DWP teams, architects, developers, cloud engineers, and delivery stakeholders to ensure database platforms are secure, performant, resilient, and aligned with modern cloud engineering practices.

Key responsibilities

• Design and review database architectures for Amazon RDS and PostgreSQL environments supporting critical DWP services.
• Provide hands-on DBA support, including database provisioning, configuration, monitoring, performance tuning, capacity planning, patching, and operational support.
• Optimise PostgreSQL database performance, query execution, indexing, storage, and resource utilisation.
• Design and implement high-availability, backup, disaster-recovery, and resilience arrangements for critical database platforms.
• Support migration and modernisation activity from legacy on-premise database platforms to AWS-hosted services.
• Collaborate with application architects, Java developers, cloud engineers, and infrastructure teams to ensure database designs meet functional, security, and performance requirements.
• Contribute to technical governance, architecture decisions, design reviews, and technical documentation.
• Support infrastructure automation using Terraform and/or CloudFormation.
• Embed CI/CD practices and support automated deployment, configuration, and operational processes.
• Identify and mitigate technical risks relating to data integrity, availability, security, performance, and recoverability.

Essential skills

• Extensive experience as a Senior Data Architect, DBA, or equivalent hands-on database specialist.
• Strong, demonstrable expertise with Amazon RDS and PostgreSQL.
• Experience designing, operating, tuning, securing, and supporting production database platforms.
• Strong understanding of database high availability, backup and recovery, replication, failover, and disaster recovery.
• Experience with performance analysis, query optimisation, indexing, and capacity management.
• Experience working with cloud-based database environments, preferably AWS.
• Ability to produce clear technical designs, architecture documentation, runbooks, and operational guidance.
• Strong stakeholder engagement, communication, and collaboration skills.
• Eligibility to work in the UK, with at least 5 years’ UK residency and current residence in the UK.

Desirable skills

• Experience with AWS services including RDS, EC2, S3, IAM, CloudWatch, and related networking or security services.
• Experience with infrastructure-as-code tools, particularly Terraform or CloudFormation.
• Familiarity with CI/CD pipelines, automated testing, and DevOps practices.
• Experience supporting large-scale Government, public-sector, or regulated environments.
• Knowledge of microservices architectures, APIs, and modern application integration patterns.
• Experience migrating legacy systems or databases to cloud platforms.
• Familiarity with database security, encryption, access control, auditing, and compliance requirements.

Candidate profile

The ideal candidate is a pragmatic, hands-on database expert who can balance architectural design with day-to-day operational excellence. You will be comfortable working in a complex, high-profile Government modernisation programme, making sound technical decisions and supporting resilient PostgreSQL and Amazon RDS platforms at scale.