Infrastructure / Cloud Hosting Architect - freelance - hybrid, London, UK

We are committed to building an inclusive workplace and encourage applications from women and other under-represented groups in tech. All qualified candidates are welcome.

Start date: Apr/ May 2026 
Location: London, UK (Hybrid — minimum 2 days per week in office)

We are committed to building an inclusive workplace and encourage applications from all qualified candidates.

The organisation operates a fragmented hosting estate comprising on-premises data centres (Hitachi and Cisco UCS compute), legacy cloud deployments (Azure), co-location facilities, and external service provider connectivity (Bloomberg, Refinitiv, FX platforms). There is no overarching hosting strategy or defined landing zones. This role will develop and own the hosting architecture strategy across all categories, rationalising the current estate and defining scalable, repeatable patterns for future service deployment. Key responsibilities Define a comprehensive hosting strategy spanning on-premises, hyperscaler (Azure, AWS), co-location, and managed service environments Design and implement standardised cloud landing zones by service category, enabling repeatable, governed deployment patterns Assess the existing Azure environment (built during COVID) and determine appropriate target architecture and integration with on-premises systems Develop a hosting rationalisation roadmap, identifying workloads for migration, consolidation, or retirement Define ISP and external connectivity architecture, rationalising current fragmented peering arrangements Evaluate market data and financial services connectivity requirements (Bloomberg, Refinitiv, Trade Point, FX platforms) Work with network and security architects to ensure hosting design aligns with network and security standards Produce total cost of ownership models and capacity plans across the hosting estate Evaluate suitability of Hitachi and NTT infrastructure offerings in the context of the broader strategy Requirements Technical requirements Broad infrastructure architecture experience across on-premises and cloud platforms Azure architecture: landing zones, hybrid connectivity, governance frameworks AWS architecture experience desirable Compute platforms: Cisco UCS, Hitachi, HPE or equivalent Virtualisation: VMware vSphere / NSX, Citrix (evaluation and rationalisation experience) Storage and data centre infrastructure design Understanding of financial services connectivity: co-location, proximity hosting, market data feeds ISP connectivity, BGP peering, and internet edge design Cloud migration methodologies and workload assessment frameworks Advantageous Microsoft Azure Solutions Architect (AZ-305) or equivalent Experience with Oracle Cloud or other tier-2 hyperscalers Knowledge of offshore delivery model integration FinOps practices and cloud cost management Soft skills Strategic thinker with the ability to translate business requirements into architectural decisions Strong written and verbal communication — able to produce clear architecture documentation and present to senior stakeholders Commercial awareness: able to build business cases and challenge incumbent vendor pricing Comfortable operating in an environment undergoing significant organisational change