Lead Technical Architect

About The Role

Hippo is a rapidly growing digital consultancy passionate about building and delivering transformative digital solutions for a diverse range of Public and Private sector clients. We are recruiting for a Lead Technical Architect to join our Hippo Herd. We work at the intersection of strategy, design, and technology to solve complex problems and create lasting value. Our collaborative and agile culture empowers our teams to make a genuine impact.

As a Lead Technical Architect , you will be a leader and trusted advisor, responsible for shaping the architectural vision and technical strategy for both our clients and our internal practice. You will play an important role in making Hippo the best Consultancy out there, working as part of a multi-disciplinary team to deliver bespoke digital services that make a positive impact on society.

You will act as a Lead Consultant providing technical expertise in software engineering and architecture practices both internally and to our clients. Lead Technical Architects at Hippo are experts in their field, leaders of people and teams, who define architectural standards and influence C-suite level stakeholders.

Our solutions empower our customers to build and support secure, scalable, and well-engineered systems beyond traditional boundaries. We leverage deep data insights and continuous innovation to deliver awesome platforms that allow our customers to understand and get the most from their data and digital services. The Lead Technical Architect will be a key player and implementer in this mission.

Your Role in a Nutshell

• Help define and evangelise the architectural vision, standards, and best practices across the entire Hippo Digital delivery practice.
• Serve as a trusted advisor to senior client stakeholders, including C-level executives, to guide their long-term technical strategy.
• Lead complex and strategic technical engagements, providing architectural oversight and quality assurance.
• Mentor and coach our team of technical architects and senior engineers, helping them grow their skills and impact.
• Drive pre-sales and business development activities, leading the technical response to bids and shaping new opportunities.
• Contribute to Hippo Digital's thought leadership through public speaking, writing, and community engagement.
• Act as a technical authority, making and communicating key architectural decisions that impact multiple projects or clients.

Skills and experience that you need

Essential Experience

• Extensive, senior-level experience as a Technical Architect, with a proven track record of leading large-scale digital transformations.
• Demonstrated expertise in designing and implementing complex architectures across major Public Cloud platforms, including multi-cloud strategies.
• Deep, strategic understanding of Cloud-native technology stacks, with hands-on experience in Kubernetes and advanced CI/CD tooling.
• Exceptional skills in Infrastructure-as-Code, with extensive experience using Terraform for complex deployments.
• Proven ability to influence and communicate effectively with C-suite and executive-level stakeholders.
• Expert-level knowledge of Security, Networking, and governance principles in a cloud context.
• Experience in a consultancy environment, including contributing to pre-sales, proposals, and business growth.
• Mastery of working in an Agile environment and leading teams to success.

Desirable Experience

• Evidence of leading architecture-led digital transformations within the Public Sector.

What makes us great

Alongside working with some of the most talented people out there and on-top of a competitive salary, which we’re transparent about from the outset, you can also expect a range of benefits:

• Contributory Pension Scheme (Hippo 6% & Employee 2%)
• 25 Days Holiday plus UK Public Holidays
• Perkbox access for a wide range of discounts
• Critical illness cover
• Life assurance and death in service cover
• Volunteer days
• Cycle-to-work scheme for the avid cyclists
• Salary sacrifice electric vehicles scheme
• Season ticket loans
• Financial and general wellbeing sessions
• Private health cover
• Private dental cover
• Additional company pension contributions
• Additional holidays (up to an extra 2 days)
• Wellbeing contribution
• Charity contributions
• Tree planting

Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging at Hippo

At Hippo, we’re dedicated to creating a diverse, equitable and inclusive workplace that works for everyone. We understand that having a diverse team unlocks our capacity for innovation, creativity and problem solving. Only by building a community of diverse perspectives, cultures and socio-economic backgrounds can we create an environment where all can contribute and thrive.

We actively encourage applications from underrepresented groups including women, ethnic minorities, LGBTQ+, neurodivergent and people with disabilities. We are committed to providing an inclusive and accessible recruitment process that reflects our workplace culture. We are a registered Disability Confident Employer, Mindful Employer, Endometriosis Friendly Employer and a member of the Armed Forces Covenant. Hippo continually strives to remove barriers, provide accommodations and offer reasonable adjustments to ensure equity throughout our practices.

Hi, we’re Hippo 

At Hippo, we design with empathy and build for impact. We do this by combining data-informed evidence, human-centred design and software engineering. We're a digital services partner who is genuinely invested in helping our clients thrive as modern organisations. Our delivery methodology is truly agile, from concept to reality, supporting innovation and continuous improvement to achieve your desired outcomes.

We firmly believe that technology should serve humanity, not the other way around. We take a human-centred approach to everything we do because we understand that complex problems require a service design approach. This means understanding how users behave and ensuring our solutions work for them in the real world.

Our combination of data, design, and engineering delivers bespoke digital services that make a positive and meaningful impact on organisations and society.

Have a look through our Website at Our Story & Purpose, Our Culture & Values, Case Studies and Our Solutions & Services to find out some more!

Hippo Locations

We are headquartered in Leeds and have offices across the UK in Glasgow, Manchester, Birmingham, London and Bristol. We're on the lookout for top talent nationwide but you need to be located within reasonable travelling distance from one of our offices. Given the dynamic nature of a consulting business, you may be required to work on-site at a Hippo office or at an in/out of town client location for a number of days per week (client dependent) and therefore candidates will need to be open/flexible to travel and working on one of those sites at least 2 days per week. We offer a generous relocation support package of up to £8,000 (please ask for terms and conditions) to help make your move a smooth one.