Core Infrastructure Capability Lead

Are you ready to shape the future of core infrastructure across complex, security-critical environments?

We’re looking for a senior technical leader to take ownership of our Core Infrastructure capability – bringing together multiple engineering disciplines under a single, clear technical and people leadership model. You’ll work across a diverse, highly skilled engineering community, setting direction, driving standards and helping teams deliver consistently high-quality outcomes to our clients.

This is a genuinely strategic role where your impact will be felt across multiple accounts and services. You’ll collaborate with Principal Architects and Engineers, contribute to Design Authority, and translate enterprise-wide technical direction into meaningful, real-world outcomes. If you enjoy leading through others, making sound technical decisions in complex environments, and building high-performing teams, we’d love to hear from you.

We offer a hybrid working approach, with travel across the UK required as needed for customer, team or delivery activities.

What you'll be doing:

• Provide senior technical leadership and strategic direction for the Core Infrastructure domain, working through Principal Architects and Engineers to set standards and patterns.
• Own and maintain technical standards, reference architectures and approved patterns across all teams and accounts within the domain.
• Hold accountability for the performance, development and progression of engineers within the capability.
• Represent the domain within Design Authority and contribute to cross-capability technical coherence.
• Provide technical arbitration where expert opinion is divided or decisions carry material risk.
• Lead recruitment decisions for technical roles within the domain, defining requirements and assessing suitability.

What you’ll bring:

• Proven senior technical leadership experience across infrastructure, with credibility recognised by engineering peers.
• Strong people leadership experience, with a track record of building and developing technical teams.
• Experience defining and maintaining technical standards across multiple teams or accounts.
• Sound technical judgement in real-world delivery environments.
• Ability to operate across multiple technical disciplines, working through specialist engineers and architects.
• Experience delivering within enterprise or multi-supplier environments.

It would be great if you had:

• Experience working in supplier or systems integrator environments supporting UK public sector clients.
• Background in capability or practice leadership models.
• Experience mentoring senior engineers and architects.
• Experience working with workforce planning or HR functions on recruitment and performance.
• Experience delivering hybrid cloud and on-premise environments at scale.
• Experience managing environments with both growing cloud demand and established on-premise estates.

If you’re interested in this role but not sure if your skills and experience are exactly what we’re looking for, please do apply, we’d love to hear from you!

Salary offered will be in line with experience and developmental needs
Location: UK-based, hybrid with travel as required.
Security Clearance Level: Minimum Security Check clearance eligibility required, with route to Developed Vetting where role demands.
Internal Recruiter: Rebecca.

Although this role is advertised as full-time, we believe that flexibility at work can promote work/life balance, increase your motivation, reduce stress and improves performance and productivity. We support different ways of working and can offer a range of flexible working arrangements. So, if you’re interested and need to work flexibly, we encourage you to apply and talk to us about what might be possible.

Loved reading about this job and want to know more about us?

Sopra Steria’s Aerospace, Defence and Security business designs, develops and deploys digital solutions to Central Government clients. The work we do makes a real difference to the client’s goal of National Security, and we operate in a unique and privileged environment. We are given time for professional development activities, and we coach and mentor our colleagues, sharing knowledge and learning from each other. We foster a culture in which employees feel valued and supported and have pride in their work for the customer, delivering outstanding rates of customer satisfaction in the UK’s most complex safety- and security-critical markets.