Solutions Architect

Location: Cheltenham

Salary: £69,611 to £77,801, comprising a basic salary of £66,581 and a concessionary payment of £3,030. The exact salary offered within this range will depend on your skills and experience. An additional Skills Payment is available once your skills level is confirmed, £3,822 for Level 1 or £8,190 for Level 2.

Flexible working: We offer a range of working patterns, including full-time, part-time, and compressed hours, with flexible start and finish times to support a work-life balance. While most of our work is carried out on-site due to its sensitive nature, occasional home working may be possible depending on business needs.

Find out more about flexible working on our website.

GCHQ is an intelligence, cyber and security agency with a mission to keep the UK safe. We use cutting-edge technology, ingenuity and partnerships to identify, analyse and disrupt threats. Working with our intelligence partners, MI5 and MI6, we protect the UK from terrorism, cyber-attacks and espionage. At GCHQ, you’ll do varied and fascinating work in a supportive and inclusive environment that puts the emphasis on teamwork.

As a Solutions Architect, you’ll help deliver technology solutions that support GCHQ’s mission, drawing on your experience to lead design work, manage a team, and make strategic architectural decisions. The nature of our work requires advanced, innovative technology, offering you the chance to apply your skills to unique and meaningful challenges.

Working across a range of complex projects, you’ll shape solution designs, produce clear documentation and models, and ensure alignment with established architectural standards. You’ll work closely with stakeholders, balancing technical, business, cost, and risk considerations to deliver scalable and resilient solutions.

Day-to-day, you’ll collaborate with delivery teams, engineers, and business colleagues to clarify requirements, adapt designs and guide their implementation. You’ll produce and maintain artefacts, provide clarity and direction, and mentor less-senior colleagues. Occasional travel across the UK will also be required so you can work closely with colleagues from all areas of the organisation.

To apply, you’ll bring experience in solutions architecture, including leading the design of end-to-end digital or technology solutions. You’ll have familiarity with frameworks such as TOGAF, NIST, and ITIL, along with experience managing or line-managing a team. You’ll be skilled at producing artefacts that guide delivery teams and at explaining design decisions clearly to both technical and non-technical audiences. Effective stakeholder management, collaboration and negotiation skills will also help you align differing user needs with organisational priorities. Adaptability, time management, critical thinking, and creative problem-solving will support you in delivering well-rounded solutions to complex challenges.

When you join us, you’ll have a full induction to GCHQ so you can understand who we are and what we do. Once in your role, you’ll receive formal and on-the-job training, along with all the support you need to thrive. We’re committed to continuous professional development and to providing the space for you to grow, innovate and experiment. Typically, around 20% of your time is dedicated to developing yourself and supporting others.

We know development looks different for everyone, so we’ll tailor our support to your learning style, whether that’s through books, courses, conferences or stretch assignments. We’ll cover the cost of professional qualifications and give you the time and support to achieve them. From day one, you’ll have access to mentors and subject-matter experts, and we’ll work with you to build a structured development plan aligned with your goals.

At GCHQ, diversity and inclusion are critical to our mission. To protect the UK, we need a truly diverse workforce that reflects the society we serve. This includes diversity in every sense of the word: those with different backgrounds, ages, ethnicities, gender identities, sexual orientations, ways of thinking and those with disabilities or neurodivergent conditions. We therefore welcome and encourage applications from everyone, including those from groups that are under-represented in our workforce such as women, those from an ethnic minority background, people with disabilities and those from low socio-economic backgrounds. You can find out more about our culture, working environment and diversity on our website

To find out more and apply, please visit our website.

To be eligible to apply, you must be a British Citizen. If you hold dual nationality, of which one component is British, you will still be considered. Candidates must normally have been resident in the UK for seven out of the last ten years. This is particularly important if you were born outside the UK. We welcome applications from candidates of all ages, and there is no upper age limit. You can apply at 17; if successful, you will not be offered a start date prior to your 18th birthday. Full eligibility details can be found on our website.

We are proud supporters of Women in Data. Connect, engage and belong to the largest free female data community in the UK – visit: www.womenindata.co.uk to join our community.

Stay connected! Follow us on LinkedIn for updates on career opportunities and more.