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Service Architect

Location: UK (Hybrid – Leeds/London, with national travel as required)

Role Purpose: The Service Architect is responsible for defining, implementing, and assuring the BAU service model for critical data engineering pipelines, ensuring they can be operated, supported, and governed sustainably once transitioned into ongoing operations. Operating within the scope of the project, the Service Architect acts as the bridge between technical delivery and live service operation, ensuring that the service is designed in line with customer specifications and best practice; considerate of architectural specifications; able to be monitored and supported using the most efficient management methods; defined with assumptions and risks where information does not exist; clearly governed and reported for all stakeholders; aligned to SLA/OLA commitments; ready for handover into BAU support. This role is service‑led rather than platform‑led, and is critical to enabling operational continuity, knowledge transfer, and service assurance.

Key Responsibilities

1. BAU Service Model Definition

   • Define the BAU service model for critical data engineering pipelines, aligned to project requirements.
   • Establish clear service constructs, including support coverage models (core hours, escalation), incident, problem, and change processes, release and maintenance windows.
   • Ensure service definitions are fit for current pipeline complexity, not aspirational future platforms.

2. Service Readiness & Operational Assurance

   • Assess and validate service readiness for each critical pipeline, ensuring ownership is clear, support processes are defined, and documentation is complete and usable.
   • Identify gaps in service maturity and agree mitigation actions within Phase 1 / Phase 2 scope.
   • Support formal service readiness and handover sign‑off.

3. Critical Pipeline Support & Continuity

   • Work with Data Architects and Senior Data Engineers to ensure service models are grounded in actual pipeline behaviour and monitoring, alerting, and escalation align to real failure modes.
   • Support identification of pipelines requiring immediate operational cover or that can be deprioritised.
   • Contribute to operational continuity planning for high‑risk services.

4. Operational Playbooks & Knowledge Enablement

   • Define standards and structure for operational playbooks, incident response procedures, and escalation paths.
   • Ensure playbooks are pipeline‑specific, actionable by support teams, and validated with technical SMEs.
   • Support completion and validation of knowledge transfer activities, including shadow run periods.

5. SLA / OLA Alignment & Governance

   • Map existing SLA and OLA commitments to pipeline services.
   • Ensure the BAU service model can realistically meet agreed service levels.
   • Define governance structures, including operational metrics and reporting, weekly and monthly service reviews.

6. Incident, Change & Escalation Design

   • Define and document incident response processes, technical and service escalation paths, change approval and execution models.
   • Ensure alignment with platform and infrastructure boundaries with clear out‑of‑scope items.

7. Risk & Dependency Management

   • Identify service‑level risks including knowledge concentration, single points of operational failure, and resource constraints.
   • Support DR plan robustness assessments by ensuring recovery responsibilities are clear and validating roles, communications, and escalation during incidents.

Required Skills & Experience

• Strong experience as a Service Architect or Service Design Lead.
• Proven background designing BAU service models for technically complex services.
• Understanding of the commercial impact that design decisions can result in.
• Demonstrated experience in service transition and operational readiness, incident, change, and release management design, creating service artefacts from zero.
• Comfortable working with partial or evolving service documentation, live, mission‑critical services.
• Able to engage confidently with technical SMEs, service managers, senior delivery, and operational stakeholders.

Desirable

• Experience within public sector or healthcare environments.
• Experience with regulated or SLA‑driven data services.
• Familiarity with DevOps‑aligned service models, knowledge transfer and shadow support phases.
• Exposure to complex data estates or centralised data processing services.

Working Style & Expectations

• Pragmatic and operations‑focused.
• Delivery‑oriented rather than theoretical.
• Comfortable defining ‘good enough to operate safely’.
• Able to work across organisational and supplier boundaries.
• Focused on service sustainability, not just initial handover.

Key Outcomes Supported by This Role

• A clearly defined and agreed BAU service model.
• Operationally usable playbooks and procedures.
• Service readiness confirmed for critical pipelines.
• Reduced reliance on tribal knowledge.
• Clear governance, escalation, and reporting structures in place.

Positioning Summary

This role is not a solution architect or technical lead. It exists to ensure that critical data pipelines can be operated, supported, and governed reliably every day—by people who were not involved in building them.

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