OT Solution Architect

OT Solution Architect (Contract) Programme: NextGen OT Resilience Programme

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Duration: 6 months initial (likely extension)
Location: Ipswich (Fore Hamlet) – full-time onsite
Rate: £750–£800 per day
IR35 Status: TBC
Overview We are supporting a key client in the utilities sector to secure an OT Solution Architect to join their NextGen OT Resilience Programme on a contract basis.
This role has been introduced following unsuccessful permanent hiring efforts and requires a highly experienced contractor to provide immediate impact. The position is heavily focused on control systems resilience within Operational Technology (OT) environments , rather than broader enterprise or data-focused architecture.
The successful candidate will play a critical role in design assurance, resilience architecture, and delivery support across key OT initiatives.
Key Responsibilities Act as the lead OT Solution Architect across control systems resilience initiatives

Provide end-to-end architectural design and assurance across OT environments

Ensure alignment between design, implementation, and operational outcomes

Support architecture governance , including participation in design authorities and review boards

Validate supplier designs and provide technical assurance across delivery phases

Contribute to go-live readiness, testing, and cutover activities

Produce and maintain architecture artefacts, documentation, and runbooks

Collaborate across security, infrastructure, network, and programme teams

Support knowledge transfer and handover to a future permanent hire

Core Focus Areas Control Systems Resilience Architecture and validation of high-availability OT control systems

Strong focus on failover, redundancy, and resilience patterns

ADMS (Advanced Distribution Management System) Design and assurance of Active-Active-Active infrastructure models

Alignment with availability, latency, and operational requirements

Support through testing and failover validation

OT Data Centre Transformation Design input into multi-site OT data centre reconfiguration

Consolidation of workloads into a centralised OT data centre model

Define inter-site connectivity and dependency models

Break-Glass & Access Design Ensure alignment to break-glass access principles

Validate security, access control, and operational scenarios

Key Deliverables OT architecture design documentation (control systems, ADMS, DC, networks)

Resilience and failover design artefacts

Supplier validation and assurance inputs

Integration designs and migration runbooks

Go-live and cutover assurance

SCADA assessment and testing support

Required Experience Strong background as xwzovoh an OT Solution Architect within control systems environments

Proven experience delivering resilience-focused architecture (HA/DR/failover)

Hands-on experience with OT systems and industrial control systems (ICS/SCADA)

Experience working within regulated utilities (electricity, water, gas preferred)

Strong understanding of:
OT networks and infrastructure

Cyber security within OT environments

Data centre and distributed systems architecture

Key Requirements Ability to work full-time onsite in Ipswich

Strong stakeholder engagement and design governance experience

Experience working in complex, multi-supplier delivery environments

Comfortable operating in a hands-on, delivery-focused contract role

Important Note This is a focused OT architecture role . Candidates with a preference for data architecture or data science-led workstreams will not be suitable .