DevSecOps Architect (Director level)

  • United Kingdom
  • GBP 135,000
  • Permanent
  • Discipline: Cloud and Infrastructure
  • Ref: 51367
Director, DevSecOps Architect
London, Hybrid, 3 days per week on-site
£110,000 to £135,000 base + variable bonus

A leading financial services organisation is looking for a senior DevSecOps Architect to define and drive the target-state architecture for how software is built, tested, secured and released across its engineering estate.

This is a senior transformation role with an immediate focus on test automation, alongside CI/CD standardisation, security automation, developer productivity and the adoption of AI-assisted software engineering.

Key Responsibilities
  • Define the target-state CI/CD and DevSecOps architecture, covering build standards, branching, artefact management, environment promotion, deployment, release and rollback.
  • Drive convergence of fragmented engineering toolchains onto a common paved-road engineering platform, with a clear approach for modernising legacy pipelines.
  • Own the test automation strategy across unit, integration, contract, end-to-end, performance and resilience testing.
  • Define test data management, automation coverage and quality gates, embedding automated testing directly into release decisions.
  • Drive shift-left testing, service virtualisation and greater automation across complex engineering environments.
  • Embed automated security controls including SAST, DAST, SCA, container/IaC scanning, secrets detection and SBOM generation into delivery pipelines.
  • Establish policy-as-code, software supply chain security and automated compliance evidence, reducing manual controls and improving auditability.
  • Define architecture and guardrails for AI-assisted software engineering, including coding assistants, agentic development, automated code review and AI-generated testing.
  • Help establish the lifecycle and control framework for production AI/ML and LLM systems, including evaluation, deployment, monitoring, governance and rollback.

Experience
  • Significant experience architecting CI/CD, DevSecOps and engineering platforms at enterprise scale within a regulated environment.
  • Proven delivery of a test automation strategy that has materially improved software quality, release frequency or defect escape rates.
  • Strong software engineering background with credibility across development, architecture and platform engineering teams.
  • Strong knowledge of modern testing approaches and tooling such as Selenium, Playwright, Cypress, JUnit/pytest, Pact, JMeter or k6.
  • Deep practical experience integrating security controls into CI/CD, including SAST/DAST/SCA, secrets management and software supply chain security.
  • Strong experience across Azure DevOps, GitHub Actions, GitLab and/or Jenkins, alongside Kubernetes, containers and Terraform.
  • Experience modernising complex or legacy engineering estates and driving adoption of common engineering standards.
  • Hands-on exposure to AI/ML, LLM systems or AI-assisted engineering would be highly relevant.
  • Strong senior stakeholder management with the ability to influence engineering direction and drive adoption across multiple technology teams.

Apply for this job

We are an inclusive organisation and actively promote equality of opportunity for all with the right mix of talent, skills, and potential. We welcome all applications from a wide range of candidates. Selection for roles will be based on individual merit alone.

Latest Jobs by Nikola

DevSecOps Architect (Director level)

  • United Kingdom
  • GBP 135,000
  • Permanent
Director, DevSecOps Architect
London, Hybrid, 3 days per week on-site
£110,000 to £135,000 base + variable bonus

A leading financial services organisation is looking for a senior DevSecOps Architect to define and drive the target-state architecture for how software is built, tested, secured and released across its engineering estate.

This is a senior transformation role with an immediate focus on test automation, alongside CI/CD standardisation, security automation, developer productivity and the adoption of AI-assisted software engineering.

Key Responsibilities
  • Define the target-state CI/CD and DevSecOps architecture, covering build standards, branching, artefact management, environment promotion, deployment, release and rollback.
  • Drive convergence of fragmented engineering toolchains onto a common paved-road engineering platform, with a clear approach for modernising legacy pipelines.
  • Own the test automation strategy across unit, integration, contract, end-to-end, performance and resilience testing.
  • Define test data management, automation coverage and quality gates, embedding automated testing directly into release decisions.
  • Drive shift-left testing, service virtualisation and greater automation across complex engineering environments.
  • Embed automated security controls including SAST, DAST, SCA, container/IaC scanning, secrets detection and SBOM generation into delivery pipelines.
  • Establish policy-as-code, software supply chain security and automated compliance evidence, reducing manual controls and improving auditability.
  • Define architecture and guardrails for AI-assisted software engineering, including coding assistants, agentic development, automated code review and AI-generated testing.
  • Help establish the lifecycle and control framework for production AI/ML and LLM systems, including evaluation, deployment, monitoring, governance and rollback.

Experience
  • Significant experience architecting CI/CD, DevSecOps and engineering platforms at enterprise scale within a regulated environment.
  • Proven delivery of a test automation strategy that has materially improved software quality, release frequency or defect escape rates.
  • Strong software engineering background with credibility across development, architecture and platform engineering teams.
  • Strong knowledge of modern testing approaches and tooling such as Selenium, Playwright, Cypress, JUnit/pytest, Pact, JMeter or k6.
  • Deep practical experience integrating security controls into CI/CD, including SAST/DAST/SCA, secrets management and software supply chain security.
  • Strong experience across Azure DevOps, GitHub Actions, GitLab and/or Jenkins, alongside Kubernetes, containers and Terraform.
  • Experience modernising complex or legacy engineering estates and driving adoption of common engineering standards.
  • Hands-on exposure to AI/ML, LLM systems or AI-assisted engineering would be highly relevant.
  • Strong senior stakeholder management with the ability to influence engineering direction and drive adoption across multiple technology teams.
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Infrastructure Architect

  • United Kingdom
  • GBP 175,000
  • Permanent

Director / Executive Director, Infrastructure Architect

London, Hybrid, 3 days per week on-site
£140,000 to £175,000 base + variable bonus


A leading financial services organisation is looking for a senior Infrastructure Architect to help define and drive the target-state architecture for its enterprise infrastructure estate.

This is a senior transformation role with a major focus on data centre consolidation and exit, VDI/EUC rationalisation, hybrid cloud architecture, resilience and infrastructure cost optimisation.

Key Responsibilities

  • Define the target-state infrastructure architecture across data centres, cloud and end-user computing.

  • Lead architecture for data centre consolidation, migration and decommissioning.

  • Drive VDI/EUC rationalisation and modernisation.

  • Develop workload placement strategies across on-premises, colocation and cloud.

  • Define infrastructure principles, standards, reference architectures and multi-year roadmaps.

  • Identify opportunities to simplify the estate, reduce technical debt and optimise infrastructure costs.

  • Ensure resilience, scalability, security and operational recoverability are embedded into designs.

  • Work across infrastructure engineering, cloud, cybersecurity, enterprise architecture and business stakeholders.

  • Support the organisation's adoption of AI, including the infrastructure and platform capabilities required to enable AI workloads securely.

Experience

  • Significant experience as an Infrastructure Architect within a large enterprise environment.

  • Strong Financial Services experience, ideally banking, capital markets or investment banking.

  • Proven delivery of major data centre migration, consolidation or exit programmes.

  • Strong knowledge across VMware/virtualisation, compute, storage, networking, backup and DR.

  • Experience with VDI/EUC platforms, such as Citrix, VMware Horizon or Azure Virtual Desktop.

  • Strong hybrid-cloud experience across Azure, AWS and/or GCP.

  • Experience developing infrastructure strategy, standards, governance and target-state roadmaps.

  • Strong senior stakeholder management and ability to influence engineering direction.

  • Exposure to AI-related infrastructure, platforms or enterprise AI adoption would be highly relevant.

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Product Engineering Team Lead

  • United Kingdom
  • GBP 90,000
  • Permanent

Product Engineering Team Lead

Paddington, London
3 days onsite
£90,000 base + benefits


Overview

Our client is looking for a Product Engineering Team Lead to join a client-facing engineering organisation delivering large-scale digital solutions for enterprise customers.

This role combines technical leadership, stakeholder management and people leadership while remaining hands-on with architecture and solution design.

Responsibilities

  • Lead engineering teams of approximately 10-40 people

  • Provide technical direction across delivery teams

  • Contribute to architecture, design and technology decisions

  • Work directly with clients and stakeholders on requirements, delivery planning and technical solutions

  • Manage technical risks, dependencies and delivery challenges

  • Support engineers through mentoring, coaching and technical guidance

  • Ensure solutions are delivered to high engineering standards

Technical Background

The client is looking for someone who is an expert in:

  • Java

  • Spring Boot

  • React

Along with strong experience in:

  • Microservices

  • Cloud technologies

  • APIs and integrations

  • Modern software delivery practices

Candidates with broader technology exposure beyond their primary stack and are comfortable discussing architecture, cloud, DevOps, infrastructure, security and engineering governance when needed would have an advantage.

Stakeholder & Client Leadership

A significant part of the role involves working directly with clients.

The successful candidate will be expected to:

  • Manage stakeholder expectations

  • Explain technical trade-offs and delivery constraints

  • Challenge unrealistic timelines or requirements when necessary

  • Defend technical recommendations and proposed solutions

  • Act as the technical authority in client discussions

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IT Project Manager Contractor Payments

  • United Kingdom
  • GBP 850 Daily
  • Contract

Senior IT Project Manager – Payments & SWIFT

London (Hybrid, 3 days onsite)
£850/day | Inside IR35
Initial 6-Month Contract

A leading international banking institution is seeking an experienced Senior IT Project Manager to join its established Project Management function and deliver a portfolio of strategic payments-focused initiatives across a complex, highly regulated environment.

This role offers the opportunity to lead business-critical programmes spanning payments transformation, SWIFT messaging, ISO 20022 adoption and regulatory-driven change, partnering with senior stakeholders across Technology, Operations, Risk, Compliance and the wider business. The successful candidate will play a key role in ensuring the successful delivery of initiatives that sit at the heart of the bank's payments infrastructure and ongoing transformation agenda.

Key Responsibilities

  • Lead the end-to-end delivery of complex technology and business change programmes, from initiation through to implementation and post-delivery support.

  • Manage project governance, financials, planning, resource allocation, RAID management and executive reporting.

  • Drive collaboration across cross-functional teams including Technology, Operations, Information Security, Risk, Compliance and business stakeholders.

  • Deliver strategic initiatives involving payment processing platforms, SWIFT messaging, cash management and wider payments infrastructure.

  • Support the delivery of ISO 20022 and messaging transformation programmes, ensuring alignment with regulatory and market requirements.

  • Manage third-party vendors, delivery partners and Statements of Work (SoWs).

  • Facilitate steering committees and governance forums, providing clear visibility of progress, risks, dependencies and key decisions.

  • Lead testing, deployment, cutover and operational readiness activities to ensure successful implementation.

Skills & Experience

  • Proven track record delivering complex Payments Technology programmes within Banking or Financial Services.

  • Strong knowledge of SWIFT messaging, including exposure to MT and MX formats.

  • Experience delivering ISO 20022 transformation initiatives.

  • Understanding of payment schemes and market infrastructures including CHAPS, SEPA and TARGET2/T2.

  • Experience working with cross-border payments, payment operations, liquidity or cash management environments.

  • Demonstrated success delivering projects within highly regulated organisations.

  • Excellent stakeholder engagement skills, with the ability to communicate effectively at Director and Executive level.

  • Strong governance, risk, dependency and vendor management capabilities.

  • PMP, PRINCE2, APM or equivalent project management certification would be advantageous.

 

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Senior Python Engineer - Equities/Derivatives/Risk Platforms (Electronic Trading)

  • United Kingdom
  • GBP 900 Daily
  • Contract
Senior Python Engineer - Equities/Derivatives/Risk Platforms (Electronic Trading)

London (Bromley/St Paul's) | Hybrid Working
12-Month Contract
£900/day PAYE

Our client is a well-established consulting and technology partner operating across the financial services sector, supporting some of the world's largest banking institutions.

They are currently seeking a Senior Python Engineer to join a major global investment bank's Equities and Risk technology organisation. This is a hands-on engineering position focused on building and enhancing software that underpins front-office trading activity. The team is looking for a strong software engineer with a proven track record delivering production systems within investment banking environments.

Experience with platforms such as Quartz, Athena, SecDB or Beacon would be particularly relevant, as would previous exposure to Equities, Derivatives, Risk or Electronic Trading technology.

What we're looking for

  • Strong commercial Python development experience
  • Background delivering complex software within investment banking, capital markets or electronic trading environments
  • Experience building and supporting production trading platforms
  • Strong understanding of software architecture, APIs and distributed systems
  • Ability to work closely with front-office stakeholders and translate business requirements into robust technical solutions
  • Experience with Quartz, Athena, SecDB or Beacon is highly desirable

Additional Information

  • 12-month contract
  • £900/day PAYE
  • Hybrid working with a couple of days per week onsite in Bromley or St Paul's
  • Applicants must have recent banking experience

If you're a senior engineer from a banking background who enjoys solving complex technical problems within trading environments, we'd be happy to discuss the opportunity in more detail.

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