Company: Cognizant
Location: London
Posted: April 17th, 2026
Cognizant (NASDAQ:CTSH) is a leading provider of information technology, consulting, and business process outsourcing services, dedicated to helping the world's leading companies build stronger businesses. Headquartered in Teaneck, New Jersey (U.S.), Cognizant has over 280,000 employees as of January 2021. Cognizant is a member of the NASDAQ-100, the S&P 500, the Forbes Global 1000, and the Fortune 500 and is ranked among the top performing and fastest growing companies in the world.
At Cognizant, our consultants orchestrate the capabilities to truly change the game across strategy, design, technology and industry/functional knowledge to deliver insight at speed and solutions at scale. Our consulting services elevate the unique abilities and business aspirations of customers and employees and build relationships based on trust and value.
Energy & utilities in the UK are going through a transformation journey with the focus on making data-centric Asset Investment decisions, enhanced customer experience (through digital and data enablement), sustainable and reliable infrastructure (green energy driven water treatment, fewer leakages etc.), digitalization of the aging infrastructure, visualization of their disparate decision support systems in a single pane of glass and most importantly disruption from innovative technologies entering the marketplace. Cognizant has engagements with multiple energy & utilities clients in the UK where we are helping them being customer obsessed and lead the transformation initiatives to build new offerings, solutions and innovative business models aligned to the market trends and regulatory commitments.
We are seeking an experienced Architect with deep domain expertise in Utilities, preferably water, and a proven track record in designing and delivering transformation programs involving cloud, data and operational technologies. The ideal candidate will have deep experience with Azure or AWS cloud architectures, Azure Data Platform, Azure Databricks, and advanced analytics. You will play a pivotal role in shaping digital transformation strategies for water sector clients, architecting scalable, secure, and innovative solutions.
Architecture experience to conduct as-is architecture assessment, develop target architecture and transition architectures
Lead the architecture and design of end-to-end cloud solutions for water utilities, leveraging Azure and AWS platforms.
Architect robust data platforms using Azure Data Services (Data Lake, Microsoft Fabric, Data Factory etc.) and Databricks.
Design and oversee the implementation of AI/ML solutions for predictive analytics, asset management, and operational optimization.
Serve as a subject matter expert in water utilities, advising clients on best practices, regulatory compliance, and digital transformation trends.
Translate complex business requirements into scalable technical architectures.
Guide and mentor engineering teams through solution delivery, ensuring adherence to architectural standards and best practices.
Conduct architecture reviews, risk assessments, and performance tuning.
Collaborate with business and IT stakeholders to define solution roadmaps and ensure alignment with organizational goals.
Present architectural concepts and solutions to both technical and non-technical audiences.
Evaluate emerging technologies and recommend adoption to enhance solution capabilities.
Drive continuous improvement in architecture frameworks, methodologies, and tools.
Good years of experience in IT architecture & good years in the utilities sector.
Experience of working in any process and asset heavy industries
Exposure to the following business process areas – customer service, smart metering, asset management, asset operations
Extensive experience architecting solutions on Azure and AWS.
Deep expertise with Azure Data Platform (Data Lake, Data Factory, Synapse, etc.) and Databricks.
Proven ability to design secure, scalable, and cost-effective cloud architectures.
Any exposure to IoT, IIoT and Operational technologies would be an added advantage
Strong leadership, mentoring, and stakeholder management skills.
Excellent communication and presentation abilities.
Business Development and Mentorship
We expect the person to not just deliver on a defined scope, but be able to shape up ideas and conversations into actionable proposals. The person will further be required to work with wider Cognizant team to monitor and mentor them to ensure quality products are being delivered. Clients expect Cognizant to lead not just on “Cognizant scope items” but provide the leadership and drive on client items as well.
This is a central role within an account. Right from leading to planning to driving including business development will be essential.
Microsoft Azure and/or AWS Architect certifications.
TOGAF or any other architecture certifications
Will need to be flexible to travel to one or two accounts on a regular basis.
Client engagement and relationship building is key. We expect the role to establish strong working relationship and working models with the client stakeholder group and not just travel for meetings.