Bold innovation. Modern Tech-Stack. Impacting the future.
Salesforce Platform Architect
£60,000 - £66,000 (+ Benefits)
Grade: P3
Directorate: Chief Operating Office
Reports to: Head of Architecture
Contract: Permanent
Hours: Full time 35 hours per week
Location: Stratford, London. Office-based with high flexibility (1-2 days per week in the office)
Visa sponsorship: You must be eligible to work in the UK to apply for this vacancy. Cancer Research UK is not able to offer visa sponsorship.
Internal closing date: 24 June 2026 23:55
This vacancy may close earlier if a high volume of applications is received or once a suitable candidate is found, therefore we strongly recommend that you apply early to avoid disappointment. If you require more time to apply as part of a reasonable adjustment, please contact recruitment@cancer.org.uk as soon as possible.
Recruitment process: Competency-based interviews
How do I apply? We operate an anonymised shortlisting process in our commitment to equality, diversity, and inclusion. CVs are required for all applications; but we won’t be able to view them until we invite you for an interview. Instead, we ask you to fully complete the work history section of the online application form for us to be able to assess you quickly, fairly, and objectively.
At Cancer Research UK, we exist to beat cancer.
We are professionals with purpose, beating cancer every day. But we need to go much further and much faster. That’s why we’re looking for someone talented, someone who wants to develop their skills, someone like you.
Cancer Research UK has an ambitious Engineering Strategy supported by a modern Tech Stack and a complex hybrid infrastructure spanning on‑premise and multi‑cloud environments. Our CRM and Marketing platforms sit at the heart of our Engage Strategy and are undergoing major transformation to migrate from Siebel to Salesforce (going live this year) and to modernise our marketing technologies as part of the largest change programme in the UK charity sector’s history.
As a Salesforce Platform Architect, you’ll play a pivotal role in safeguarding and evolving our Salesforce platform post-migration, supporting the transition from transformation into a stable, business‑as‑usual state. You’ll be responsible for iterating and maintaining the Salesforce platform architecture, ensuring it remains secure, scalable, and well-integrated in line with Cancer Research UK’s strategy. This will involve lower‑level design, development, and configuration, while shaping top‑level solutions and governance.
This is an opportunity to collaborate closely with a cross‑disciplinary technology function and external partners, providing technical leadership, standards, and oversight to ensure solutions are fit for purpose, while building organisational capability through coaching, architectural guidance, and the establishment of a Salesforce Centre of Excellence.
If you’re a Salesforce Architect who has maintained, developed, or implemented Salesforce in a large, complex organisation, we would love for you to join our mission.
What will I be doing?
Defining and maintaining the Salesforce platform architecture by:
Delivering end-to-end, secure, and integrated solutions aligned to Cancer Research UK’s strategy.
Providing technical leadership, standards and governance across teams.
Ensuring solutions are fit for purpose and support the wider architecture capability through expert guidance, coaching, and architectural oversight.
Defining guidelines for platform usage, customisation, and integration to ensure consistent, secure, and scalable use of Salesforce across the organisation.
Ensuring the scalability, performance, and reliability of the Salesforce platform meet the charity’s current and future operational and strategic needs.
Designing quality, scalable, and performant Salesforce solutions to ensure all components fit together into a coherent, maintainable, and business-aligned architecture.
Translating business requirements into high-level and low-level technical designs, enabling delivery teams to build effective low-code or pro-code solutions.
Overseeing the implementation of new platform features, modules, and enhancements, ensuring they align with architectural standards and deliver business value.
Building and guiding the creation of proofs of concept to validate solution options and accelerate innovation within delivery teams.
Designing and overseeing Salesforce data integrations, ensuring data quality, integrity, and reliable information exchange across connected systems.
Providing technical leadership across Engineering, Analysis, and Architecture communities to reduce technical risk, manage technical debt, and develop a Salesforce Centre of Excellence.
What skills will I need?
An experienced Architect who has a strong knowledge of Salesforce architecture and platform within large organisations (this can be either maintaining, developing, or implementing Salesforce).
Rather than focusing on building solutions, this role has responsibility across the Salesforce platform. We’re looking for someone with strong Salesforce skills and knowledge to:
Deliver both lower‑level design, development, and technical configuration, as well as top-level solutions.
Ensure partners meet organisational and Salesforce requirements and standards (e.g. attending governance workshops and challenging build approaches, use of out‑of‑the‑box functionality, and modular design).
Strong architectural thinking with exposure to a Salesforce platform that integrates with multiple platforms/ products.
Demonstrable understanding of the following Salesforce features: accounting soft ledger, Sales Cloud, and Service Cloud.
Knowledge of Findock would be advantageous, but is not essential.
Proven knowledge of Salesforce security and governance best practices, with experience conducting impact assessments.
A successful track record of building credible and collaborative internal and external stakeholder relationships with strong interpersonal, communication, influencing, and negotiating skills.
Experience coaching others, guiding technical decisions and architectural direction to support the development of Salesforce capability across teams and third‑party partners.
Experience delivering architecture through Agile Product teams (e.g., Scrum, Kanban, SAFe, Lean).
Strong analytical thinking and problem-solving skills.
Our organisation values are designed to guide all that we do.
Bold: Act with ambition, courage and determination
Credible: Act with rigour and professionalism
Human: Act to have a positive impact on people
Together: Act inclusively and collaboratively
We’re looking for people who can believe in and embody these organisation values and can use them to drive forward progress against our mission to beat cancer.
If you’re interested in applying and excited about working with us but are unsure if you have the right skills and experience we’d still love to hear from you.
Internal eligibility criteria
Internal candidates should ideally have completed their 6-month ‘getting started’ period before applying for other roles. You should also advise your current line manager at the point you make an internal application, or at the latest, at the point of being invited for an interview.
All internal candidates applying for a secondment, must have:
Completed their Getting Started period
Discussed their intention to apply and gained approval to apply with their line manager
Been in their substantive (home) role for at least 6 months (this is only applicable if you have previously been on secondment)
If you do not confirm that you meet these requirements, we will not be able to progress your application.
For information about internal learning and development at Cancer Research UK please visit Fuse.
What will I gain?
We create a working environment that supports your wellbeing and provide a generous benefits package, a wide range of career and personal development opportunities and high-quality tools. Our policies and processes enable you to improve your work-life balance, take positive steps in your career and achieve your personal wellbeing goals.
You can explore our benefits by visiting our careers web page.
Additional Information
For more information about working with us please visit our website or contact us at recruitment@cancer.org.uk.
For more updates on our work and careers, follow us on: LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, X and YouTube.
There’s a place for everyone at Cancer Research UK. Our vision is to create a charity where everyone feels like they belong, benefits from and participates in, the work we do. We're committed to creating an inclusive culture where everyone can be themselves and reach their full potential.
We actively encourage applications from people of all backgrounds and cultures, in particular those from ethnic minority backgrounds who are currently under-represented, and believe that a diverse workforce will help us to beat cancer sooner.
If you’re interested in applying and excited about working with us but are unsure if you have the right skills and experience we’d still love to hear from you. We don’t expect everyone to meet all of the criteria listed.
We want to see every candidate performing at their best throughout the job application process, interview process and whilst at work. We therefore ask you to inform us of any concerns you have or any adjustments you might need to enable this to happen by emailing us at recruitment@cancer.org.uk.
Unfortunately, we are unable to recruit anyone below the age of 18, so that we can protect young people from health & safety and safeguarding risks.