Contract Technical Consultant — Legacy Systems Discovery & Migration Readiness

Source: WhatJobs

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Legacy Systems Discovery & Migration Readiness

Contract / Freelance (Initial 5–15 day engagement) Hybrid / On-site required initially (North West England)

MadeByAI is seeking an experienced technical contractor to support the discovery, interrogation and documentation of a complex legacy business systems environment as part of a wider AI and systems transformation programme. This is not a typical software development role.

The environment

We are specifically looking for someone who is comfortable working with mature, business-critical systems that have evolved over decades. The environment includes:

Microsoft Access applications
VBA / Visual Basic logic
ASP.NET applications
ERP-linked systems
Synchronised local and central databases
Stored procedures and transactional business logic
Complex relational database structures
Long-standing operational processes and data dependencies

The immediate objective is not to rewrite systems, but to:

Understand them properly
Document them accurately
Identify dependencies and risks
Prepare the environment for future migration, consolidation or redevelopment

The type of person we need

Someone who enjoys understanding how older systems really work — not someone who only operates in greenfield environments.

You would suit this role if you:

Enjoy understanding how older systems really work
Can independently interrogate databases and workflows
Understand why long-lived systems often contain important business logic
Are comfortable working without perfect documentation
Have strong analytical instincts
Can distinguish between “legacy because old” and “legacy because mission‑critical”

Key responsibilities

Review and interrogate existing databases and systems

Analyse relational database schemas and dependencies

Understand data flows, synchronisation and locking mechanisms

Review stored procedures, views and business logic

Identify manual workarounds and operational dependencies

Document systems to migration‑ready level

Support assessment of migration and redevelopment options

Work with operational stakeholders to extract undocumented knowledge

Help identify risks, duplication and architectural constraints

Essential technical skills

You should have strong practical experience with several of the following:

Core technologies

Complex schemas and data relationships
Reverse-engineering undocumented systems
Technical documentation
Workflow and dependency mapping
Understanding operational business processes through data structures

Highly desirable experience

Experience with long-running business‑critical systems
Financial, ERP, invoicing or operational systems experience
Understanding of synchronisation architectures
Experience migrating or modernising Access/SQL‑based systems
Familiarity with audit‑sensitive or highly controlled environments
Experience working with organisations in regulated sectors

Security & compliance awareness

NCSC Cloud Security Principles
Security considerations for defence or sensitive‑sector clients

Duration

This role is as much about technical judgement and systems thinking as it is about coding or development. The successful contractor will need to be capable of understanding not just what systems do, but why they evolved the way they did — and what risks exist if that logic is misunderstood during migration or redevelopment.

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