Contract Technical Consultant — Legacy Systems Discovery & Migration Readiness

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.

#J-18808-Ljbffr