Contract Principal Architect - Circa £900/pd

Contract Principal Architect - (SBS/Sopra)

Location: London

Rate: Circa £900 per day

We’re supporting a search for a Contract Principal Architect - (SBS/Sopra) to join a major, highly regulated organisation undergoing significant transformation across its core banking and payments estate.

This role will act as the internal subject matter expert for the core banking platform (SBS/Sopra), providing technical leadership, challenging suppliers and ensuring the platform is aligned to wider digital, cloud and AI-driven transformation initiatives.

The Role

Sitting at the intersection of architecture, engineering and business, this position plays a critical role in bridging the gap between platform capability and real-world delivery.

Key areas of focus include:

• Owning and steering decisions across the core banking platform (SBS/Sopra)
• Acting as the internal “voice” of the platform, aligning business needs with product capability
• Providing technical and architectural governance across integrations and delivery
• Challenging and influencing key suppliers and system integrators
• Supporting large-scale transformation, including cloud adoption (AWS), event-driven architecture and AI integration
• Driving oversight across build, test and release cycles

What We’re Looking For

• Deep experience with core banking platforms (ideally SBS/Sopra) - You MUST have this experience to be considered for the role.
• Strong background in banking architecture, engineering or solution design
• Proven ability to influence and challenge suppliers and senior stakeholders
• Experience delivering core banking implementations and complex integrations
• Hands-on understanding of event-driven architectures and cloud-native environments (AWS preferred)
• Experience working within regulated or complex delivery environments