Solutions Architect (London Area)

Job Title: Platform Architect

Location: London, United Kingdom (Hybrid)

Job Type: Full-Time

Experience Level: Senior / Lead Level

About the Role

We are seeking a visionary and technically accomplished Platform Architect to lead the design, standardization, and evolution of scalable, secure, and high-performing technology platforms across our banking ecosystem. This strategic role will guide the modernization of core systems and digital services by leveraging cloud-native technologies, API management, and secure identity platforms.

You will collaborate with engineering, DevOps, infrastructure, product, and security teams to define platform architecture, enforce security and compliance through IDAM, and drive innovations aligned with long-term digital transformation goals.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the design of scalable, secure platform architecture leveraging AWS services, focusing on high availability, elasticity, and resilience for banking workloads.
• Drive adoption and configuration of Kong API Gateway, ensuring secure, observable, and throttled API interactions across microservices and external integrations.
• Define and integrate enterprise-grade identity and access management solutions using Ping Identity for authentication, SSO, MFA, and secure access governance.
• Develop and maintain reusable components, reference architectures, and architectural guardrails to standardize implementation across delivery teams.
• Design robust integration frameworks using messaging systems (Kafka, MQ), event-driven architecture, and RESTful APIs.
• Embed DevSecOps and cloud security best practices into platform layers, aligned with compliance mandates such as GDPR, PSD2, and ISO 27001.
• Promote cloud-first and containerization strategies using Kubernetes, Terraform, and EKS/Fargate for consistent infrastructure provisioning and service orchestration.
• Lead architecture reviews and governance processes to align solutions with enterprise standards, cost efficiency goals, and regulatory expectations.
• Coach engineering teams on architectural best practices, modern tooling, and cloud-native principles.

Required Qualifications

• 8+ years of experience in IT with at least 4 years in a Platform Architect or Enterprise Architect role within banking or financial services.
• Proven expertise in cloud architecture on AWS, including compute, networking, IAM, logging, and cost management.
• Strong hands-on experience with API Gateway setup, security policies, traffic management, and API versioning.
• Solid understanding and implementation experience with Ping Identity or equivalent IDAM platforms (Okta, ForgeRock, etc.).
• Deep knowledge of microservices, container orchestration (Kubernetes), and infrastructure as code (Terraform, Helm).
• Familiarity with enterprise-grade CI/CD practices, observability (Prometheus, Grafana, ELK), and DevSecOps principles.
• Solid grasp of security architectures, IAM frameworks, and data privacy standards relevant to regulated industries.
• Strong stakeholder management and communication skills with cross-functional teams.

Preferred Qualifications

• AWS Certified Solutions Architect (Associate/Professional) or similar certification in Azure/GCP.
• Experience implementing Zero Trust architecture and secure API ecosystems.
• Exposure to Open Banking, BIAN frameworks, or ISO 20022 messaging standards.
• Understanding of SRE, platform cost optimization, and resilience engineering
• Familiarity with agile architecture practices in SAFe, TOGAF, or Spotify model environments.

About us

Ascendion is a Global, leading provider of AI-first software engineering services, delivering transformative solutions across North America, APAC, and Europe. We are headquartered in New Jersey.

We combine technology and talent to deliver tech debt relief, improve engineering productivity solutions, and accelerate time to value, driving our clients’ digital journeys with efficiency and velocity. Guided by our “Engineering to the power of AI” [EngineeringAI] methodology, we integrate AI into software engineering, enterprise operations, and talent orchestration, to address critical challenges of trust, speed, and capital.