Solutions Architect (Forecasting, Allocation & Replenishment)

Location: Reading or Dublin – hybrid (2 days a week)

Travel: Occasional travel between sites

Salary & Package: Competitive

A global retail organisation is seeking an experienced Solution Architect – Forecasting, Allocation & Replenishment to join its Technology Architecture function. This is a permanent role within a growing architecture practice, supporting large‐scale transformation across retail, supply chain and planning systems.

This position will play a key role in shaping a modern, ML/AI‐enabled retail ordering platform, guiding solution design, and ensuring architectural integrity across complex, high‐volume enterprise environments.

What You’ll Do

• Design end‐to‐end enterprise solutions across processes, applications, data, integration, technology, service and security
• Create and review solution blueprints and integration/security documentation
• Analyse requirements, identify gaps and shape architectures to meet functional and non‐functional needs
• Define as‐is, to‐be and transition architectures, securing alignment with stakeholders
• Present solution designs to the Design Authority for approval
• Oversee low‐level design activities and collaborate with specialist architects and systems integrators
• Resolve design issues, manage change impacts and ensure architectural decisions are understood
• Ensure solution delivery aligns with programme plans, testing phases and cutover timelines
• Support environment provisioning and maintain solution quality throughout development
• Maintain architecture documentation and update baseline architecture at go‐live
• Work closely with business partners, SMEs, delivery teams and service teams to ensure smooth implementation and transition to support

What You’ll Bring

• Demonstrable experience with inventory planning and forecasting platforms
• Strong communication skills with excellent documentation and diagramming capability
• Proven experience designing solutions in high‐volume retail environments (fashion/general merchandise ideal)
• Experience with forecasting, allocation and replenishment systems
• Familiarity with retail supply chain and planning platforms
• Experience working on large‐scale IT transformation programmes
• Solid understanding of the systems development lifecycle
• Experience with cloud applications and Retail ERP (Oracle Retail preferred)
• Ability to analyse complex, interconnected systems and produce simplified architectural models

Successful Candidates Will Have

• 7+ years in IT engineering/design within large multinational organisations
• 5+ years in solution architecture
• Broad understanding of major IT disciplines and software development practices
• Experience integrating applications in high‐volume environments (Azure Integration Services a plus)
• Strong stakeholder engagement skills with the ability to influence without authority
• A proactive, curious, self‐starter mindset with a passion for continuous improvement
• Strong interpersonal skills and the ability to communicate comfortably with senior leaders, product owners and delivery teams
• Experience working in retail or other fast‐paced consumer environments
• Experience developing solutions aligned to an overarching architecture strategy
• Ability to provide leadership and guidance to peers and junior team members