Solution Architect

Skillsets required:

As a Senior Engineer / Solution Architect, this role will act as the lead design authority for the Customer’s Home Buying Digitisation initiative, shaping high-level solution architecture in a complex, industry-wide context.

This initiative sits at the forefront of a once-in-a-generation transformation of the UK home buying process, driven by emerging government proposals, regulatory direction, and industry-wide ambition to simplify, digitise, and modernise the end-to-end journey. The programme aims to replace fragmented, paper-based and intermediary-heavy processes with a seamless, data-driven, and digitally integrated ecosystem spanning lenders, conveyancers, agents, and public sector bodies.

This role is a lead engineer / solution architect responsible for shaping the engineering solutions accross a complex portfolio of industry initiatives to fundamentally change the home buying process in the UK. The role holder will work in close partnership with the Product Owner and a network of external consultants, third-party providers, and industry stakeholders - incuding other lenders and UK government - to define and influence the target state solution for a range of initiatives under the Home Buying Digitisation umbrella. This role is pivotal in shaping the Customer’s position within an evolving industry architecture, ensuring alignment to group strategy while influencing the future state of the wider home buying ecosystem.

You will lead early-stage ideation, define architectural direction, and produce high-quality design artefacts that guide delivery, whilst engaging senior stakeholders internally and externally. This role requires balancing enterprise priorities with industry collaboration, helping position our Customer at the centre of what is expected to become the largest transformation in home buying seen in the UK.

Scope of services:

Provision of one highly experienced lead solution architect/engineer with the following:

Key Skills & Experience

Architecture & Technical Expertise

• Strong experience leading solution architecture in complex, multi-domain environments

• Deep understanding of enterprise integration patterns, APIs, event-driven architectures, and distributed systems

• Strong data architecture capability, including external data exchange, data modelling, and ecosystem data considerations

Industry & Ecosystem Thinking

• Experience working across organisational boundaries, ideally within regulated or consortium-led environments

• Ability to shape solutions where ownership, control, and architecture are distributed across multiple parties

Stakeholder & Influence

• Exceptional stakeholder management skills across internal and external audiences

• Proven ability to influence at senior levels and represent organisational positions in complex forums

Delivery & Product Alignment

• Strong collaboration with Product Owners and delivery teams in shaping roadmaps and architecture runways

• Experience working in agile, product-led environments with a focus on outcomes and customer value

Communication & Artefact Quality

• Ability to create clear, concise, and executive-ready architecture artefacts and presentations

• Strong communication skills, able to articulate complex technical concepts to both technical and non-technical stakeholders

Experience & Background

• Proven experience operating as a Solution Architect within a UK retail banking or financial services environment, with a strong understanding of regulatory, customer journey, and platform considerations

• Demonstrable experience working across complex, multi-stakeholder environments, including external partners, industry bodies, and cross-organisational initiatives

• Experience collaborating with and influencing external consultants, including shaping architectural direction, challenging assumptions, and integrating recommendations into coherent solution designs

• Strong track record of working with fintechs, technology providers, and third-party vendors, including integration patterns, commercial considerations, and ecosystem design

• Experience contributing to or leading industry-facing or consortium-style initiatives, where solution ownership, governance, and design are shared across multiple organisations

• Proven ability to operate effectively at both strategic and hands-on levels, shaping early thinking while also producing high-quality design artefacts

• Experience representing organisations in external forums or governance settings, with the ability to articulate positions clearly and influence outcomes

• Strong understanding of Open Banking, Open Finance, and the UK Government’s Smart Data initiatives, including their implications for data sharing, ecosystem design, consent management, and future digital customer journeys

Relevant Technology & Architecture Experience

Experience with, or strong understanding of, modern architecture and data concepts relevant to industry-wide digitisation, including:

• Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) and tokenisation approaches for asset representation and transaction flows

• Smart data contracts / programmable workflows within multi-party ecosystems

• Event-driven architecture and asynchronous integration patterns for real-time data exchange

• API-first and ecosystem integration approaches

• Enterprise and domain data modelling, including canonical models and data standardisation

• Data sharing frameworks and secure external data exchange patterns

• Cloud-native and distributed systems architectures

• Identity, consent, and trust frameworks across organisational boundaries