Lead System Architect

Role: Lead System Architect

Location: Remote, UK

Employment Type: Contract (Inside Ir35)

Requirements: Active SC Clearance (mandatory)

Job Description:

Position Overview

We are looking for an experienced and highly technical Pega Lead System Architect (CLSA) to drive end-to-end design, architecture, and technical governance for enterprise-level Pega implementations across our UK client engagements. In this role, you will act as the principal technical authority, responsible for architecting scalable, high-performing Pega solutions, enforcing strict Pega guardrails, and guiding cross-functional agile delivery teams to ensure successful project execution.

Key Responsibilities

• Architecture & Solution Design: Lead the technical design, application architecture, and integration patterns for complex, large-scale Pega applications using Pega Platform (v8.x/Infinity) and specialized strategic applications.
• Technical Governance: Enforce Pega guardrails, best practices, reuse strategies, and design patterns across the solution life cycle to minimize custom code and technical debt.
• Integration Strategy: Architect secure integrations between Pega and enterprise systems using REST, SOAP, Kafka, database interfaces, and microservices architectures.
• Client & Stakeholder Advisory: Serve as the primary technical advisor to business stakeholders, product owners, and enterprise architects, translating business vision into robust technical roadmaps.
• Team Leadership & Mentorship: Provide technical leadership and guidance to Senior System Architects (SSAs), System Architects (SAs), and DevOps engineers through code reviews and design sessions.
• Performance & Optimization: Conduct system performance tuning, memory analysis, database query optimization, and scalability testing across non-production and production environments.
• DevOps & CI/CD: Drive automated deployment pipelines, continuous integration, and modern deployment practices leveraging Deployment Manager or enterprise CI/CD tools.

Required Qualifications & Experience

• Certifications: Certified Pega Lead System Architect (CLSA) is mandatory.
• Experience: 8+ years of hands-on experience designing and implementing Pega enterprise solutions, with a minimum of 2-3 years leading enterprise architectural decisions as an LSA.
• Pega Platform Expertise: Deep mastery of the Pega Infinity platform architecture, Enterprise Class Structure (ECS), Case Management, Data Pages, Security Models, and Performance tools (PAL, Tracer, DB Trace).
• Integrations & Databases: Strong experience in web services (REST/SOAP), JSON/XML, authentication protocols (OAuth, SAML), and relational databases (PostgreSQL, Oracle, SQL Server).
• Agile/Scrum: Proven track record in delivery within Agile/Scrum environments using tools like Jira, Confluence, and Pega Agile Studio.
• Eligibility: Must be based in the UK with existing Right to Work in the UK (Security Clearance eligibility is a plus).