Lead Solution Architect

Lead Solution Architect (Lead SA)

Location: Luton, UK (Hybrid / Two days on-site)

Employment Type: Contract

Experience: 6–8+ Years

About the Role

We are seeking an experienced Lead Solution Architect to provide architecture leadership across large-scale transformation programmes and mission-critical solutions. This role requires a strategic thinker who can shape end-to-end solutions across multiple product teams, influence stakeholders at all levels, and ensure technology decisions deliver measurable business outcomes.

Key Skills & Experience

• Proven experience as a Lead Solution Architect, successfully delivering complex, large-scale transformation programmes and managing senior stakeholders.
• 6–8+ years of experience in solution architecture, enterprise architecture, or architecture leadership roles.
• Strong track record of designing and governing end-to-end solutions across multiple teams, domains, and technology platforms.
• Experience working within agile, product-led, or mission-based delivery environments.
• Deep understanding of modern architecture principles, including cloud-native platforms (AWS preferred), microservices, APIs, event-driven architectures, and canonical data models.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to translate technical concepts into business value.
• Strong analytical and decision-making capabilities, balancing business priorities, delivery timelines, technical debt, and cost considerations.
• Knowledge of emerging technologies and architecture trends, with the ability to apply them pragmatically to business challenges.
• Experience mentoring, coaching, and developing technical teams, fostering architecture best practices and architectural thinking.
• Ability to convert complex business requirements into scalable, secure, and maintainable technology solutions.

Desirable Experience

• TOGAF or equivalent architecture certification.
• Experience within airline, aviation, transport, scheduling, crew management, flight planning, or operational systems environments.
• Familiarity with large-scale integration, operational resilience, and mission-critical business platforms.

Key Responsibilities

• Provide architecture leadership for mission and product teams, defining solution architecture strategy, vision, and roadmaps.
• Design and oversee end-to-end solutions spanning multiple product teams, platforms, and technology domains.
• Establish architecture principles, standards, reference architectures, and reusable patterns to drive consistency and optimisation.
• Collaborate closely with Product Leads, Technical Leads, and Delivery Leads to ensure successful solution design and execution.
• Ensure solutions align with enterprise architecture strategy, business objectives, governance standards, and long-term technology direction.
• Identify, manage, and mitigate cross-team dependencies, integration challenges, and architectural risks.
• Define and govern integration approaches, shared services, data flows, and platform interactions across the organisation.
• Communicate architectural decisions, trade-offs, risks, and recommendations to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Coach and support engineering and delivery teams in architectural best practices, design thinking, and solution governance.
• Drive continuous improvement in solution architecture practices, promoting innovation, reuse, scalability, security, and operational excellence.

Why Join Us?

This is an opportunity to play a pivotal role in shaping the architecture of large-scale, business-critical platforms while working with senior stakeholders, modern cloud technologies, and high-performing product teams. You will have significant influence on strategic technology decisions and the future direction of our digital transformation journey.