Solution Architect

Core Purpose of Role

A Senior Solution Architect is responsible for designing and implementing technology solutions within a specific area or domain of an organization. The primary role is to understand the business requirements and align them with technology solutions. Working closely with stakeholders, including business leaders, project managers, and other architects, to ensure that technology solutions are aligned with the overall enterprise architecture. Evaluate new technologies and make recommendations on which ones to adopt and how to integrate them into existing systems. Additionally, responsible for ensuring that the domain's systems are secure, reliable, and scalable.

Accountabilities

Leadership Employee experience EEXP 4* / Professional development PDSV 5* / Performance management PEMT 5*/ Organisational facilitation OFCL 5* / Strategic planning ITSP 5*

• Demonstrate servant-leadership, fostering a culture of collaboration, empowerment, and continuous improvement within the team, and championing agile practices across the organization.
• Provide guidance and mentorship to the others including stakeholders and direct reports, ensuring a holistic approach to technology and business alignment.

Technical Delivery Enterprise and business architecture STPL 6* / Risk management BURM 5* / Solution architecture ARCH 5* / Stakeholder Relationship Management RLMT 5* / Specialist advice TECH 5*

• Designing, implementing owning technology solutions that meet the business requirements of the domain.
• Accountable for preparing architectural artifacts to support the PI planning
• Collaborating with business leaders to understand their needs and identify opportunities for technology solutions.
• Creating and maintaining an enterprise architecture plan for the domain, including roadmaps and frameworks for technology solutions.
• Evaluating new technologies and recommending solutions that can improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the domain's systems.
• Ensuring that technology solutions are aligned with the overall enterprise architecture and that they meet security, reliability, and scalability requirements.
• Providing technical guidance and mentorship to other members of the domain's technology team.
• Providing input on budget and resource allocation for technology initiatives within the domain.
• Monitoring and analyzing technology trends and developments that may impact the domain's systems and operations.
• Collaborating and leading solution architects to ensure that technology solutions are integrated across the relevant domain.
• Ensuring compliance with regulatory and legal requirements related to technology solutions within the domain.
• Chair or significant contributing member to a Technical Design Authority or similar Bank-wide technical governance forum
• Collaborating with the Value Stream Technology Lead to ensure the quality engineering practices and engineering experience to maintained in the selection of technology

Skills & Knowledge

To be specified for each Domain:

Payments

Ideally worked in a Scaled Agile context, as they will be Accountable for the Architecture Runway for the Domain

Experience of Cloud Architecture, ideally certified in AWS or Azure to Solution Architect level

Good understanding of Event Storming and Domain Driven Design architecture design techniques, ideally will have lead and facilitated DDD workshops with stakeholders

Experience in archimate and EA repository use preferred

Understanding of TOGAF.

Preferred experience of presenting externally on-behalf of their organisation to the subject of their Domain and participated in industry level thinking in their Domain.

Must have architected multiple payments solutions at Bank-wide level

Payments - Must have detailed domestic scheme implementation experience (Faster Payments, BACS, CHAPS/RTGS, Open Banking)

Designed Payments solution covering - fraud, sanctions screening, case management, Treasury, Reconciliation, API gateway design

Ideally solution design experience of Debit Card infrastructures and integration with Core Banking

Must be familiar with UK Payments vendor community

Should have connections and worked with pay.uk, Open Banking Implementation Entity and UK Finance entities

Must have held a Senior Architecture position with specific Payments Architecture responsibilities at a UK Bank.

Must be able to architect solution that meet Operational Resilience requirements for a Critical Bank Service