City Of London, England
Job Summary
Job purpose & accountabilities To own, shape and assure end‑to‑end solution architecture and decisions within a clearly defined business or technology domain, accountable for decision quality, risk posture, and long‑term sustainability of outcomes. The Solution Architect operates as a domain‑aligned, decision‑owning leader, partnering with CIO, Product and Engineering leadership to balance delivery speed, operational resilience, regulatory compliance, cost efficiency and architectural integrity. They act as a Key Change Role within the delivery and governance framework, accountable for architectural outcomes and their governance, they play a material role in enterprise‑level operating‑model evolution, standardisation and capability uplift. Job accountabilities Design and delivery of domain solutions; Accountable for the design, evolution and integrity of solutions as enduring products, aligned to business strategy, domain roadmaps and enterprise architecture intent. Owns material architectural decisions within the domain, including technology selection, integration patterns, data flows and non‑functional trade‑offs. Ensures solutions are delivery‑feasible, operationally viable and economically sound, aligning modern engineering practices with enterprise constraints. Architectural decision ownership & governance; Acts as the primary decision authority for solution‑level architecture, escalating only where decisions are cross‑domain, systemic or materially risk‑bearing. Accountable for the quality, timeliness and outcomes of architectural decisions, not the production of design artefacts alone. Provides clear architectural intent and direction, enabling autonomous delivery teams while maintaining coherence at scale. Cloud, platform and workload strategy; Leads targeted workload placement decisions, maximising the benefits of cloud‑native capabilities. Shapes how platform capabilities and shared services are leveraged within the domain, influencing their evolution where current standards do not meet business need. Risk, security and resilience leadership; Accountable for ensuring solutions meet the Bank’s security, resilience and regulatory expectations. Owns the architectural risk position of solutions, explicitly balancing requirements with delivery objectives and long‑term operational stability. Cost, investment and value management; Ensures designs explicitly consider run‑cost, change‑cost and capacity impacts, enabling informed investment decisions by CIO and Product leadership. Contributes to investment prioritisation and sequencing, using architectural insight to improve economic outcomes and reduce inefficiency. Standardisation, reuse and capability evolution; Champions the adoption of standardised platforms, AI, patterns and services, and actively feeds unmet needs into platform and enterprise roadmaps. Drives systemic improvement of the architecture and engineering ecosystem, reducing duplication and improving time‑to‑value across the domain. Operational partnership & accountability; Partners with Engineering and Operations leaders to support production stability, fault resolution and performance optimisation for architecturally significant services. Ensures architectural decisions are operationalised effectively, reinforcing accountability through the full lifecycle. Governance inputs & regulatory compliance; Accountable for the architecture inputs required by governance, risk, privacy, security and records‑management processes, ensuring they are decision‑focused, proportionate and regulator‑credible. Represents the domain architecture position confidently in senior forums, with clarity on trade‑offs and residual risks. Leadership, influence and operating‑model uplift; Operates as a senior leader within the domain and architecture community, mentoring other architects and setting expectations for decision quality and profe
Key Responsibilities
Job Skills & descriptions
Business Process re-engineering Analyse business processes and workflows within the organisation and identification of new approaches to completely redesign business activities or optimise performance, quality and speed of services or processes. This includes exploration of automating and streamlining processes, evaluation of associated costs and benefits of redesigning business processes, as well as identification of potential impact, change management activities and resources required
Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) Knowledge of the principles and tools used in cost-benefit analysis; ability to analyze the purpose and scope of a producer, product, process, or project in terms of cost and benefits.
Data Modeling Leverages advanced data tools and programming techniques to analyze highly complex data sets. Applies mathematical models, database and programming languages to accelerate analysis and derive insights from data.
Infrastructure Engineering Ability to design and build systems incoporating datacenters, cloud, compute, networking, storage, operating systems & software components foundational to the operation of the bank. Delivery of end user compute and communications systems supporting global workforce. Knowledge of the interaction between technology infrastructure and software system, operating models for delivery and operations, reliability engineering as related to foundational infrastructure services
Innovation Understands the value of innovation, AI and tooling, and knows how to deliver new ideas and initiatives that improve performance, despite challenges or setbacks.
IT Governance Knowledge of the accountability framework and processes used to encourage proper behaviour in IT activities and operations; ability to implement IT systems and controls to meet business needs and requirements.
Requirements Analysis Knowledge of tools, methods, and techniques of requirement analysis; ability to elicit, analyse and record required business functionality and non-functionality requirements to ensure the success of a system or software development project
Scrum Software Development Knowledge of the principles, components and features of scrum methodology. ability to apply this methodology to manage software product development processes.
Security System Knowledge of security systems. ability to apply various security practices, methods and regulations to resolve security issues related to individuals, facilities and the manufacturing environment.
Systems Design Modelling of the logical system design for a system, inc. software components, interfaces. This would may involve the use of modelling techniques, e.g. UML, C4 or equivalent
Enterprise scale architectural judgement The ability to operate effectively amid ambiguity, competing priorities and regulatory constraint.
Commercial, risk and value orientation Strong commercial, risk and value orientation, translating architectural decisions into measurable business and operational outcomes.
Leadership Credibility with CIO, Product, Engineering and Risk leadership, influencing through evidence, clarity and decision discipline rather than authority alone.
Engineering Deep understanding of modern software engineering (inc. agentic SDLC), cloud platforms, integration architectures and data patterns, with the ability to abstract detail when engaging at executive level.
Influence Proven capability in leading through others, shaping behaviour and outcomes across delivery teams without direct line management.
Communications Confident communicator, able to articulate complex architectural trade offs succinctly for executive audiences and governance forums.
Skill Requirements
Business Process re-engineering : Analyse business processes and workflows within the organisation and identification of new approaches to completely redesign business activities or optimise performance, quality and speed of services or processes. This includes exploration of automating and streamlining processes, evaluation of associated costs and benefits of redesigning business processes, as well as identification of potential impact, change management activities and resources required Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) : Knowledge of the principles and tools used in cost-benefit analysis; ability to analyze the purpose and scope of a producer, product, process, or project in terms of cost and benefits. Data Modeling : Leverages advanced data tools and programming techniques to analyze highly complex data sets. Applies mathematical models, database and programming languages to accelerate analysis and derive insights from data. Infrastructure Engineering : Ability to design and build systems incoporating datacenters, cloud, compute, networking, storage, operating systems & software components foundational to the operation of the bank. Delivery of end user compute and communications systems supporting global workforce. Knowledge of the interaction between technology infrastructure and software system, operating
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