With the Women's Rugby World Cup right around the corner, it's an incredibly exciting time to join the RFU. Working at the RFU means being part of the ‘bigger picture’ at England Rugby: to be rooted in our purpose, which is to enrich lives, introduce more people to rugby union & develop the sport for future generations. If our purpose resonates with you, and you recognise the value that sport can bring to people’s lives, we’d love to work with you. An opportunity has arisen for a Solutions Architect to join our Digital & Technology team on a permanent basis.
Job Title : Solutions Architect
Department : Digital & Technology
Reports to : Head of Architecture
Direct Report(s) : None
Salary Banding : c. £70,000 per annum
Job Level : Guide
Location : HQ - This role is contractually based at Allianz Stadium, offering some flexibility to work from home.
Employment Type : Permanent
Working Hours : This is a full-time role, covering 35hrs per week
Application Information:
1. Please submit an anonymised CV (. remove personal details).
2. The closing date for applications Tuesday 2nd September at 9pm.
Please note; we are currently experiencing an issue with applications using Live, MSN, Hotmail and Outlook accounts. Please apply using a different email address if you typically use one of these domains as we cannot guarantee that you will receive communications from us if you use these.
The Role:
The RFU is working to improve the experience of volunteers, players, fans and attendees through the applied use of technology. We have exciting initiatives ahead, including improving learning pathways for Referees and Coaches, improving Fan & Volunteer experiences via the creation of unified digital experiences, and extending SSO across all of our external facing platforms.
We are looking for a Solutions Architect to join our Digital & Technology team to support the design, development, procurement, and assurance of these Digital and Data solutions. The role will hold a particular focus on microservices, integration patterns, API design, and producing Enterprise level Solution Architecture patterns.
The Team:
This role sits within a small but dynamic Architecture team within the wider Digital & Technology team, composed of a Data Architect, this Solution Architect role, and led by the Head of Architecture.
We tend to be among the most tech-savvy problem solvers in the business, and so the role holder will often be looked to as the technical authority, as they collaborate with Business Analysts, Product Managers, Delivery Managers and 3rd party vendors to deliver technology solutions.
Some key responsibilities include:
3. Engage proactively with stakeholders to help map, model, and understand the scope of any given problem or opportunity.
4. Provide practical solutions architecture; the production of models, diagrams, documentation as needed to support any given engagement.
5. Design solutions that are fully traceable back to requirements, proportionate to business needs, and that staff can implement and support.
6. Govern solutions implementation to ensure that delivery follows the solution design correctly, and challenge suppliers wherever discrepancy is found.
7. Provide peer review for Architecture colleagues.
8. Help embed Solutions Architecture as a practice within by acting as a champion for the discipline and providing demonstrable value to our internal customers.
9. Contribute towards solutions architecture best practice through the production of templates, standardized patterns, common ways of working, etc.
10. Work closely with colleagues within the wider Architecture team, to ensure that there is alignment and that silos do not occur.
11. Help enforce architectural governance, ensuring that solutions are aligned back to enterprise principles, policies, and standards.
12. Guide solutions through the technology approval process, providing information to Technical Design Authority as required.
13. Effectively build relationships and collaborate with team members across multiple lines of business and functional departments.
14. Stay up to date with current thinking and best practice, proposing recommendations on improvements we can make.
15. Actively collaborate with colleagues to contribute to the development and delivery of the current strategic, business and operational plans.
16. Act as an ambassador for, and promote the best interests of the RFU, including the promotion of our culture and core values – This Rose Means Everyone: Put The Team First, Shape The Future, Respect Each Other.
17. Undertake other duties as may be required from time to time as are consistent with the responsibilities of the post and the needs of the organisation.
Qualifications, Skills & Experience:
The skills and attributes outlined in this description are not exhaustive and we welcome candidates who can bring different relevant experiences to the role.
Essential:
18. You have strong and demonstrable experience in Solutions Architecture as a discipline.
19. You have a background in architecting solutions for a Cloud Native environment.
20. You can demonstrate experience of integrating applications, particularly in a SAAS model.
21. You have demonstrable experience with IAM and SSO in a customer facing landscape.
22. You have strong and demonstrable experience in the definition, structure, management and security of APIs.
23. You have strong knowledge of applying role/attribute-based security patterns within a microservices/event driven architecture.
24. Committed to embodying the ethos our culture by using our three core values – Put The Team First, Shape The Future, Respect Each Other – to guide your day-to-day decisions, actions and interactions.
25. Committed to actively contributing and building an inclusive culture in your role and day to day behaviours.
Desirable:
26. Prior experience working on an “Ecosystem” user experience, unifying multiple disparate customer-facing platforms to create seamless user experiences.
27. Experience with Learning Management Systems.
28. Solid understanding of and ability to speak to security principles in areas such as application security, virtualization, cloud technologies, access control.
29. Experience with AWS Lambda or equivalent.
30. Knowledge of Github, Github Actions, and managing code pipelines.
31. Knowledge and experience of implementing large scale CRM systems.
32. Experience using Auth0.
Additional Information:
33. This successful candidate will need to be able to work match days and flexibly during times of peak activity.
34. We want you to have every opportunity to demonstrate your skills, ability and potential. If there is anything we could do to support you through your application or to provide the best environment for your interviews, including assistance or adjustment, please reach out to
35. During your application, we will ask questions about your identity. This information is considered highly confidential and will not be seen by hiring managers. You can find out more about why we ask these questions .
Please download the job description for full details of this role.*
* We recommend keeping a copy of the JD to hand as you may wish to revisit the role requirements in the event you are invited to interview.