About us We’re the team behind digital retailer Very. Our purpose, helping families get more out of life, powers everything we do. And we want our people to get more out of life too! If you’re high-performing, ambitious and make the most of every opportunity, we want to hear from you. In return, you’ll enjoy heaps of flexibility, great perks and benefits, and the freedom to be yourself, keep learning and take your career wherever you want it to go. If you love making a difference, you’ll love making it sparkle for millions of Very customers. ✨ About the Team At The Very Group, customer care is at the heart of everything we do, combining knowledgeable, empathetic support with fast, reliable resolutions across all channels. The Customer Care (CC) Performance Unit is responsible for designing, building, changing and running technology across all our customer facing and supporting functions. It supports Customer Service Management, Operations Service Management, Contact Centre Management and Customer Communications. Tech Stack: Java, AWS RDS, AWS API Gateway, Apex, Salesforce Lightning Web Components About The Role As Senior Solution Architect you are expected to help shape architectural design and technology roadmaps for complex applications supporting high volume, mission critical products and services. Responsible for designing solutions across Customer Care that meet both the functional and non-functional requirements for initiatives. Solutions will be a combination of custom-built software, utilising primarily AWS, and external providers’ SAAS components. A key requirement for the role is the ability to analyse existing implementations, sometimes including legacy systems, and present options (Key Design Decisions) showing the strategic option (if known) plus other options which are pragmatic roadmap phases balancing long-term strategy and shorter-term business value. A benefit for this role will be strong system analysis skills. Defining roadmaps for the domains which define the as-is and to-be architectural states and the proposed transitionary phases to be followed to achieve the proposed target state. Roadmap phases will balance strategic direction with business delivery. Working with the Lead Architect, you will be responsible for implementing the policies and standards that guide technology delivery, possessing significant experience in modern, cloud-based technology standards and practices. Assessing 3rd party providers to ensure the proposed solution meets the TVG standards for security, privacy, data integration, performance and reliability. You will be experienced in actively addressing the most complicated risks, issues and dependencies including managing dependencies where ownership exists outside of the team. We need the right person to help identify innovative ways to unblock issues whilst evolving our architecture towards a defined target. The Senior solution architect must both contribute towards strategic thinking as well as ensuring that appropriate technology standards are created and adhered to – including solution designs, strategic alignment, growing technology capabilities, introducing best practice and leading technology selection. The Senior Solution Architect must be an integral part of the Solution Architecture team, working in collaboration with the Lead Architect within a Performance Unit/Tribe. You'll work hand in hand with our Product Managers, Delivery and Technical Leads in order to influence and define a technology roadmap to meet both our commercial and technology aims. We're looking for a role model within the discipline to engage the wider community whilst coaching/mentoring other architects, technical leads and engineers. To be successful in the role, we need someone who can mediate between people and explain complex technical concepts to non-technical audiences, particularly someone who is confident communicating with stakeholders at all levels. Someone who understands the evolutionary nature of technology delivery in an agile environment. As you may imagine, our stakeholder expectations are high, and we'll need you to facilitate discussions about high risk and complexity even within constrained timescales. We want to be known as the best in class for this space, so here you can speak and represent the community to large audiences inside and outside of the Very Group! The role also has a focus on promotion and leadership of the architectural vision both inside the architecture team and across the wider technology and business teams. About You Demonstrable experience in designing complex solutions balancing strategic direction and business delivery Experience in defining roadmaps and influencing, communicating and guiding stakeholders Conceptual and strategic thinker Technical expert Team member with good interpersonal skills but able to work independently ·You are known for your thought leadership and critical thinking in the technical space, while being able to apply business context You have experience of the following technology skills or knowledge: Salesforce Service Cloud, Amazon AWS and Azure Experience working with the following technologies would be a bonus: Bizz Design, Confluence, Jira, Alvaria (or other CCaaS), Call Miner, Blue Prism, Oracle DB & AWS specifics: API Gateway and RDS Domain experience in Customer Care, working with a CRM and contact centre technologies Awareness of Financial Services, preferable Retail Financial Services / Banking / Insurance / Credit / Loans How to apply Please note that the talent acquisition team are managing this vacancy directly, and if successful in securing this role, you will be required to undertake a credit, CIFAS, Right to Work checks and if a specific requirement of your role a DBS (criminal records) check. Should your application progress we require you to let the team know if there is anything you need to disclose in relation to any of these checks prior to them being undertaken, including any unspent criminal convictions. What happens next? Our talent acquisition team will be in touch if you’re successful so keep an eye on your emails! We’ll arrange a short call to learn more about you, as well as answer any questions you have. If it feels like we’re a good match, we’ll share your CV with the hiring manager to review. Our interview process is tailored to each role and can be in-person or held remotely. You can expect a two-stage interview process for this position: 1st stage - A 60-90 minute interview, ideally in person with the hiring team to discuss your skills and relevant experience. This is a great opportunity to find out more about the role and to ask any questions you may have. 2nd Stage - a 30 minute call with a member of the Leadership team. As an inclusive employer please do let us know if you require any reasonable adjustments. Diversity, inclusion and equal opportunities We’re building a culture of everyday inclusion, and welcome applications from anyone who believes they can do the job. We don’t discriminate based on age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage or civil partnership, pregnancy or maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, or sexual orientation. We want our recruitment process to be accessible to everyone. If you need reasonable adjustments to apply, interview, or perform a role, let us know via talentacquisition@theverygroup.com. We’ll be happy to support you. We’re proud to be a Disability Confident Committed Employer and have nine brilliant colleague networks - including DAWN (Disability Awareness at Very) and Think (Neurodiversity at Very) - that are helping us make Very an even more inclusive place to work.