Job Description
Solutions Architect
Permanent: Edinburgh or Glasgow - hybrid working.
The Solutions Architect plays a pivotal role in shaping and governing the technology direction of our client. Acting as the bridge between Development, IT Operations, and the Change & Transformation function, this role provides architectural leadership, strategic oversight, and technical challenge across major initiatives.
The architect serves as the gatekeeper for technology decisions - ensuring governance, security, resilience, and strategic alignment are embedded before development proceeds. This is a highly influential position where your expertise, judgement, and ability to surface blind spots will directly inform the organisation’s technology trajectory.
You will validate and challenge the architectural foundations laid by your predecessor, bring your own thinking and ideas, and act as a trusted specialist advisor to senior leadership.
Key Responsibilities
Architectural Leadership & Strategy
* Review, validate, and challenge the existing technology strategy and architectural decisions
* Ensure all technology initiatives align with business goals, governance standards, and long-term strategic direction
* Provide architectural leadership across multiple workstreams, from design through to delivery
* Act as the conscience of the technology function, ensuring resilience, security, and scalability are considered upfront
Change & Governance
* Serve as a gatekeeper for change requests, assessing system load, security implications, and architectural fit
* Participate in change acceptance processes and IT change management forums
* Establish and embed architectural standards, governance frameworks, and best practices
Project & Initiative Support
* Lead architectural input into major programmes, including:
* Enterprise Data Warehouse (a key strategic initiative)
* Cloud migration and Azure landing zones
* SaaS platform transitions and API-first architecture
* Cloud integration work with third-party partners
* Support discovery, R&D, and early-stage evaluation of new initiatives
Stakeholder Engagement
* Work closely with development teams, platform engineering, transformation, propositions, and operations
* Engage senior and cross-functional stakeholders across the business
* Translate complex technical concepts into clear, actionable insights for non-technical stakeholders
The role sits within the Transformation function and operates horizontally across the organisation, carrying significant influence despite not having direct line‑management responsibilities. It requires close collaboration with Development, Platform Engineering, IT Operations, Change & Transformation, and the wider Proposition and Business teams. The organisation is currently focused on several major strategic initiatives, including migrating the technology estate to Azure, implementing a full‑estate data warehouse, establishing robust governance and architectural standards, transitioning key platforms to SaaS, and embedding an API‑first mindset across the technology landscape
Ideal experience would be:
* Highly influential Solutions Architect role shaping long‑term technology strategy
* Opportunity to challenge, validate, and refine the current architectural direction
* Major involvement in strategic programmes including cloud migration, SaaS adoption, API‑first design, and the enterprise data warehouse
* Leadership team actively values technical expertise and architectural challenge
* Access to extensive existing architectural documentation and artefacts
* Ideal candidate is proactive, strategic, and confident in bridging technical and non‑technical teams
* Must have strong engineering, data architecture, and cloud knowledge
* End‑to‑end ownership of workstreams and collaborative working style required
* Financial services experience preferred, with cloud migration and governance knowledge as added advantages
* Role is a backfill, offering the chance to redefine scope and strengthen architectural governance across the organisation