Senior Solution Architect - Internal Data Marketplace / Data Mesh
DURATION: 6 months initial contract (potential extension)
LOCATION: Bristol, UK
WORKING HOURS: Full time
DAY RATE / HOURLY RATE: Up to £675 per day (DoE)
LEGAL RIGHT TO WORK: Candidates must have the legal right to work in the UK. Sponsorship is not available for this role.
This role requires an architect who can operate with a high degree of autonomy, take ownership of architectural direction, influence multiple delivery teams, and rapidly produce detailed architecture artefacts that drive engineering delivery.
JOB OVERVIEW
We are looking for a hands‑on Solution Architect with a proven track record delivering enterprise‑scale platforms within cloud‑native environments.
The successful candidate will be responsible for defining and owning the Marketplace architecture, producing detailed target state designs, influencing adjacent platform teams, and driving architectural decisions through governance processes.
This role is best suited to an architect who is comfortable moving beyond requirements gathering and collaboration into providing clear technical direction, challenging assumptions, and creating implementation‑ready architecture.
You must be comfortable presenting a clear architectural direction and influencing multiple stakeholders to ensure compliance.
RESPONSIBILITIES
Own and define the end‑to‑end architecture for an Internal Data Marketplace platform
Produce clear, actionable and detailed As‑Is, To‑Be and transition state architecture artefacts
Create implementation‑ready solution designs, interface specifications and technical documentation
Define publishing, discovery, access, consumption and lifecycle management patterns for data products
Drive architectural decisions across multiple engineering teams and platform domains
Influence and challenge stakeholders to ensure alignment with strategic architecture objectives
Define authentication, authorisation, governance and security architecture aligned to enterprise standards
Represent the platform through architecture governance forums and design authority reviews
Establish architecture standards, reusable patterns and engineering guardrails
Translate Data Mesh principles into practical platform capabilities and delivery outcomes
Provide technical leadership and mentoring to engineering teams
REQUIREMENTS
Demonstrable experience leading architecture for enterprise‑scale data platforms, data marketplaces or Data Mesh initiatives
Strong track record producing high‑quality architecture artefacts including HLDs, To‑Be architectures, transition architectures and implementation designs
Experience acting as the architectural authority across multiple teams or workstreams
Strong stakeholder management with the ability to challenge and influence at senior levels
Experience defining architecture through governance forums, review boards or design authorities
Hands‑on experience with cloud‑native platforms and Kubernetes environments
Strong understanding of Data Mesh, data governance, metadata, lineage and data product concepts
Experience with event‑driven architectures, APIs and distributed systems
Strong engineering background with the ability to engage at implementation level when required
Experience working within complex enterprise or regulated environments
NICE TO HAVE
React micro front‑end architecture
Java and Quarkus
GCP and GKE
Financial services or large‑scale enterprise platform experience
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