Solutions Architect / Technical Delivery Lead
Location: UK-based / Remote
Type: Full-time, permanent or long-term contract
Reports to: CTO / Leadership
Role purpose:
We are looking for a client-facing Solutions Architect / Technical Delivery Lead to support our CTO and strengthen the front end of complex software projects. This person will help shape solutions before delivery begins, contribute to estimates and statements of work, lead technical discovery, and remain involved on a light-touch basis during delivery to provide continuity, oversight, and senior technical judgement.
This is not a pure ivory-tower architecture role. We need someone commercially aware, delivery-minded, and comfortable moving between pre-sales, discovery, technical planning, and practical support to engineering teams.
Key responsibilities
* Join pre-sales calls to understand client needs, technical requirements, risks, and delivery implications
* Translate early-stage conversations into clear technical scope, assumptions, delivery approach, estimates, and input for proposals / SOWs
* Lead or support paid discovery phases, including technical workshops, requirements definition, architecture thinking, and delivery planning
* Produce high-quality technical documentation such as solution outlines, delivery plans, backlog structures, integration maps, risk logs, and implementation recommendations
* Provide technical leadership at project kick-off to ensure nearshore delivery teams are set up clearly and correctly
* Stay involved on a fractional basis across larger or more complex engagements to provide continuity and senior technical oversight
* Act as a senior escalation point for delivery teams and project managers where technical clarity or decision-making is needed
* Support the CTO by taking ownership of selected priorities, helping divide workload across multiple concurrent projects
* Bring structure, realism, and early risk identification into project planning so issues are surfaced before they become client disputes
* Contribute to internal improvements in discovery, estimation, scoping, and technical governance
What good looks like
* Better quality scoping and estimation before projects start
* Cleaner handovers from sales/discovery into delivery
* Reduced reliance on the CTO as the only senior technical decision-maker
* Greater client confidence during pre-sales and discovery
* Fewer surprises during delivery due to stronger upfront technical planning
* Improved project margin protection through better assumptions, planning, and change control
Ideal background
* Strong experience in solutions architecture, technical consultancy, technical lead, or senior delivery-facing engineering roles within a software agency, consultancy, or digital product environment
* Comfortable in client-facing settings and able to communicate with both technical and non-technical stakeholders
* Proven experience shaping bespoke software projects across web platforms, internal systems, product builds, integrations, and discovery phases
* Able to balance technical quality with commercial reality
* Experience contributing to estimates, delivery plans, and statements of work
* Confident producing structured documentation that gives delivery teams clarity
* Broad technical literacy across modern web/software delivery; hands-on background is highly desirable even if no longer coding daily
* Calm under pressure and able to bring order to ambiguity
Preferred experience
* Experience working with nearshore or distributed engineering teams
* Exposure to Laravel, PHP, Python, React, product builds, APIs, and modern cloud-based delivery environments
* Agency or consultancy background with fixed-price and discovery-led projects
* Familiarity with delivery tooling such as ClickUp, Jira, Confluence, or similar
Personal profile
* Commercially aware, but not salesy
* Structured thinker with strong written communication
* Calm, credible, and trusted by both clients and engineers
* Comfortable challenging assumptions early
* Proactive in identifying risks rather than reporting them too late
* Collaborative and low ego