Lead Solution Architect (21-Month FTC)

Are you passionate about shaping the future of technology in a purpose-driven organisation? As a Lead Solution Architect, you’ll play a pivotal role in defining and delivering technology strategies and roadmaps across enterprise applications and operational support services. This is a senior individual contributor role which may require team management responsibilities in future, offering the opportunity to influence at scale and work across a wide range of stakeholders and technologies. The Lead Architect role reports to another Lead Architect (Manager) which ultimately reports into a Principal Architect within TSA.

Flexible Working Options:

We support a range of flexible working patterns including hybrid working, flexible start and end times We also support:

Flexible start and end time to each day
Ability to adapt calendar as needed, this could be to fit in the school run, gym, or appointments
Expected a 50% (with a minimum of 40%) in-office attendance requirement can be spread across the month to accommodate diverse working patterns, such as the flexibility to purchase a weekly train ticket for certain weeks
Compressed hours (subject to approval and policy within the team)
Working from abroad policy (subject to approval and policy within the team)
A day in the role:

You’ll begin your day with team stand-ups or stakeholder check-ins, followed by focused time on developing architectural artefacts, reviewing roadmaps, or contributing to governance forums. You’ll collaborate with colleagues across Technology and the wider organisation, offering thought leadership and driving innovation. You’ll also engage in strategic planning, stakeholder engagement, and the development of architectural blueprints, high level design and technical options. The role allows flexibility in how and where you work, with a strong emphasis on collaboration, support, and continuous learning.

Role Requirements:

Do you have a passion for enterprise and solution architecture and a track record of driving strategic change? Maybe you already have experience in shaping technology landscapes or are eager to develop your leadership in architecture?

Minimum Criteria

We’re looking for someone who has the following key skills and experience:

Experience in IT architecture, including applying architectural principles to solution design.
Ability to develop and maintain technology strategies and roadmaps aligned to business goals.
Experience shaping enterprise architecture artefacts such as blueprints, technical options, and design patterns.
Strong stakeholder engagement skills, including the ability to build and maintain stakeholder maps and communicate architectural outputs effectively.
Experience representing architecture at governance forums and advocating for strategic solutions.
Proven ability to drive technical change through innovation, simplification, and capability exploitation.
Essential Criteria

We are interested in hearing from candidates who have the following capabilities:

Experience in IT leadership and management, including the development of highly skilled and engaged teams.
Critical thinking with the ability to develop long-term strategies and advocate those strategies with stakeholders.
Understanding of cloud-based services and their role in enterprise solutions.
Self-managing and self-motivated, with the ability to anticipate and solve problems.
Excellent communication skills, including presenting to senior stakeholders.
Working knowledge of quality standards, legislation, and best practice.
Ability to manage multiple initiatives, prioritise effectively, and work independently.
Desirable Criteria

It would also be beneficial, but not necessary, to have some of the following:

Experience working within an architectural framework (e.g. TOGAF, Zachman).
Enterprise Architecture skills such as technical reference model development, building block design, applications and role design, systems integration, and evaluation of architectures.
Broader expertise of technologies and applications relevant to the Bank’s enterprise applications (e.g. Cloud, Azure, Databricks, data life cycle management, master data systems, legacy data warehouse, workplace productivity tools) and technology operations support services (e.g. service desk, CMDB).
Experience of working in a large enterprise or FTSE 100 organisation.