Lead Solution Architect

Zurich Insurance Group; Barcelona; Hybrid; EUR 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary

Yearly bonus

Flexible schedule

Work abroad up to 25 days

Home office setup €300+

Home office allowance

Training programs

Health insurance

Employee discounts

Job summary

Zurich Insurance Group’s Technology Delivery Center in Barcelona seeks a Lead Solution Architect to shape end-to-end architectures for cloud-native and AI-enabled solutions. You will collaborate with stakeholders to translate business needs into scalable designs and mentor engineering teams across the project lifecycle.

The role requires strong leadership, experience with AWS/Azure, Kubernetes, and modern integration patterns, and a passion for secure, observable software delivery in a

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering or a related field.
• Strong knowledge of cloud platforms AWS or Azure, including Kubernetes, serverless, managed databases and IAM.
• Experience with microservices, APIs, event-driven architectures and modern integration patterns.

Responsibilities

• Lead design and delivery of end-to-end solution architectures.
• Define architecture principles, standards and best practices for cloud-native and AI-enabled solutions.
• Design blueprints covering application, data, integration and infrastructure views.
• Collaborate with business stakeholders to translate requirements into solution designs.
• Guide and mentor solution architects and engineers through the project lifecycle.
• Evaluate emerging technologies and recommend innovative solutions.
• Ensure integration across applications, platforms, data and infrastructure components.

Skills

Cloud platforms

Kubernetes

Terraform

GitOps

APIs & microservices

AI/ML integration

Leadership

DevOps/CI-CD

Security

English fluency

Education

Bachelor or Master in CS/IT/Engineering

Tools

Terraform

Kubernetes

CI/CD pipelines

Job description

We Are Waiting for You

Nice to meet you! First, a little bit about what I like the most about working at Zurich Technology Delivery Center: the environment here is incredibly collaborative and innovative. Our tech-driven mindset fosters continuous learning and growth, creating an atmosphere where everyone can thrive.

Who are we?

Let me introduce us. You’re reading about Zurich Insurance Group, a global leader in insurance, but this role specifically pertains to our Technology Delivery Center (TDC). Established in Barcelona in 2006, the TDC operates as an integral part of Zurich Insurance Group, providing cutting-edge technological solutions and support to Zurich’s local and global business units. In essence, Zurich TDC is where technology meets the vast reach of a multinational company. We specialise in areas such as software development, data analytics, cybersecurity, and IT infrastructure. Our primary mission is to support Zurich’s strategic goals and enhance operational efficiency through innovative technology solutions. The ET AI Business Solutions platform is a cloud-based accelerator spanning development, test and production environments. It hosts every ET AI workload, including AI services, conventional services, agents, integration servers, applications and shared platform services. The platform sits between the corporate technology estate (identity, data platform, ERP, HR, procurement and IT systems) and Group AI’s shared services (managed model access, managed data services, AI observability, the group data platform and the AI registry).

From a technology perspective, ET AI Business Solutions leverages public cloud landing zones (primarily Azure and AWS), containerised workloads (Kubernetes-based), API gateways, event streaming, and CI/CD pipelines to deliver scalable, observable and secure AI-enabled solutions. We follow GitOps principles and use Terraform for Infrastructure as Code to ensure consistent, repeatable and compliant environments. If you’re considering a role with us, know that you will be joining a hub of technological excellence dedicated to driving Zurich’s success on a global scale.

What can you expect?

As a Lead Solution Architect you will have the opportunity to:

• Lead the design and delivery of end-to-end solution architectures aligned with business and technology strategies, with a focus on cloud-native and AI-enabled solutions.
• Define architecture principles, standards and best practices to ensure scalability, security, reliability and maintainability across microservices, APIs, data pipelines and AI workloads.
• Design solution blueprints covering application, data, integration and infrastructure views.
• Collaborate with business stakeholders, product owners and technical teams to translate business requirements into solution designs and non-functional requirements.
• Guide and mentor solution architects, engineers and development teams throughout the project lifecycle.
• Evaluate emerging technologies (managed AI services, LLM platforms, event streaming, serverless, API management, observability tooling) and recommend innovative solutions.
• Ensure integration across applications, platforms, data and infrastructure components using modern integration patterns (REST/GraphQL APIs, event-driven messaging, secure data exchange).
• Review and approve architectural designs, data models, technical specifications and implementation approaches.
• Manage architecture governance processes, ensuring adherence to enterprise architecture standards, security baselines and cloud policies.
• Identify technical risks, dependencies and constraints, proposing mitigation strategies where required.
• Work closely with security, infrastructure, data and engineering teams to ensure architectural consistency and compliance with Zurich’s security and risk guidelines.
• Define observability and operational readiness patterns (logging, metrics, tracing, alerting) for production-grade solutions.
• Communicate architecture decisions, roadmaps and technical strategies to both technical and non-technical audiences.

What makes you a great fit?

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering or a related field.
• Extensive experience in Solution Architecture, Enterprise Architecture or related technical leadership roles.
• Strong knowledge of cloud platforms such as AWS or Azure, including Kubernetes, serverless, managed databases and identity and access management.
• Experience with microservices, APIs, event-driven architectures and modern integration patterns (API gateways, message brokers, streaming platforms).
• Solid understanding of application architecture, infrastructure, networking, security and data management principles.
• Experience designing or integrating AI/ML solutions (model serving, inference APIs, AI observability, responsible AI controls) is a strong plus.
• Hands-on experience with GitOps practices (declarative configuration, Git as source of truth, automated reconciliation) and Terraform-based Infrastructure as Code.
• Experience leading cross-functional teams and influencing stakeholders at multiple organisational levels.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to balance business and technical requirements.
• Experience with Agile, DevOps and modern software delivery practices, including CI/CD and automated testing.
• Excellent communication, presentation and stakeholder management skills.
• Ability to work effectively in a fast-pace, global and highly collaborative environment.
• Fluent English, both written and spoken.

What makes us special?

• Competitive salary and a yearly bonus.
• Flexible working model to support your work-life balance.
• Option to work abroad up to 25 days yearly.
• Over 300 euros to set up your home office and additional monthly home office allowance.
• Wide range of internal and external trainings, including English, German and Spanish classes depending on the needs.
• Ticket restaurant and health insurance with the flexibility to exchange it for other benefits.
• Life and accident insurance.
• Collective life retirement plan.
• 2000 referral bonus if you bring other talented people like you to the company.
• Special banking and insurance conditions plus exclusive employee discounts.
• Functional diversity benefits.
• Stock options and mortgage benefits.

Where are we located?

Barcelona, Poblenou. Location(s): ES - Barcelona. Schedule: Full Time.

Equal opportunity

At Zurich, we are an equal opportunity employer. We attract and retain the best-qualified individuals available, regardless of race/ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation, age or disability.