Enterprise Architect FTC, Hybrid / Reading

Guardian1821; Reading; Hybrid; GBP 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Private Medical Insurance with rewards

Competitive Pension Scheme

Employee discounted schemes

Private dental insurance

Electric Vehicle Salary Sacrifice

Cycle to Work scheme

Travel Insurance

Medical Cash Plan

Gym memberships

24/7 GP service

25 days pro rata holiday

Job summary

Guardian is seeking an Enterprise Architect for a six-month fixed-term basis to validate architecture findings and plan the next phase of modernization. The role focuses on simplifying the architecture, aligning with regulatory standards, and enabling growth across multiple workstreams.

You will lead collaborations with DevOps, developers, analysts and business stakeholders to drive an evolutionary model. The ideal candidate has extensive experience in UK financial services, strong governance

Qualifications

• Experience in UK Financial Services sector, ideally Life and Protection
• Experience creating, developing and managing architectural roadmaps
• Experience establishing and driving architecture governance processes
• Experience designing and transitioning to an evolutionary architecture model supporting multiple parallel workstreams
• Experience working with DevOps, developers, business analysts, solution architects and business stakeholders
• Experience of technical leadership on complex multi-vendor solutions
• Ability to work with limited supervision but collaboratively with a strong team ethos
• Excellent communication skills and stakeholder management to CxO/board level
• Ability to ensure compliance with industry standards, regulations and best practices
• Demonstrable consideration of risk management and mitigation of technical risks
• Demonstrable consideration of future needs: efficiency, simplicity, agility, adaptability, maintainability
• Understanding of legal and regulatory requirements
• Fully cognisant of information and Cyber security, business continuity and disaster recovery needs

Skills

Architectural roadmaps

Architecture governance

Evolutionary architecture

Stakeholder management

DevOps collaboration

Multi-vendor leadership

Regulatory compliance

Security & risk awareness

Tools

Microsoft Azure

GitHub

JIRA/Confluence

API design

Job description

At Guardian, our mission is simple: to ensure every family has protection they truly believe in. We’re challenging the market with a fresh approach and a brand promise —Life. Made Better.

We are looking for an Enterprise Architect to join on a sixmonth fixed term basis.

What does a Team Manager, Back Office do?

Guardian experienced rapid growth supported by a fully digital, Microsoft Azure cloud-based platform. The onboarding journey for advisers and policy holders is entirely digital, whilst servicing customers post policy inception is hybrid digital/manual.

Given the rapid growth, there has now been the build-up of tech debt and Guardian has launched an Architecture Review to understand where architectural constraints may hamper future growth plans and market opportunities.

Phase 1 of the review was an internal deep dive, and we’re now looking for an external ‘pair of eyes’ to validate our findings and assumptions and to help us plan and sequence the work we need to do to ensure our architecture is simplified, brought up to date and is fit to support Guardian in the next phase of its journey.

Who are we looking for?

You will have experience of and be able to demonstrate:

• Prior experience of working in the UK Financial Services sector, ideally within the Life and Protection space
• Experience of creating, developing and managing architectural roadmaps
• Experience of establishing and driving architecture governance processes
• Experience of designing and transitioning to an evolutionary architecture model supporting multiple parallel workstreams
• Experience of working with DevOps, Developers, business analysts, solution architects and business stakeholders
• Experience of technical leadership on complex multi-vendor solutions
• Ability to work with limited supervision but collaboratively and enthusiastically with a strong team ethic
• Excellent communication skills and stakeholder management (to CxO and board level)
• Ability to ensure compliance with industry standards, regulations and best practices
• Demonstrable consideration of risk management and the mitigation of technical risks associated with architecture decisions
• Demonstrable consideration of future needs in terms of efficiency, simplicity, agility, adaptability, maintainability
• Understanding of legal and regulatory requirements
• Fully cognisant of information and Cyber security, business continuity and disaster recovery needs.

Knowledge/Understanding of the following areas would be advantageous

• Microsoft Azure cloud technologies
• Data warehousing and analytics solutions
• Data modelling and development of API definitions
• Microsoft DevOps and Github
• Relational and non-relational database technologies
• Common architectural and integration design patterns
• Implementation of standards-based authentication and identity management solutions
• Business domain specific standards such as ORIGO messaging
• A background in either C#/.Net or Java centric development
• Familiarity with Atlassian tool set (JIRA/Confluence)
• Familiarity with one or more architecture methodologies (e.g. TOGAF)
• Familiarity with Agile Delivery Principles, Methods and Tools
• Familiarity with Domain Driven Design and Clean Architecture

What’s in it for you?

• Private Medical Insurance with rewards for yourself with discounted rates for your family members
• Competitive Company Pension Scheme
• Access to several employee discounted schemes to suit your lifestyleincluding but not limited to:
  • Private dental insurance
  • Electric Vehicle Salary Sacrifice Scheme
  • Cycle to Work scheme
  • Comprehensive Europe and Worldwide Travel Insurance
  • Medical Cash Plan
  • Gym memberships
  • Access to 24/7 GP service for you and your family
  • 25 days pro rata holiday with the option to purchase more

We are an equal opportunities employer and welcome applications from all backgrounds, identities and experiences and we actively promote equal opportunities in our recruitment process.

Most of our vacancies can be offered on a hybrid basis, working 50% of your working time per month from the office. We can also consider flexible working.