Global Head, Architecture

S&P Global, Inc.; Greater London; On-site; GBP 120,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

S&P Global, Inc. seeks a senior technology leader to define the technology strategy for complex, regulated financial services. The role involves shaping architecture, managing operational risks, and collaborating with senior engineering teams.

Applicants should have over 25 years of experience in banking or capital markets and proficiency in cloud platforms. A focus on security, AI-enabled systems, and an ability to communicate complex topics to diverse audiences is essential.

Qualifications

• Strong judgment designing distributed, event-driven systems.
• Ability to communicate complex technical topics clearly.
• Proven track record of shaping technology strategy.

Responsibilities

• Partner closely with Head of Technology on strategy.
• Shape architecture, design, and delivery decisions.
• Lead through influence rather than line management.

Skills

25+ years of experience in regulated environments

Experience in banking and financial services

Strong understanding of financial products and workflows

Experienced with cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP)

Knowledge of advanced architectures

Designs with security and controls

Job description

About the Role:

Grade Level (for internal use): 15

The Team:

The Enterprise Solutions Technology division includes workflow solutions across Lending, Reg & Compliance, Global Markets and Software business. Enterprise Solutions provides industry‑leading set of integrated tools, solutions and data services that help our clients make efficient investment decisions, operate with greater efficiency, and provide transparency across their business and to their key stakeholders.

Responsibilities and Impact:

• We are seeking a senior technology leader to partner closely with the Head of Technology for Enterprise Solutions in shaping the technology direction of a complex, regulated financial‑services estate.
• This is a hands‑on principal engineer and architect role, not a pure governance or advisory architecture function. The role exists to ensure technology strategy is grounded in engineering reality, deep domain understanding, and operational outcomes.
• You will work directly with the Head of Technology to shape and refine strategy, stress‑testing ideas against engineering, regulatory, and operational constraints. You will engage closely with senior engineering leaders, platform teams, and product partners to turn strategy into real designs that can be built and run.
• You will get involved early in complex or high‑risk initiatives and step in when it matters most, including during major incidents and recovery efforts. A key part of the role is knowing when to push forward, when to simplify, and when to slow down or stop.
• You will act as the engineering authority across Enterprise Solutions, leading primarily through influence rather than line management and the role carries broad responsibility for shaping architecture, design, and delivery decisions across multiple teams and domains.
• You will balance long‑term strategy with near‑term delivery constraints, operational resilience, and regulatory expectations, and represent the technology direction with clients and senior stakeholders, explaining design choices and trade‑offs clearly and credibly. Overall, this role strengthens the technology function by making strategy buildable, operable, and defensible.

What We’re Looking For:

• 25+ years of experience building and operating systems in tier‑1 banks, capital markets infrastructure, or similarly regulated, high‑availability environments. Has owned or deeply influenced production systems under real load, is comfortable reading and writing code, and works effectively alongside senior engineers.
• Experienced in setting technology strategy and architecture for complex, regulated, data‑driven platforms, with strong experience in banking and financial services (public and private markets, syndicated lending, securities processing, counterparty and client lifecycle, regulatory reporting, or similar domains).
• Experienced in defining and owning multi‑year technology strategies and roadmaps, setting clear priorities and sequencing change based on business outcomes, regulatory needs, and engineering reality.
• Sets and governs reference architectures, design standards, and architectural guardrails, ensuring teams build in a consistent, scalable, and sustainable way.
• Strong understanding of how financial products, operational workflows, data, and controls work end‑to‑end, and uses that understanding to make sound system and platform design decisions.
• Has demonstrated strong judgment designing distributed, event‑driven, and data‑intensive systems, including how they scale, fail, recover, and isolate risk.
• Experienced with cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP) and the trade‑offs around managed services, multi‑region and multi‑tenant designs, data residency, cost, performance, and resilience.
• Knowledge of advanced and new architectures and design paradigms (e.g. agent‑based systems, service abstractions, semantic data models, knowledge graphs, and where to apply or not).
• Experienced in ensuring AI‑enabled systems are explainable, auditable, and operationally safe, with clear judgment on when AI is appropriate versus deterministic or rules‑based approaches. Strong understanding of analytics and AI in production (e.g. data quality, anomaly detection, fraud/AML, workflow automation) and understands what it takes to run these reliably in regulated environments.
• Designs with security and controls built in, with a strong understanding of identity, data protection, failure containment, and regulatory risk.
• Acts as a coach and multiplier for senior engineers and architects, raising the bar through hands‑on problem solving, design reviews, and practical guidance rather than formal line management.
• Pragmatic, direct, and outcome focused. Leads through earned credibility and influence, is comfortable shaping decisions without authority, and communicates complex technical topics clearly to business, client, and regulatory audiences.
• Measures success by outcomes and evidence, not intent or presentation: technology strategy that translates into systems that work in production, reduce late‑stage surprises and repeat incidents, scale and recover as designed, and stand up to real operational and regulatory scrutiny.

Equal Opportunity Employer

S&P Global is an equal opportunity employer and all qualified candidates will receive consideration for employment without regard to race/ethnicity, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability, marital status, military veteran status, unemployment status, or any other status protected by law. Only electronic job submissions will be considered for employment.

If you need an accommodation during the application process due to a disability, please send an email to [e-mail] and your request will be forwarded to the appropriate person.

US Candidates Only: Know Your Rights: Workplace discrimination is illegal.