Head of Architecture (2909C6A)

Referment; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Referment is partnering with a regulated UK bank to appoint a Head of Architecture in London. You will own the end-to-end enterprise architecture and lead a small team of enterprise and domain architects through a multi-year transformation toward an agentic, AI-enabled operating model.

You will define current-state, transitional and target-state architectures across business, data, application and technology domains, shaping roadmaps and governance to enable rapid, value-driven change while

Qualifications

• Proven leadership of an architecture function in a transformation-heavy setting.
• Deep experience in payments or FX platforms with scale.
• Hands-on architecture of distributed, event-driven microservices.
• Strong communication and senior stakeholder influence.
• Familiarity with modernisation in regulated environments using TOGAF/ArchiMate.

Responsibilities

• Lead, mentor and develop a team of enterprise and domain architects.
• Shape strategic technology roadmaps across payments, data, AI and platform domains.
• Drive architectural simplification and scalable patterns across legacy and new systems.
• Champion event-driven, cloud-native architectures with pragmatic governance.
• Translate architectural intent into practical execution frameworks delivering measurable value.
• Advise senior executives on strategic technology decisions and business-architecture alignment.

Skills

Architecture leadership

Payments/FX domains

Event-driven microservices

Distributed systems

Cloud-native

TOGAF/ArchiMate

Stakeholder management

Regulated environment

Education

Technical degree

Tools

TOGAF

ArchiMate

Job description

Referment is working with a regulated UK bank that provides cross-border payments and FX services to institutional clients, on the appointment of a Head of Architecture based in London. the organisation is undertaking a multi-year transformation toward an agentic, AI-enabled operating model, and architecture sits at the centre of re-platforming the business for that future. You'll own the end-to-end enterprise architecture and lead a small team of enterprise and domain architects through the change.

The Role

As Head of Architecture you'll define and own the current-state, transitional and target-state architectures across business, data, application and technology domains. A large part of the mandate is designing what an agentic, AI-enabled operating model actually requires - autonomy layers, orchestration patterns and human-in-the-loop principles - and making it concrete through reference architectures, standards and modular work packages. You'll also modernise the function itself, with flexible governance and streamlined guardrails that support continuous delivery rather than block it.

• Lead, mentor and develop a team of enterprise and domain architects, raising engineering practice and capability maturity.
• Shape strategic technology roadmaps alongside senior stakeholders, identifying transformational opportunities across payments, FX, data, AI and platform domains.
• Lead complex, multi-disciplinary change across legacy and modern systems, driving architectural simplification and scalable patterns.
• Champion event-driven, microservices-based, cloud-native architectures, governing decisions pragmatically to balance innovation, technical debt and regulatory expectations.
• Work closely with engineering and change teams to translate architectural intent into practical execution frameworks and incremental, measurable value.
• Act as a trusted advisor to senior executives on strategic technology decisions and business-architecture alignment.

What We're Looking For

• Proven experience leading an architecture function in a high-change, transformation-heavy environment.
• Deep expertise in payments, FX or other high-scale transaction-processing platforms.
• Hands-on experience architecting distributed, event-driven, microservices-oriented systems.
• Strong communication and stakeholder-influencing skills with senior leadership.
• Experience across modern and legacy technologies, including defining modernisation pathways.
• Comfort operating in a regulated environment with strong cross-functional engagement.
• Familiarity with architecture frameworks such as TOGAF or ArchiMate.
• A technical degree.

Also useful: exposure to AI, agentic architectures, intelligent orchestration or autonomous workflows; cross-border FX and payments experience; or a background in systems engineering, data architecture or platform engineering.

The role is based in London with a hybrid working pattern of four days a week on-site.

This could suit a principal or lead architect at a payments or transaction-processing platform ready to run an architecture function, or an existing head of architecture who wants a transformation this hands-on.

#Referment