Lead Architect - Low-Latency Core Banking Application

JPMorganChase; Bournemouth; On-site; GBP 85,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

A global financial services leader is seeking a highly motivated Lead Architect to join their technology organization. The role involves designing high-performance systems for the core banking platform, collaborating with various stakeholders to drive innovative solutions, and ensuring compliance with stringent security and performance requirements. Ideal candidates have extensive experience in software engineering, architectural design, and strong skills in Java and UML. The position is based in Bournemouth, United Kingdom and offers opportunities for professional growth and impact in the liquidity business.

Qualifications

• Experience in enterprise software development.
• Hands-on practical experience delivering system design.
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills.

Responsibilities

• Design and document high-performance architectural solutions.
• Guide implementation choices for software engineers.
• Engage with stakeholders to solve design challenges.

Skills

Enterprise software development

Hands-on software/system design

Java fundamentals and frameworks (Spring Boot)

Excellent communication skills

Experience with diagramming software

Knowledge of UML 2.0+

Knowledge of database technologies (SQL and NoSQL)

Experience with event-driven architecture

Understanding of agile methodologies

Education

Bachelor's degree in a relevant field

Tools

Lucid

Draw.io

Visio

Kafka

Terraform

Kubernetes

Job description

Be an integral part of a team that’s constantly pushing the envelope to enhance, build, and deliver cutting‑edge technology products.

JPMorgan’s Global Liquidity and Cash Management Technology team is seeking a highly motivated Lead Architect with extensive experience in software engineering and architecture to join our global, diverse technology organization. We focus on providing modern solutions to support the Corporate & Investment Bank’s Payments business. Our critical systems monitor and manage liquidity in real‑time, matching available funds to support cash demands.

We are building the next‑generation core wholesale banking platform, designed to operate continuously at a global scale. This platform will support hundreds of millions of accounts and respond in milliseconds to thousands of requests every second for our market‑leading liquidity business. As a Lead Architect, you will be primarily responsible for designing the system and providing technical leadership as a key member of a dynamic, high‑performing software engineering team.

You will collaborate with colleagues from Product, Architecture, Infrastructure, Security, and Engineering to share and refine your designs, enabling a lean delivery that meets stringent non‑functional requirements for security, performance, and availability.

The role sits within the Global Liquidity and Cash Management Technical Design Authority, where you will actively review and guide the architecture of multiple technical systems to align with strategic goals.

This exciting and unique role offers the opportunity to see the direct impact of your contributions on the liquidity business and receive client feedback globally. While banking experience is not required, you must be a passionate and well‑rounded technologist, eager to continuously learn and enhance your skills.

Job responsibilities

As a Lead Architect for the new core banking platform, you will:

• Design, refine, and document elegant architectural solutions (both high and low‑level designs) for a high‑performance, latency‑sensitive system that meets security, regulatory, resiliency, scalability, and performance needs.
• Create and maintain clear, organized architectural documentation and technical specifications (written and diagrams) using industry‑standard approaches (e.g., UML and C4).
• Collaborate with software engineers to share the architectural vision and guide implementation choices to ensure objectives and requirements are efficiently met.
• Engage proactively with key architectural stakeholders from security, infrastructure, architecture governance, partner systems, operations, and production management to solve complex design challenges, influence strategic architectural change, and refine application design.
• Obtain necessary system design approvals and maintain a record of architectural decisions and a review/approval process.
• Guide project/delivery managers on architectural dependencies and considerations.
• Facilitate cyber assurance and security assessments of the new core banking system design and implementation.
• Liaise with infrastructure and finance teams to estimate and forecast the application’s infrastructure needs and costs.
• Deliver creative technical solutions, thinking beyond routine approaches to achieve simple, innovative and elegant designs.
• Develop secure, high‑quality production code, and review and debug code written by others.
• Lead evaluation sessions with external vendors, startups, and internal teams to drive outcomes‑oriented probing of architectural designs, technical credentials, and applicability for use within existing systems.

As a Lead Architect within the Global Liquidity and Cash Management Design Authority function, you will:

• Develop a detailed understanding of the technical estate and the key businesses and essential services it supports.
• Help maintain and promote the strategic technical vision for the department’s estate.
• Collaborate with colleagues to propose and agree on strategic solutions to mitigate cross‑cutting challenges.
• Review proposed technical designs against business requirements and strategic goals.
• Critically review system designs for potential weaknesses or issues.
• Develop, maintain, and review core architectural standards in collaboration with architectural governance teams.
• Promote a culture of technical innovation and knowledge sharing within the technology department.
• Guide and provide feedback on the evaluation of new technologies.

Required qualifications, capabilities, and skills

• Experience in enterprise software development, including hands‑on software/system design.
• Hands‑on practical experience delivering system design, application development, testing, and operational stability.
• Strong interpersonal, communication, documentation, diagramming, and presentation skills, with experience working with globally distributed teams and stakeholders.
• Experience with diagramming software (e.g., Lucid, Draw.io, Visio) and technical writing.
• Knowledge of UML 2.0+ and experience creating UML diagrams.
• Excellent understanding of Java fundamentals and frameworks (Spring Boot), OO programming paradigms, multi‑threading, messaging technologies, and computer networks.
• Knowledge of infrastructure, security, networking, operating systems, virtualization, and containerization.
• Detailed knowledge of database technologies (SQL and NoSQL), database resiliency, recoverability, scalability, and security.
• Experience designing, building, or modifying a complex distributed application with stringent non‑functional requirements.
• Experience with event‑driven architecture and distributed messaging technologies (Kafka).
• Awareness of key architectural patterns/approaches.
• Knowledge of algorithms, data structures, and cryptography.
• Passion for technical innovation and staying up to date with emerging technologies.
• Understanding of the full software development lifecycle and agile methodologies.
• Ability to evaluate current and emerging technologies to recommend the best solutions for future state architecture.

Preferred qualifications, capabilities, and skills

• Awareness of secure system design.
• Experience with Threat Modelling and/or performing security analysis of system designs.
• Experience using UML modelling tools (e.g., PlantUML).
• Experience writing technical standards and specifications.
• Project management experience.
• Experience working with many stakeholders to review and agree on a complex system design.
• Hands‑on experience with another statically compiled language (e.g., Golang, Rust, C++).
• Experience with gRPC and Google Protocol Buffers.
• Experience with caching technologies (e.g., Redis).
• Experience with infrastructure as code software (e.g., Terraform).
• Certified Kubernetes and public cloud knowledge (e.g., CKAD, AWS certifications).
• In‑depth knowledge of the financial services industry and their IT systems.
• Knowledge of payments and/or liquidity management.

About Us

J.P. Morgan is a global leader in financial services, providing strategic advice and products to the world’s most prominent corporations, governments, wealthy individuals and institutional investors. Our first‑class business in a first‑class way approach to serving clients drives everything we do. We strive to build trusted, long‑term partnerships to help our clients achieve their business objectives.

We recognize that our people are our strength and the diverse talents they bring to our global workforce are directly linked to our success. We are an equal opportunity employer and place a high value on diversity and inclusion at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of any protected attribute, including race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, marital or veteran status, pregnancy or disability, or any other basis protected under applicable law. We also make reasonable accommodations for applicants’ and employees’ religious practices and beliefs, as well as mental health or physical disability needs. Visit our FAQs for more information about requesting an accommodation.

About the Team

J.P. Morgan’s Commercial & Investment Bank is a global leader across banking, markets, securities services and payments. Corporations, governments and institutions throughout the world entrust us with their business in more than 100 countries. The Commercial & Investment Bank provides strategic advice, raises capital, manages risk and extends liquidity in markets around the world.