Lead Architect: Solution Architect

J.P. Morgan; Bournemouth; On-site; GBP 80,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading global financial services firm is seeking a Lead Architect to join their Commercial Investment Banking Payments team in Bournemouth. The role involves defining technical strategies, developing high-quality software architecture solutions, and collaborating across teams. The ideal candidate should have a strong background in software engineering, deep knowledge of payment systems, and substantial experience in cloud-native technologies.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of applied experience in software engineering.
• Hands-on practical experience in system design and application development.
• Proficient in software development life cycle and operational stability.

Responsibilities

• Engages technical teams to propose approaches to meet stakeholder needs.
• Defines technical target state and drives strategy achievement.
• Leads evaluation sessions with vendors for architectural design.

Skills

Software engineering concepts

System design

Programming languages

Automation

Agile methodologies

Cloud technologies

Payment systems knowledge

Education

Formal training or certification in software engineering

Tools

CI/CD tools

Cloud platforms

Job description

A career with us is a journey, not a destination. This could be the next best step in your technical career. Join us.

As a Lead Architectat JPMorgan Chasewithin the Commercial Investment Banking Payments team, youare an integral part of a team that works to develop high-quality architecture solutions for various software applications on modern cloud-based technologies.

As a Solutions Architect, your passion for technology and thirst for innovation will help shape the future of global digital commerce, now and for years to come. As part of our JPM Payments Architecture Group, you will immerse yourself in solving complex business problems through innovation and proven and repeatable engineering practice. You will partner with Product Teams, Application development teams and other Technology and Operational and teams across the group and the firm, developing an extensive personal network that will allow you to influence and provide technical and architectural leadership and mentoring. You will work on a number of projects which will require differing approaches for success and will depend heavily on collaboration with our colleagues to deliver business results.

Job responsibilities

• Engages technical teams and business stakeholders to discuss and propose technical approaches to meet current and future needs
• Defines the technical target state of their product and drives achievement of the strategy
• Participates in architecture governance bodies
• Evaluates recommendations and provides feedback on new technologies
• Executes creative software solutions, design, development, and technical troubleshooting with the ability to think beyond routine or conventional approaches to build solutions or break down technical problems
• Develops secure and high-quality production code, and reviews and debugs code written by others
• Identifies opportunities to eliminate or automate remediation of recurring issues to improve overall operational stability of software applications and systems
• Leads 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 and information

Required qualifications, capabilities, and skills

• Formal training or certification on software engineering concepts and 5+ years applied experience
• Hands-on practical experience delivering system design, application development, testing, and operational stability
• Advanced in one or more programming language(s)
• Proficiency in automation and continuous delivery methods
• Proficient in all aspects of the Software Development Life Cycle
• Advanced understanding of agile methodologies such as CI/CD, Application Resiliency, and Security
• Demonstrated proficiency in software applications and technical processes within a technical discipline (e.g., cloud, artificial intelligence, machine learning, mobile, etc.)
• In-depth knowledge of the financial services industry and their IT systems
• Practical cloud native experience
• Advanced knowledge of one or more software, applications, and architecture disciplines
• Ability to evaluate current and emerging technologies to recommend the best solutions for the future state architecture

Preferred qualifications, capabilities, and skills

• Deep understanding of payment systems, payment processing, and payment industry standards (e.g., ISO 20022, SWIFT, ACH, RTP, SEPA)
• Experience designing and implementing solutions for real-time payments, cross-border payments, and digital wallets
• Familiarity with payment gateways, acquiring/issuing banks, and integration with third-party payment providers
• Knowledge of regulatory requirements and compliance in payments (e.g., PCI DSS, PSD2, AML/KYC)