Lead Integration Platform Architect

Quilter plc; Southampton; On-site; GBP 90,000 - 140,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Holiday: 182 hours (26 days)

Pension Scheme

Private Medical Insurance

Life Assurance

Income Protection

Job summary

Quilter plc is establishing a new Integration Platform and seeking a Lead Integration Platform Architect to shape target architecture and governance for secure, scalable API-driven integration.

You will lead architectural strategy, drive reusable capabilities, and collaborate with delivery teams to simplify the technology landscape while enabling rapid delivery across our platforms.

Qualifications

• Significant experience in Integration Architecture, Solution Architecture, or Enterprise Architecture leadership.
• Strong knowledge of APIs, messaging, event-driven architecture, and application connectivity.
• Experience defining roadmaps and target-state architectures for business objectives.
• Experience in designing and governing enterprise-scale integration platforms.

Responsibilities

• Own the integration architecture strategy, roadmap and target state.
• Define architecture principles, standards and patterns for APIs and events.
• Lead evolution of integration platforms to align with priorities.
• Design scalable, secure, and reusable integration solutions.
• Provide architectural governance and assurance across programmes and services.
• Mentor architects and engineers; drive continuous improvement.

Skills

Integration Architecture

Azure

OpenAPI/AsyncAPI

API Security

DevSecOps

Stakeholder Management

Tools

Azure API Management

Service Bus

Kafka

OpenAPI tooling

Job description

About the Business Quilter plc is a leading wealth management business, helping to enable brighter financial futures for every generation. Quilter oversees £157.4 billion in customer investments (as of June 2026). It has an adviser and customer offering spanning financial advice, investment platforms, multi-asset investment solutions, and discretionary fund management. The business is comprised of two segments: Affluent and High Net Worth. Affluent encompasses the financial planning business, Quilter Financial Planning, the Quilter Investment Platform and Quilter Investors, the multi-asset investment solutions business. High Net Worth includes the discretionary fund management business, Quilter Cheviot, together with Quilter Cheviot Financial Planning – offering a highly personalised service to private clients, charities, trustees, and professional partners. Quilter Cheviot has presence throughout the UK, Ireland and Channel Islands. At Quilter we never stand still. Our foundations are rooted in our extraordinary expertise, which is trusted by hundreds of thousands of customers, but we have great ambitions to stay one step ahead and make an even greater difference to the people and communities we serve, including our colleagues. Our business is transforming, continually modernising, and becoming even more customer centric. So, if you want to be bold in the pursuit of your ambitions, bring new ideas, and challenge and evolve what we do, it’s the perfect time to join us.

About the Role

Level:4 Department: Technology Location: London I Southampton Contract type: Permanent

Quilter is establishing a new Integration Platform – a governed API and integration layer that decouples our digital, adviser and third-party consumers from our core platforms and gives us direct control over how our systems connect. As Lead Integration Platform Architect, you will be the senior technical authority for this platform: shaping its target architecture, embedding the standards and patterns to run it at scale, and growing it into a lasting in-house capability. This is a foundational, high-visibility role at the centre of Quilter’s technology strategy. As Lead Integration Platform Architect, you will be accountable for the strategy, architecture and ongoing development of Quilter's integration capabilities. You will define the standards, principles and target architecture that enable applications, platforms and services to connect securely, reliably and efficiently. Through strong architectural leadership, you will help simplify the technology landscape, improve how systems work together, reduce delivery complexity and support the successful delivery of Technology's strategic priorities. You will take a broad view of the technology estate, understanding how systems, services and teams interact to ensure architectural decisions deliver the best overall outcome for the organisation. You will also drive reusable integration capabilities that improve delivery speed, increase consistency and create long-term business value. As the senior authority for integration architecture, you will provide governance, assurance and technical leadership across programmes, products, platforms and services, helping shape Quilter's future technology landscape.

Key Accountabilities

• Own the integration architecture strategy, roadmap and target state.
• Define and maintain architecture principles, standards and patterns for APIs, messaging, events and enterprise integration.
• Lead the evolution of integration platforms and capabilities in line with business and technology priorities.
• Ensure systems, platforms and services can connect securely, reliably and effectively.
• Design scalable, resilient and reusable integration solutions.
• Identify opportunities to simplify technology, reduce duplication and improve efficiency.
• Take an end-to‑end view of the technology landscape, understanding dependencies, risks and opportunities.
• Ensure architectural decisions support both immediate delivery needs and long‑term technology goals.
• Promote reusable platforms and services that improve delivery speed, consistency and user experience.
• Provide architectural governance and assurance for integration‑related change.
• Review and approve solution designs against agreed standards and target architectures.
• Manage architectural risks, technical debt and platform dependencies.
• Provide technical leadership, guidance and mentoring to architects and engineers.
• Demonstrate curiosity by exploring emerging technologies, industry trends and new ways of working.
• Challenge existing approaches and identify opportunities to simplify, improve and modernise the technology landscape.
• Encourage experimentation and the adoption of new capabilities where they can improve business outcomes, delivery effectiveness or operational resilience.
• Drive continuous improvement in integration capabilities to meet changing business and technology needs.
• Communicate architectural direction, priorities and decisions to senior technology and business stakeholders.
• Define and own API and integration standards and governance — design standards, versioning strategy, OpenAPI contracts and discoverable API catalogues.
• Architect both synchronous and asynchronous event‑driven integration patterns across the estate.
• Lead architecture for secure connectivity across a cloud estate (Azure‑primarily)
• Partner with strategic third parties on API design and the co‑design of platform capabilities.
• Work with the API Product Owner to align architecture with a prioritised delivery backlog and route‑to‑live.

About You

You will be an experienced architect with strong expertise in integration technologies, APIs, messaging and platform architecture. You will be comfortable setting strategic direction while working closely with delivery teams to ensure solutions are practical, scalable and aligned to business needs. You will be able to understand complex technology environments and make decisions that balance business outcomes, delivery priorities, risk and long‑term sustainability. You will be recognised for your technical credibility, sound judgement and ability to simplify complex challenges.

Knowledge, Skills and Experience

• Significant experience in Integration Architecture, Solution Architecture, Enterprise Architecture or a comparable senior architecture leadership role.
• Strong knowledge of enterprise integration approaches, including APIs, messaging, event‑driven architecture, and application connectivity.
• Experience defining architecture strategies, technology roadmaps and target‑state architectures that support business and technology objectives.
• Experience designing, governing and evolving enterprise‑scale integration capabilities and platforms.
• Strong understanding of cloud‑based architectures, platform services, and modern Agile delivery practices.
• Deep, hands‑on experience with Microsoft Azure integration services (e.g. API Management) and Azure‑centric platform design (e.g. virtual networks, app services, storage etc.)
• Hands‑on experience designing API gateways, API management platforms and event‑streaming / messaging (e.g. Service Bus or Kafka), including securely exposing APIs to external consumers.
• Experience designing both synchronous and asynchronous / event‑driven integration, including OpenAPI and AsyncAPI‑style event contracts.
• Experience integrating with, or working alongside, third‑party SaaS / platform providers in financial services (e.g. wealth‑platform providers such as FNZ) is highly desirable.
• Proven experience in backend application development (e.g. .Net APIs) enabling you engage with Engineering Teams on low level technical topics.
• Proven experience in DevSecOps and dev‑owned route‑to‑live (IaC, policy‑as‑code, CI/CD) to align architecture with modern delivery practices.
• Experience in collaborating with other Architects and technical stakeholders elsewhere in the enterprise, such as architecture design forums and governance, to align the Integration Platform to organisational technical strategic objectives.
• Demonstrable ability to apply systems thinking, understanding how applications, platforms, services and teams interact to optimise outcomes across the wider technology landscape.
• Ability to assess the end‑to‑end impact of technology decisions, balancing business outcomes, delivery priorities, risk and long‑term sustainability.
• Experience establishing architecture principles, standards and governance that improve consistency, reduce complexity and support effective decision making.
• Strong product and platform thinking, with the ability to create technology capabilities that are reusable, scalable, easy to adopt and deliver measurable business value.
• Proven ability to simplify complex technology challenges and translate them into practical, actionable solutions.
• Experience identifying opportunities for simplification, standardisation, automation and continuous improvement.
• Strong stakeholder management, influencing and communication skills, with the ability to build alignment across technical and non‑technical audiences.
• Ability to provide technical leadership, challenge constructively and guide strategic technology decisions.
• Strong understanding of technology risk, security, resilience and operational considerations within a complex business environment.
• Demonstrable curiosity and learning agility, with a track record of exploring emerging technologies, new approaches and innovative solutions to improve business outcomes.
• Experience working within a regulated environment would be advantageous.
• Experience delivering within a regulated financial‑services environment (e.g. FCA‑regulated) is strongly preferred, given the platform’s security, governance and resilience requirements.

Inclusion & Diversity

We value diversity and strive to promote inclusivity in all aspects of our culture. We believe in equal opportunities for all, ensuring that no applicant encounters less favourable treatment based on anything but their skills, qualifications, experience, and potential. We celebrate the unique contributions of a diverse workforce and create a respectful, nurturing environment where every colleague can thrive.

Values

Do the right thing: We act with integrity and are proudly committed to going above and beyond in service of our clients and the support we provide our communities.

Always curious: We continuously seek new ideas and knowledge so we’re one step ahead of our clients’ needs. We look for inspiration everywhere and encourage experimentation, recognising that this is how we create brilliant solutions for brighter futures.

Embrace challenge: We aim high to transform our potential into meaningful outcomes. With ambition as our driving force and a steadfast commitment to growth, we succeed for the good of every generation.

Stronger together: Combining our diverse talents, we accomplish more collectively than we ever could do alone. We speak openly, actively listen, and support each other, and constructively challenge and embrace new ideas. We seek empowerment and demonstrate ownership and trust, with the confidence to make impactful decisions.

Core Benefits

• Holiday: 182 hours (26 days)
• Quilter Incentive Scheme: All employees are eligible to participate in incentive scheme, to incentivise business performance and their contribution.
• Pension Scheme: A non‑contributory company pension scheme that can be boosted through personal contributions.
• Private Medical Insurance: Single cover as standard with options to increase cover to include your partner or children.
• Life Assurance: 4x your salary.
• Income Protection: 75% of salary, less state benefits, payable after 26 weeks of absence.
• Healthcare Cash Plan: Jersey employees only

In addition to our core benefits, we offer a range of flexible benefits to UK employees that you can choose from and pay for conveniently via a salary deduction.

We truly believe that we have all the ingredients to be the very best in our industry, and we want great people with the care and creativity that we need, to help us get there. We are passionate about building an inclusive culture where everyone’s contribution is valued, and our people can thrive. No matter what your role is or where you sit, your voice will matter. We believe our workplace needs to work for you, so we offer an environment where you can balance a successful career with your commitments and interests outside of work. Some roles lend themselves to flexible options more than others, so our talent acquisition team are on hand to discuss your needs.

We are committed to treating all our job applicants fairly and with respect. Our people come from all kinds of backgrounds and have a wide range of expertise, so we welcome your application regardless of your beliefs, culture, gender identity, ethnicity, sexual orientation and or disability.