Senior Product Solutions Architect

Harvey Nash; Manchester; On-site; GBP 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

Harvey Nash is seeking a Senior Product Architect to lead architectural direction across European investment and advisory businesses. You will partner with multiple engineering teams to shape target architecture, define data contracts and deliver practical reference implementations.

In this senior role, you will influence senior stakeholders, drive modern cloud-native patterns, and leverage AI-assisted tools to accelerate delivery while maintaining governance and scalable practices.

Qualifications

• Approximately three to five years experience in an architect role within large-scale or complex technology environments.
• Financial services experience, particularly within regulated organisations.
• Strong technical credibility with software engineers and a sound understanding of modern software delivery.
• Substantial experience designing and delivering solutions in AWS cloud environments.
• Experience with Java-based back-end architectures, distributed systems and integration patterns.
• Ability to operate across several engineering teams and connect product, business and technology perspectives.
• Evidence of influencing senior stakeholders and challenging decisions constructively.
• Experience applying generative AI to architecture and engineering workflows (GitHub Copilot, Claude Code).

Responsibilities

• Own and evolve the target architecture for assigned product domains, balancing strategic direction with pragmatic delivery.
• Partner with multiple engineering teams across investment servicing capabilities and portfolio management as the area grows.
• Work closely with engineering leaders, product teams, senior technology stakeholders and business partners across Europe.
• Provide architectural guidance for Java-based back-end services, AWS and event-driven solutions.
• Support the move towards streaming architecture using technologies like Apache Kafka and Apache Flink.
• Define domain boundaries, data contracts and schemas at enterprise and product levels.
• Create reference architectures and working examples for engineering adoption, including AI-assisted tooling.
• Translate business needs into robust, scalable technical designs while managing competing priorities.
• Contribute to architecture standards, governance forums, and engineering committees across Europe and the US.
• Strengthen architecture practices during scale-up with capability mapping and proportionate processes.

Skills

AWS Cloud

Java backend

Distributed systems

Event streaming

Kafka

Flink

AI-assisted architecture

Stakeholder management

Capability mapping

Tools

GitHub Copilot

Claude Code

Job description

Our client is seeking a senior Product Architect to provide architectural leadership across its European investment and advisory businesses. This is a highly influential role at one of the most senior architecture levels in Europe, supporting product teams as the organisation enters a significant period of growth.

You will act as the principal architect for business-aligned product teams, initially working across multiple engineering teams supporting investment servicing capabilities and portfolio management capabilities. You will shape target architecture, guide technical decisions and turn architectural intent into practical, machine-readable specifications and working reference implementations.

Key responsibilities

• Own and evolve the target architecture for assigned product domains, balancing strategic direction with pragmatic delivery.
• Partner with two to four engineering teams across investment servicing capabilities, with additional responsibility for portfolio management teams as the area grows.
• Work closely with engineering leaders, product teams, senior technology stakeholders and business partners across Europe.
• Provide clear architectural guidance for Java-based back-end services, AWS cloud platforms and event-driven solutions.
• Support the move towards streaming architecture using technologies such as Apache Kafka and Apache Flink.
• Define domain boundaries, data contracts and schemas at an enterprise and product level, working alongside specialist data and cloud infrastructure architects.
• Create practical reference architectures and working examples that engineering teams can adopt, including appropriate use of AI-assisted engineering tools.
• Translate business needs into robust, scalable technical designs while challenging assumptions and managing competing priorities.
• Contribute to architecture standards, governance forums and engineering committees, sharing learning with colleagues in Europe and the US.
• Help strengthen architecture practices during a scale-up phase, including capability mapping and the introduction of proportionate processes and structure.
• Approximately three to five years’ experience in an architect role within a large-scale or complex technology environment.
• Financial services experience, particularly within regulated organisations.
• Strong technical credibility with software engineers and a sound understanding of modern software delivery.
• Substantial experience designing and delivering solutions in AWS cloud environments.
• Experience of Java-based back-end architectures, distributed systems and integration patterns.
• Ability to operate across several engineering teams and connect product, business and technology perspectives.
• Evidence of influencing senior stakeholders, building trusted relationships and constructively challenging decisions.
• Comfort working in a fast-growing environment where structures are evolving and priorities may compete.
• Strong judgement: able to focus on the highest-value architectural questions without becoming lost in unnecessary detail.
• Knowledge of fund distribution, investment platforms, portfolio management or multi-asset products.
• Experience with event streaming technologies, especially Apache Kafka and Apache Flink.
• Familiarity with schema design, data contracts and architecture for data-intensive systems.
• Experience applying generative AI to architecture and engineering workflows, including tools such as GitHub Copilot or Claude Code.
• Exposure to capability mapping, architecture operating models or strengthening governance in a growing organisation.