Senior Solution Architect

Aberdeen Standard Investments; City of Edinburgh; Hybrid; GBP 150,000 - 200,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading wealth and investments group in Edinburgh is seeking a Senior Solutions Architect to design and oversee technology solutions. The ideal candidate will have experience in Financial Services, strong communication skills, and relevant certifications. This role offers innovative responsibilities within a flexible working environment and comprehensive benefits package.

Benefits

40 days annual leave

16% employer pension contribution

Private healthcare

Discretionary performance-based bonus

Flexible benefits including gym discounts

Qualifications

• Achieved Architecture Certification e.g. TOGAF or BCS.
• Experience in Financial Services or other regulated industry.
• Understand modern application and security architectures.

Responsibilities

• Design strategic technology solutions to generate business value.
• Guide delivery and operation of solutions balancing risks and controls.
• Perform technology and data impact assessments.

Skills

Architecture Certification (e.g., TOGAF)

Microsoft technologies

Data impact assessments

Communication skills

Self-leadership

Tools

Azure Data Pipelines

ETL

APIs

Job description

Overview

At Aberdeen, our ambition is to be the UK’s leading Wealth & Investments group. Strengthening talent and culture is a strategic priority to attract and retain the industry’s best talent. Our people put our stakeholders at the heart of everything they do by helping us make a positive difference to the lives of our clients, customers, colleagues, shareholders and society.

We are focused on growing our direct and advised wealth platforms and repositioning our specialist asset management business to meet client demand. We are committed to providing excellent client service, supported by leading technology and talent. Aberdeen comprises three businesses, interactive investor (ii), Investments, and Adviser, each focused on meeting and adapting to our clients’ evolving needs:

• interactive investor, the UK’s second largest direct-to-consumer investment platform, enables individuals in the UK to plan, save, and invest in the way that works for them.
• Our Adviser business provides financial planning solutions and technology for UK financial advisers, enabling them to create value for their customers.
• Our Investments business is a specialist asset manager that focuses on areas where we have both strength and scale to capitalise on the key themes shaping the market, through either public markets or alternative asset classes.

About the Role

Join us as a Senior Solutions Architect at Aberdeen, where you'll play a key role in evolving our technology landscape. You will work at the heart of Agile delivery in our Corporate Technology Office, designing and overseeing strategic technology solutions that deliver cost-efficiency, modernisation and innovation at pace, to generate business value. Modern Orchestration capability aligned with our Cloud Transformation strategy looking to reduce time to market using Agile Tooling and DevSecOps.

Key Responsibilities

• Demonstrate an understanding of the Corporate Functions supporting Aberdeen, and how they contribute to achieving the goals of the business.
• Have demonstrable experience in one or more core platforms supporting Corporate Functions including Finance, HR, Risk, Legal, Audit & Sustainability.
• Be experienced in architecting solutions across disparate technologies to meet complex business requirements, working with various stakeholder groups to understand business needs, guide thinking and ensure solutions align with Corporate technology strategy and roadmaps.
• Demonstrate excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to present complex technical concepts to varied stakeholders. Have ability to constructively challenge & build consensus around the most suitable approach.
• Perform technology and data impact assessments in terms of risk and wider technical impact of a design, including estimation of delivery and ongoing run costs.
• Have a proven track record in delivering design artefacts that align with best practices and preparing materials that enable sound technical decision-making. Develop the requisite architecture inputs required to comply with technology design governance.
• Guide delivery and ongoing operation of solutions to ensure they appropriately balance risks and controls and continue delivering the agreed business and technology value.

About the Candidate

• Achieved Architecture Certification e.g. TOGAF or BCS (Desirable).
• Understand modern application, data and security architectures with a focus on Microsoft technologies and Corporate systems integration, including ETL, APIs, Azure Data Pipelines, Data Product Architectures, Identity & Access Management, Zero Trust, AI and Cloud-based technologies.
• Work with autonomy. Demonstrate self-leadership and ability to own and drive results without direct supervision.
• Have experience in Financial Services or other highly regulated industry.

We are proud to be a Disability Confident Committed employer. If you have a disability and would like to apply to one of our UK roles under the Disability Confident Scheme, please notify us by completing the relevant section in our candidate questionnaire. One of our team will reach out to support you through your application process.

Our benefits

There's more to working life than coming home with a good salary. We have an environment where you can learn, get involved and be supported.

When you join us, your reward will be one of the best around. This includes 40 days’ annual leave, a 16% employer pension contribution, a discretionary performance-based bonus (where applicable), private healthcare and a range of flexible benefits – including gym discounts, season ticket loans and access to an employee discount portal. You can read more about our benefits here.

Our business

Enabling our clients to be better investors drives everything we do. Our business is structured around three distinct areas – our vectors of growth – focused on our clients’ changing needs. You can find out more about what we do here.

An inclusive way of working

Whatever way you like to work, if you have the talent and commitment to join our team, we’d like to hear from you.

At Aberdeen we’ve adopted a ‘blended working’ approach. This approach combines the benefits of face-to-face collaboration, coaching and connecting in our offices with the flexibility of working from home. It enables colleagues to find a balance that works for their roles, their teams, our clients and our business.

An inclusive culture, where diverse perspectives drive our actions, is at the core of who we are and what we do. If you need assistance with your application, or a reasonable adjustment to your interview arrangements – for example, because you are neurodivergent, or have a physical, sensory, cognitive, mental, visible or invisible disability – please let us know and we’ll be happy to help.

We’re committed to providing an inclusive workplace where all forms of difference are valued and which is free from any form of unfair or unlawful treatment. We define diversity in its broadest sense – this includes but is not limited to our diversity of educational and professional backgrounds, experience, cognitive and neurodiversity, age, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, religion or belief and ethnicity and geographical provenance. We support a culture that values meritocracy, fairness and transparency and welcomes enquiries from everyone. If you need assistance or an adjustment due to a disability please let us know as part of your application and we will assist.