Senior Solution Architect

lloyds banking group; City of Edinburgh; Hybrid; GBP 124,000; Full time

Job summary

A major UK bank is seeking a Senior Solution Architect to lead the design of advanced AI systems within a hybrid work model. The ideal candidate will have strong leadership experience in UK financial services and the ability to drive innovative engineering solutions. This role offers a competitive salary and generous benefits, including a pension contribution of up to 15% and annual performance-related bonuses.

Benefits

Generous pension contribution of up to 15%

Annual performance-related bonus

Share schemes including free shares

28 days’ holiday plus bank holidays

Wellbeing initiatives

Qualifications

• Strong engineering and architectural leadership experience in UK Financial Services.
• Experience in large-scale agile environments and solution development lifecycle.
• Ability to guide teams in AI systems design.

Responsibilities

• Lead the design of advanced AI systems within a financial institution.
• Drive end-to-end solutions across the enterprise.
• Participate in agile ceremonies and deliver iteratively.

Skills

Engineering and architectural leadership

Designing complex cross-platform solutions

Modern cloud-native architectures

Hands-on enterprise AI systems design

Collaboration and communication

Tools

Google Cloud Platform

Job description

End Date

Tuesday 07 October 2025

Salary Range

£90,440 - £106,400

Flexible Working Options

We support flexible working – for more information on flexible working options

Job Description Summary

JobTitle: Senior Solution Architect

Location: Leeds, Edinburgh or London

Salary: £90,440 - £123,160 (location dependent)

Hours: Full time

Working Pattern: Our work style is hybrid, which involves spending at least two days per week, or 40% of your time, at our Leeds, Edinburgh or London offices.

About This Opportunity

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has recognised AI’s potential to transform the UK’s investment culture, especially in closing the advice gap and making financial mentorship more accessible. With just 31% of UK adults currently investing, and most doing so without regulated advice, there is a clear opportunity to drive better financial outcomes.

Scottish Widows, one of the UK’s largest pension and investment providers, is well positioned to lead this change. Within Lloyds Banking Group, our D2C Investments Platform powers Halifax Share Dealing Ltd. and Ready-Made propositions via Embark and FNZ, delivering trusted investment solutions across Lloyds, Halifax and Bank of Scotland. Our mission is to redefine the investment experience for 26 million UK customers, powered by AI.

As the Lead designer for the lab, you will lead the design and help to guide the development of advanced Artificial Intelligence systems and their required tooling and interfaces for Lloyds Banking Group. You will utilise your expertise in solution design, knowledge of artificial intelligence systems and the latest market trends to enable the team to create robust AI solutions within our investment experience.

What you’ll be doing

• Lead the design of advanced AI systems within a complex financial institution – utilising market leading technology within a multi-agent framework to drive end to end solutions across the enterprise
• Bring innovation into the team through remaining on trend with the latest AI technologies and standards
• Push the solution architecture forward through the appropriate governance channels and use it to inform product roadmaps and technical planning with your wider team
• Ensure solutions meet non-functional requirements including experience, resilience, security, and scalability for longer term AI use cases
• Participate in agile ceremonies and deliver iteratively with the team, ensuring continuous feedback and value

Why Lloyds Banking Group

If you think all banks are the same, you’d be wrong. We’re an innovative, fast-changing business that’s shaping finance as a force for good. A bank that’s empowering its people to innovate, explore possibilities and grow with purpose.

What you’ll need

• Strong engineering and architectural leadership experience within Pensions and Investments in UK Financial Services
• Experience designing complex, cross-platform solutions in large-scale agile environments and expertise across the full solution development lifecycle
• Deep understanding of modern cloud-native architectures, microservices, API design, architectural governance, risk management, and technical debt mitigation
• Hands-on experience leading the design and implementation of enterprise AI systems, with the ability to solve challenging technical problems and guide teams in this domain
• Demonstrated ability to drive technology transformation, challenge the status quo, and advocate for engineering excellence and market-leading solutions
• Excellent collaboration and communication skills, with the ability to partner and communicate effectively across technical and non-technical audiences to drive solutions into action
• Proven track record of leading teams on Google Cloud Platform projects, holding relevant GCP certifications, and experience with GCP-based AI tooling (desired but not essential)

About working for us

Our ambition is to be the top tier UK business for diversity, equity and inclusion supporting our customers, colleagues and communities, and we’re committed to creating an environment in which everyone can thrive, learn and develop.

We were one of the first major organisations to set goals on diversity in senior roles, create a menopause health package, and a dedicated Working with Cancer Initiative.

We offer reasonable workplace adjustments for colleagues with disabilities, including flexibility in office attendance, location and working patterns. And, as a Disability Confident Leader, we guarantee interviews for a fair and proportionate number of applicants who meet the minimum criteria for the role with a disability, long-term health or neurodivergent condition through the Disability Confident Scheme.

We provide reasonable adjustments throughout the recruitment process to reduce or remove barriers. Just let us know what you need

Benefits

• A generous pension contribution of up to 15%
• An annual performance-related bonus
• Share schemes including free shares
• Benefits you can adapt to your lifestyle, such as discounted shopping
• 28 days’ holiday, with bank holidays on top
• A range of wellbeing initiatives and generous parental leave policies

Ready for a career where you can have a positive impact as you learn, grow and thrive? Apply today and find out more.

At Lloyds Banking Group, we are driven by a clear purpose: to help Britain prosper. Across the Group, colleagues are focused on making a difference to customers, businesses and communities. With us you’ll have a key role to play in shaping the financial services of the future, while the scale and reach of our Group means you’ll have many opportunities to learn, grow and develop.

We keep your data safe. We’ll only ever ask you to provide confidential or sensitive information once you have formally been invited to an interview or accepted a verbal offer to join us, at which point we run our background checks. We’ll always explain what we need and why, with any request coming from a trusted Lloyds Banking Group person.

We’re focused on creating a values-led culture and are committed to building a workforce which reflects the diversity of the customers and communities we serve. Together we’re building a truly inclusive workplace where all of our colleagues have the opportunity to make a real difference.