Senior Solution Architect

Marks and Spencer; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 80,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading retail brand in the UK is seeking a Tribe Architect to define and deliver architecture visions that impact customer engagement and technology solutions. You will lead diverse technical teams and drive innovation in a dynamic environment. The ideal candidate has significant experience in solution architecture, stakeholder engagement, and Agile delivery. Join us to make a measurable difference in the retail landscape.

Benefits

20% colleague discount on products

Competitive holiday entitlement

Discretionary bonus schemes

Generous pension scheme

Wide range of training programmes

Industry-leading parental and adoption policies

Wellbeing support including 24/7 Virtual GP

Qualifications

• Proven architecture expertise and recent hands-on delivery of large-scale digital transformation.
• Deep knowledge of architectural patterns and modern engineering practices.
• Exceptional stakeholder engagement skills and ability to inspire cross-functional teams.

Responsibilities

• Define and deliver the Tribe's architecture vision, aligning with business strategy.
• Lead and mentor technical teams and foster a high-performing architecture community.
• Shape technology choices and standards, ensuring solutions align with enterprise models.

Skills

Architecture expertise

Agile delivery

Stakeholder engagement

Strategic influence

Risk and compliance management

Job description

All the details

As a key member of the Architecture team, you'll help shape the future of a brand loved by millions. Technology is at the heart of M&S's transformation, driving innovation for customers and empowering thousands of colleagues every day. We're investing heavily in architecture because we know it's the foundation for smarter, faster, and more strategic growth.

As a Tribe Architect within Customer, you'll take ownership of a broad and impactful portfolio, including loyalty, CRM, banking, personalisation, online selling platforms, fulfilment and returns, contact centres, and the technology that powers our store estate.

You'll be accountable for defining and realising the target architecture for your tribe, making sure enterprise and system capabilities are fully aligned to business needs. Working closely with solution architects and Principal Engineers, you'll guide architecture solutions end-to-end, shape technical strategies, and help prioritise delivery to achieve the right outcomes.

This is a chance to bring vision, clarity, and leadership to complex technology landscapes and to make a measurable impact on one of the UK's most iconic brands.

What you'll do

• Define and deliver the Tribe's architecture vision, set the roadmap, target states, and technical direction that align with business strategy, ensuring simplification, scalability, and cost optimisation.
• Lead and inspire technical teams, guide solution architects and engineers, mentor future talent, and foster a high-performing, collaborative, and inclusive architecture community.
• Shape technology choices and standards, drive vendor and tooling decisions, set architecture principles and patterns, and ensure solutions align with enterprise models, policies, and compliance requirements.
• Partner with business and product leaders, translate business outcomes into actionable architecture, influence priorities, and co-create executable plans that bring value to customers and colleagues.
• Safeguard and optimise the landscape, ensure security, reliability, lifecycle management, and continuous improvement, while driving innovation and measurable business impact.

Who you are

• Proven architecture expertise, significant experience in solution architecture, with recent hands-on delivery of large-scale digital transformation using Agile ways of working.
• Technical leadership at scale, deep knowledge of architectural patterns, integration, platforms, and modern engineering practices, with the ability to evaluate and apply emerging technologies.
• Strategic influence, experienced in aligning technology, people, and process change to business objectives, with strong commercial acumen and a track record of driving enterprise-wide outcomes.
• Collaboration and communication, exceptional stakeholder engagement skills, able to build consensus across complex environments and inspire cross-functional teams.
• Risk, compliance & change expertise, skilled at balancing innovation with governance, managing risk, and leading change through Agile and enterprise architecture frameworks.

What's in it for you

Being a part of M&S is exactly that - playing your part to bring the magic of M&S to our customers every day. We're an inclusive, dynamic, exciting, and ever evolving business built on doing the right thing and bringing exceptional quality, value, service to every customer, whenever, wherever and however they want to shop with us.

Here are some of the benefits we offer that make working for M&S just that little bit more special

• After completing your probationary period, you'll receive 20% colleague discount across all M&S products and many of our third-party brands for you and a member of your household.
• Competitive holiday entitlement with the potential to buy extra holiday days!
• Discretionary bonus schemes awarded based on how you achieve your personal objectives and our performance as a business.
• A generous Defined Contribution Pension Scheme and Life Assurance.
• A dedicated welcome to our teams with a tailored induction and a wide range of training programmes to develop your skills.
• Amazing perks and discounts via our M&S Choices portal to maximise your financial and personal wellbeing.
• Industry-leading parental, adoption and neonatal policies, providing support and flexibility for your family.
• Access to a fantastic range of wellbeing support for all colleagues including access to our 24/7 Virtual GP and PAM Assist to support you and your family.
• A charity volunteer day to support a charity or cause you're passionate about through a dedicated day away from work.

Everyone's welcome

We are ambitious about the future of retail. We're disrupting, innovating and leading the industry into a more conscientious, inspiring digital era. We're transforming how we work together and offering our most exciting opportunities yet. Marks & Spencer strives to be an inclusive organisation, trusted and admired by our colleagues, customers and suppliers. Join us and make change happen.

We are committed to building diverse and representative teams, where everyone can bring their whole selves to work and be at their best. We support each other and work together to win together.

If you feel you'd benefit from any support or reasonable adjustments during any stage of the recruitment process, please don't hesitate to let us know when completing your application. This information will be picked up by our team, so we can try and put steps in place to help you be at your best through this process.

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