Senior Solutions Architect

GAK ENTERPRISES LTD; Milton Keynes; On-site; GBP 80,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading technology services provider in Milton Keynes seeks a Senior Solutions Architect to design cloud-native architectures and lead technical teams. The ideal candidate will possess extensive experience in Java, Spring Boot, and AI-driven solutions, with a strong focus on governance and scalability in multi-cloud environments. This position includes responsibilities like mentoring engineers, defining architecture strategies, and implementing advanced observability practices.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of experience in architecture, design, and delivery of enterprise systems.
• Proven experience in cloud migrations and delivering cost savings.
• Strong understanding of governance and architecture frameworks.

Responsibilities

• Define enterprise architecture strategy and align with business outcomes.
• Design scalable multi-region architectures with failover strategies.
• Architect microservices and secure integrations for applications.

Skills

Cloud & Containers: AWS, Azure, GCP, Kubernetes

Java

Spring Boot

Microservices

Event-driven architectures

AI/GenAI

Observability: OpenTelemetry, Prometheus

Education

TOGAF 9.2 or ArchiMate 3 Practitioner certification

Tools

Terraform

Docker

Kubernetes

Job description

Overview

We are seeking an experienced Senior Solutions Architect with proven expertise in cloud-native architectures, enterprise integrations, and AI-enabled platforms. The ideal candidate will bring a strong background in Java, Spring Boot, microservices, and event-driven architectures, combined with the ability to lead cross-functional teams, define technology roadmaps, and ensure alignment between IT assets and business objectives. The architect will play a pivotal role in designing scalable, secure, and resilient systems across multi-cloud environments (AWS, Azure, GCP), while embedding zero-trust security, cost optimization, and AI/GenAI-driven innovations into enterprise solutions.

Key Responsibilities

• Architecture Leadership
  • Define and govern enterprise architecture strategy, roadmaps, and target state aligned with business outcomes.
  • Mentor engineers and guide teams through architectural best practices and governance processes.
• Cloud & Infrastructure
  • Design and implement scalable, high-availability multi-region architectures with cross-region failover and tested DR/BC strategies.
  • Drive FinOps practices: rightsizing, autoscaling, serverless adoption, and anomaly detection for sustained cost savings.
  • Oversee IaC (Terraform, Helm) and platform engineering with Kubernetes and service meshes.
• Application & Integration Architecture
  • Architect polyglot microservices, APIs, and event-driven systems using Kafka and integration patterns (saga, CQRS, etc.).
  • Define API strategies with contract-first design, schema governance, rate limits, and versioning.
  • Enable secure integrations with OAuth2/OIDC, SAML, and secrets management.
• AI & Emerging Tech
  • Lead design of AI-enabled microservices (RAG, GenAI, LLM integration) with content guardrails, SLA-backed delivery, and PII safety.
  • Build AI-powered smart search and decision-support platforms leveraging Azure OpenAI, vector databases, and Azure AI Search.
• Security, Compliance & Observability
  • Embed zero-trust principles: encryption, key management, segmentation, and automated compliance checks (GDPR, SOC2).
  • Establish SLOs/SLIs, observability pipelines (OpenTelemetry, Prometheus, Grafana, ELK), and drive incident reduction.
• Collaboration & Governance
  • Partner with stakeholders, product owners, and delivery teams to ensure solutions meet NFRs and regulatory needs.
  • Run the Architecture Review Board (ARB), author ADRs, and publish reusable templates and design patterns.
  • Support cross-functional initiatives across business, security, and delivery teams.

Required Skills & Experience

• 10+ years of progressive experience in architecture, design, and delivery of enterprise systems.
• Proven track record in cloud migrations (AWS, Azure, GCP), delivering cost savings and scalability.
• Deep expertise in:
  • Cloud & Containers: AWS, Azure, GCP, Kubernetes (EKS, AKS, GKE), Docker, OpenShift.
  • Languages & Frameworks: Java, Spring Boot, Quarkus, MicroProfile, Terraform.
  • Messaging & Streaming: Kafka, RabbitMQ, JMS, SQS/SNS, Debezium.
  • Security: OAuth2, OIDC, SAML, Keycloak, TLS, WAF.
  • Observability: OpenTelemetry, Prometheus, Grafana, Jaeger, Loki, ELK/EFK.
  • AI/GenAI: RAG, OpenAI APIs, LLM-integration, Vector Search, Azure OpenAI.
• Strong understanding of architecture frameworks: TOGAF, ArchiMate.
• Skilled in governance, reference architecture creation, and stakeholder communication.
• Experience leading large technical teams and mentoring across distributed organizations.

Preferred Qualifications

• TOGAF 9.2 or ArchiMate 3 Practitioner certified (required).
• Experience in regulated industries (finance, insurance, logistics).
• Strong problem-solving skills with ability to balance trade-offs between performance, cost, and compliance.
• Exposure to DevOps/GitOps practices: ArgoCD, Jenkins, GitHub Actions.