Solution Architect

Falcon Smart IT Limited; Guildford; Hybrid; GBP 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

Falcon Smart IT Limited is seeking a Solution Architect to lead architecture across hybrid environments, translating business requirements into technology, service, and security deliverables. You will communicate architecture decisions to both technical and non-technical audiences and drive governance through enterprise design authorities.

The role demands extensive collaboration with senior stakeholders, from CEOs to SMEs, and hands-on guidance on cloud, on-premise, and legacy integrations.

Qualifications

• Proven experience leading solution architecture across hybrid environments.

Responsibilities

• Produce proposals and justify technology strategies to senior business audiences.

Skills

Stakeholder management

Communication

Enterprise architecture

Cloud architectures

Security risk mgmt

RFI/RFP

Governance

Jira

Confluence

Diagrams tools

AWS & Azure

SOA & microservices

DevOps support

AI/LLM awareness

Education

Degree in Information Technology

TOGAF / ITIL / AWS/Microsoft certs

Tools

Jira

Confluence

draw.io

Sparx

Archimate

Mermaid

C4

Job description

Role: Solution ArchitectLocation: Guildford Business Park Guildford Surrey GU2 8XGJob Type: FTE(4 days Remote,1 day onsite)ResponsibilitiesProduce proposals and justify the value of technology strategies to senior business audiences.Drive alignment of the client landscape with the enterprise target picture, including system retirement.Ensure that architecture, divergences, and risks are clearly communicated and agreed by all stakeholders.Convey architecture decisions through a variety of communication techniques to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.Lead architectural design authorities for projects, and work within enterprise architectural governance and enterprise portfolio management frameworks.Translate business requirements into technology, service, and security deliverables, identifying risks and proposing appropriate mitigations.Identify all areas of architectural, technical, and security risk, and ensure these are managed with the cooperation of appropriate stakeholders.Produce (or ensure production of) all architectural deliverables under the development methodology, including solution designs, architecture patterns, technical infrastructure designs and supporting documentation.Provide design assurance for solution architecture to ensure solutions are implemented as designed, to the correct standards and quality.Provide technical leadership and mentorship to other solution architects within the team.Self-manage day-to-day architecture priorities and delivery workload.Skills and ExperienceStrong interpersonal and stakeholder management skills, including the ability to interact at all business levels from the CEO and C-suite through to technical SMEs, developers, testers, and project managers.Excellent verbal and written communication skills, including the ability to assess the audience and pitch / influence appropriately.Working across enterprise technologies, including prior SME roles across infrastructure, cloud, and application domains.Defining, documenting, and architecting solutions across hybrid, on-premise, and public cloud estates, potentially requiring integration with legacy technologies for large projects and programmes.Supporting and designing mission-critical infrastructure solutions across a wide variety of technologies.IT security and risk management within an architecture role.Experience working within architectural design authorities and governance forums.Technical selection and RFI/RFP processes, including supplier assurance of third-party products and contractual due diligence including drafting statements of requirements for third parties or commenting on vendor statements of work (SoW).Working in a highly regulated environment (e.g. financial services).Agile methodologies (Scrum, Kanban) and waterfall methodologies along with associated toolsets (such as Jira).Use of documentation tools such as Atlassian Confluence along with diagramming or architectural modelling tools and languages (draw.io, Sparx, ADOIT, ArchiMate, Mermaid, C4).Broad knowledge of IT technologies and architectural styles and patterns (e.g. event-driven, serverless, microservices, SOA, layered architectures).Supporting implementation and solution design for large public cloud implementations, preferably both AWS and Azure.Supporting implementation and technical design across core technologies (Windows, Linux, VMware, Hyper-V, web, database, security gateways, LAN/WAN networking).Designing solutions involving middleware and integration including JBoss / WebLogic, enterprise service bus / message queueing / integration platforms (iPaaS) such as RabbitMQ, MuleSoft,Boomi, Kafka.Designing (including requirements traceability) secure, high performing, and highly available technology solutions.Knowledge of continuous integration and deployment processes, methods, and tools.Providing architectural support and assurance to DevOps teams, with application of agile practices.Ability to work with cutting-edge AI LLM technologies, producing work in conjunction with models such as Anthropic Claude, whilst experimenting and exploring different methods of co working with AI.Your education and qualifications should include:Degree or HND in information technology, or equivalent experience.Relevant technical and business qualifications (e.g. Microsoft or AWS certifications, TOGAF, ITIL).Evidence of your commitment to continuous learning.