Solution Architect

Elanco Tiergesundheit AG; Hook; Hybrid; GBP 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

Elanco Tiergesundheit AG is seeking a Solution Architect to lead the architectural authority for Company Tower, bridging SAP ERP with modern engineering platforms. You will guide end‑to‑end value chains, focusing on HR, Finance, Legal, and G2N, while driving AI‑driven automation and policy‑driven data privacy.

You will mentor engineers, define paved roads for SAP‑centric and cloud‑native projects, and partner with product and engineering teams to align architectural strategy with business value.

Qualifications

• 7+ years architecting and delivering enterprise IT systems.
• ERP/SAP experience in building upon and integrating.
• Experience with SAP BTP platform.
• Appreciation of data architecture principles.
• Modern application architecture methodologies (SOA, API‑Centric, 12‑Factor, FAIR).
• Cloud native design patterns; Azure / Google Cloud preferred.
• DevSecOps culture: CI/CD and TDD practices.
• Experience with SaaS integrations and API ecosystems.
• Experience supporting digital platforms including integrations and release management.
• Strong leadership and communication skills.

Responsibilities

• Lead build vs. buy vs. extend analyses for ERP/SAP ecosystems.
• Own architecture blueprint across HR, Finance, Legal; influence investments.
• Advise on AI and automation patterns while ensuring privacy and SOX.
• Move custom logic to SAP BTP or external microservices to reduce debt.
• Design API‑first integration patterns between SAP and non‑SAP components.
• Collaborate with ERP domain architects and service owners.
• Mentor junior engineers and contribute to roadmaps.
• Contribute to enterprise standards for EDA and API management.

Skills

Enterprise IT architecture

ERP/SAP experience

SAP BTP experience

Data architecture

Modern architecture

Cloud Azure/GCP

CI/CD & TDD

SaaS integration

Digital platforms

API ecosystem

Leadership

Communication

Education

B.S. in IS/CS

Tools

SAP BTP

Microsoft Azure

Google Cloud

Job description

At Elanco (NYSE: ELAN) – it all starts with animals! As a global leader in animal health, we are dedicated to innovation and delivering products and services to prevent and treat disease in farm animals and pets. At Elanco, we are driven by our vision of Food and Companionship Enriching Life and our purpose – all to Go Beyond for Animals, Customers, Society and Our People. At Elanco, we pride ourselves on fostering a diverse and inclusive work environment. We believe that diversity is the driving force behind innovation, creativity, and overall business success. Here, you’ll be part of a company that values and champions new ways of thinking, work with dynamic individuals, and acquire new skills and experiences that will propel your career to new heights. Making animals’ lives better makes life better – join our team today!

As a Solution Architect, you will be the primary architectural authority for our Company Tower (Corporate G&A) and act as a critical bridge between our Enterprise ERP ecosystem (SAP) and Modern Engineering platforms. You will cover end-to-end value chains for HR, Legal, Finance, Procurement, and Gross-to-Net (G2N), while providing technical thought leadership to ensure a neutral fit approach across custom cloud-native builds, SAP BTP extensions, AI-driven automation, and best-of-breed SaaS.

Your Responsibilities:

Supporting product groups and associated products Lead the “build vs. buy vs. extend” analysis, objectively evaluating if a business need is best met within the ERPSAP ecosystem, through custom engineering (GCP/Azure), or via third‑party SaaS. Support the holistic Company domain architectural blueprint owning key architecture assets including the city map and reference architecture to influence the right investments across a product group (HR, Finance, Legal, etc.) with a focus not only on new features but technical debt reduction. You will help advise on the design of scalable AI & Automation patterns for integrating Generative AI and LLMs into corporate workflows while maintaining strict data privacy, controls, SOX and compliance. Where integrating with ERP, partner with ERP domain architects and technical service owners to own the architecture assets that ensure the ERP remains standard, moving custom logic to the SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP) or external microservices to reduce technical debt. Composable Architecture: Design implementation paths that treat the ERP as a set of services, driving a composable landscape where SAP and Non‑SAP components communicate via standard APIs and events. Ready to Build: Partner with Principal Engineers to take high‑level designs to a “ready to build” state, ensuring developers have clear “paved roads” for both SAP‑centric and cloud‑native projects. Contribute to the technical strategic vision and roadmap within a product group or series of related products ensuring the technology ecosystem supports the needs of the product teams.

Partner with Product Management and Engineering Product Teams in pre‑discovery activities helping to understand potential technical direction informing the hiring of key technical roles. Stakeholder Engagement Partner with product leadership to engage senior business stakeholders helping map technical decisions to business value. Vendor Neutrality: Manage relationships with service integrators and vendors, ensuring their proposals align with Elanco’s architectural standards rather than vendor‑specific lock‑in. Help ensure privacy and security by design, ensuring solutions meet global compliance standards, particularly for sensitive HR, Finance and Legal data. Architecture Team Cross‑Platform Rationalization: Identify opportunities to consolidate technologies that span SAP and Non‑SAP functions to drive efficiency and reuse. Incorporate cloud cost management into architectural designs to ensure long‑term financial sustainability of digital products. Acts as a mentor to junior and mid‑level engineers, fostering a culture of continuous learning and architectural excellence.

Integration Standards: Contribute to enterprise standards for Event‑Driven Architecture (EDA) and API Management, ensuring seamless data flow between the ERP and the wider digital estate. Partner with business, Product Management Teams, and enterprise/solution architects to recommend opportunities to rationalise or combine technologies that cut across functions looking for both efficiency and reuse opportunities. Support solution architecture review groups to ensure solutions delivered meet enterprise requirements. Identify opportunities to directly contribute to architecture standards and patterns that product teams can use to implement solutions. Contribute to the identification and rationalisation of technical debt looking to recommend and support portfolio health initiatives across functions and enterprise. Translation of enterprise architecture to how we engineer. This includes supporting the engineering experience direction including better standardisation including paved roads, metric driven engineering.

What You Need to Succeed (minimum qualifications):

• B.S. in Information Systems/Computer Science.
• 7+ years of experience in architecting and delivering enterprise IT systems.
• Experience in large technology selection processes able to lead technical decision making.
• Strong technical background ideally from a hands‑on IT engineering background, with array of different experiences in Architecture space.
• Experience with ERP solutions (SAP preferred) building upon and integrating with.
• Experience with SAP BTP platform preferred.
• Appreciation of data architecture principles.
• Experience working with: Modern application architecture methodologies (Service Orientated Architecture, API‑Centric Design, Twelve‑Factor App, FAIR, etc.).
• Cloud Native design patterns, with a preference towards Microsoft Azure / Google Cloud.
• “DevSecOps” culture, including modern software development practices, covering Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery (CI/CD), Test‑Driven Development (TDD), etc.
• Experience with interface implementation between SaaS providers (leveraging Integration‑as‑a‑service frameworks).
• Experience supporting digital platforms, including Integrations, Release Management, Regression Testing, Integrations, Data Obfuscation, etc.
• Experience scaling an “API‑Ecosystem”, designing, and implementing “API‑First” integration patterns.
• Strong organizational and communications skills with multiple examples of being able to convey complex technical topics, that resulted in a definitive direction.
• Strong leadership and proactive communication skills with a strong bias for action and ability to advise others.

What will give you a competitive edge (preferred qualifications):

• Familiarity with infrastructure considerations (networking, hosting, security, etc.) in enabling on‑premise and cloud IT solutions.
• Experience working in a regulated industry such as life sciences or equivalent.
• Solution architecture certifications for Microsoft Azure or Google Cloud Platform.
• Experience working in a product operating model delivering architecture capability across product.
• Hands‑on experience with SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP).
• Experience architecture AI‑integrated solutions or data science platforms.

Additional Information:

Location: Hook (Hybrid / 30 days per quarter in the office) Don’t meet every single requirement? Studies have shown underrecognized groups are less likely to apply to jobs unless they meet every single qualification.

EEO Statement

Elanco is an EEO/Affirmative Action Employer and does not discriminate on the basis of age, race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, national origin, protected veteran status, disability or any other legally protected status. Elanco may use automated tools, including AI, to support parts of our recruitment process, such as reviewing applications against job‑related criteria and/or transferrable skills.

Elanco Animal Health Incorporated (NYSE: ELAN) is a global leader in animal health dedicated to innovating and delivering products and services to prevent and treat disease in farm animals and pets, creating value for farmers, pet owners, veterinarians, stakeholders, and society as a whole. With nearly 70 years of animal health heritage, we are committed to helping our customers improve the health of animals in their care, while also making a meaningful impact on our local and global communities. At Elanco, we are driven by our vision of Food and Companionship Enriching life and our Elanco Healthy Purpose™ CSR framework – all to advance the health of animals, people and the planet. Learn more at www.elanco.com.