Solution Architect

Barclays UK; Knutsford; On-site; GBP 70,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

Barclays UK in Knutsford is seeking a Solution Architect to design and implement digital asset solutions aligned with business needs. You will define platform architecture supporting secure and scalable capabilities while working closely with engineering teams and cross-functional stakeholders. Experience with digital assets and blockchain technology is essential. This role offers a dynamic environment at the forefront of financial technology, focusing on ensuring consistent delivery and regulatory compliance.

Qualifications

• Experience with digital assets at regulated financial institutions.
• Expertise in defining platform architecture.
• Strong skills in stakeholder collaboration.

Responsibilities

• Design and develop solutions to meet business needs.
• Manage risks and ensure compliance with governance processes.
• Collaborate with stakeholders to ensure architectural consistency.

Skills

Expertise in digital assets

Knowledge of blockchain

Understanding of payment schemes

Stakeholder management

Job description

To design, develop, and implement solutions to complex business problems, collaborating with stakeholders to understand their needs and requirements, and design and implement solutions that meet those needs and create solutions that balance technology risks against business delivery, driving consistency.

Accountabilities

• Design and development of solutions as products that can evolve, meeting business requirements that align with modern software engineering practices and automated delivery tooling. This includes identification and implementation of the technologies and platforms.
• Targeted design activities that apply an appropriate workload placement strategy and maximise the benefit of cloud capabilities such as elasticity, serverless, containerisation etc.
• Best practice designs incorporating security principles (such as defence in depth and reduction of blast radius) that meet the Bank’s resiliency expectations.
• Solutions that appropriately balance risks and controls to deliver the agreed business and technology value.
• Adoption of standardised solutions where they fit. If no standard solutions fit, feed into their ongoing evolution where appropriate.
• Fault finding and performance issues support to operational support teams, leveraging available tooling.
• Solution design impact assessment in terms of risk, capacity and cost impact, inc. estimation of project change and ongoing run costs.
• Development of the requisite architecture inputs required to comply with the banks governance processes, including design artefacts required for architecture, privacy, security and records management governance processes.
• To contribute or set strategy, drive requirements and make recommendations for change. Plan resources, budgets, and policies; manage and maintain policies/ processes; deliver continuous improvements and escalating breaches of policies/procedures.
• If managing a team, they define jobs and responsibilities, planning for the department’s future needs and operations, counselling employees on performance and contributing to employee pay decisions/changes. They may also lead a number of specialists to influence the operations of a department, in alignment with strategic as well as tactical priorities, while balancing short and long term goals and ensuring that budgets and schedules meet corporate requirements.
• If the position has leadership responsibilities, People Leaders are expected to demonstrate a clear set of leadership behaviours to create an environment for colleagues to thrive and deliver to a consistently excellent standard. The four LEAD behaviours are: L – Listen and be authentic, E – Energise and inspire, A – Align across the enterprise, D – Develop others.
• OR for an individual contributor, they will be a subject matter expert within own discipline and will guide technical direction. They will lead collaborative, multi-year assignments and guide team members through structured assignments, identify the need for the inclusion of other areas of specialisation to complete assignments. They will train, guide and coach less experienced specialists and provide information affecting long term profits, organisational risks and strategic decisions.
• Advise key stakeholders, including functional leadership teams and senior management on functional and cross functional areas of impact and alignment.
• Manage and mitigate risks through assessment, in support of the control and governance agenda.
• Demonstrate leadership and accountability for managing risk and strengthening controls in relation to the work your team does.
• Demonstrate comprehensive understanding of the organisation functions to contribute to achieving the goals of the business.
• Collaborate with other areas of work, for business aligned support areas to keep up to speed with business activity and the business strategies.
• Create solutions based on sophisticated analytical thought comparing and selecting complex alternatives. In-depth analysis with interpretative thinking will be required to define problems and develop innovative solutions.
• Adopt and include the outcomes of extensive research in problem solving processes.
• Seek out, build and maintain trusting relationships and partnerships with internal and external stakeholders in order to accomplish key business objectives, using influencing and negotiating skills to achieve outcomes.

All colleagues will be expected to demonstrate the Barclays Values of Respect, Integrity, Service, Excellence and Stewardship – our moral compass, helping us do what we believe is right. They will also be expected to demonstrate the Barclays Mindset – to Empower, Challenge and Drive – the operating manual for how we behave.

Join us as a Solution Architect- you will be the platform architect for the Barclays Digital Asset Platform, defining the platform architecture that enables secure, scalable digital asset and digital money capabilities and integrates cleanly with existing Barclays payments, FX, compliance, and downstream systems.

The role shapes a modular, API‑first platform encompassing core capabilities such as wallets, key management, smart contracts, orchestration, interoperability. The role also defines use‑case‑specific solution design to ensure platform capabilities are applied appropriately for priority business use cases. Working closely with end‑to‑end solution architects, the engineering team and cross‑functional stakeholders, the role ensures architectural consistency, regulatory alignment, and consistent delivery.

To be successful as a Solution Architect, you should have experience with:

• Expertise in digital assets at regulated financial institutions, including end to end processing flows and integration with traditional payment/settlement rails
• Knowledge of blockchain or distributed ledger technology (such as Ethereum) for secure transaction systems
• Expertise in defining platform architecture across clients, channels and business areas

Some other highly valued skills may include:

• Deep understanding of payment schemes and payment systems at large banks
• End to end knowledge of payments use cases across payment initiation, processing, FX, compliance, accounting, scheme integration and downstream advising, statements, analytics etc
• Proven ability to work with a wide range of stakeholders across business and technology to define the platform architecture and roadmap

You may be assessed on the key critical skills relevant for success in role, such as risk and controls, change and transformation, business acumen strategic thinking and digital and technology, as well as job-specific technical skills.