Solution Architect

Royal Berkshire Nhs Foundation Trust; Reading; On-site; GBP 60,000 - 80,000; Full time

Job summary

A prominent healthcare provider in Reading is seeking a Solution Architect to enhance digital solutions and ensure they align with business goals. The role requires collaboration across teams, establishing strong architecture for clinical applications, and the integration of third-party systems. Candidates need to excel in managing complex information and possess experience in cloud-native technologies. This position emphasizes work-life balance and offers generous benefits including NHS pension and flexible working hours.

Benefits

Flexible working opportunities

NHS pension scheme

Generous leave policy

Cycle-to-work scheme

Health-service discounts

Qualifications

• Proven ability to design scalable, secure, and integrated technology solutions.
• Strong skills in creating architecture diagrams for diverse audiences.
• Experience managing complex and sensitive information.

Responsibilities

• Design and oversee technology solutions aligned with business goals.
• Lead integrations of third-party systems and applications.
• Collaborate with stakeholders to define system requirements.

Skills

Experience in enterprise environments

Cloud-native technologies (Azure, AWS)

Interoperability and data consistency

Complex system communication

Tools

Docker

Kubernetes

Microservices

Job description

Role Overview

At the Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust we put our patients at the heart of every element of health and care that we provide. The Trust works together as a community to deliver its vision which is "Working together to provide outstanding care for our community." Royal Berkshire Hospital are pleased to announce that following our CQC inspection we have been rated 'Good' with inspectors reporting that we have made significant improvements. The Trust's overall rating has also improved to 'good'. We are Compassionate in our thoughts, words and actions. We are Aspirational and have a true desire to be dynamic and to innovate. We are Resourceful and responsible in the way we work and live. We are Excellent in our development, fairness and sharing best practice. At the Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust, we value candidates who bring their unique personalities, skills, and experiences to the Trust. When completing your application, we encourage you to highlight your individual achievements and strengths, showing us how they align with the requirements outlined in the job description and person specification. While we recognise that some applicants may use AI tools during the process, please be mindful that AI-generated responses can often lack the personal detail and relevance needed to demonstrate your suitability for the role. AI generated content is discouraged by the Trust and may diminish the candidates chances of success. Amazing things happen at the Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust; delivered by amazing people so why don't you come and join us. We offer a range of learning and development for all employees may you be clinical or non-clinical.

The Solution Architect is a pivotal member of the Digital Data & Technology (DDaT) team, dedicated to enhancing value for patients by improving and developing digital solutions across the Trust and the broader health and care system. The post holder will ensure that the Trust's clinical applications and wider systems are integral to the DDaT Target Operating Model (TOM), working collaboratively with colleagues to drive continuous improvement. The Solution Architect is responsible for defining high-level architecture and designing solutions that deliver outstanding business outcomes, aligned with the Trust's long-term strategy. The post holder will influence and foster collaboration across platform and domain teams during solution design. By partnering with these teams, the Solution Architect will elaborate on solutions and their interfaces, validate technology assumptions, evaluate implementation options, and contribute to the Trust's End User Computing (EUC) and enabling strategies. This role requires a strong client focus, the ability to manage complex and sensitive information, and effective liaison and communication with both clinical and non-clinical staff, as well as external suppliers, to ensure quality standards are maintained for all deployed changes. The Solution Architect will play a leading role in team operations, supporting the organisation (and the Integrated Care System), enabling innovation, and contributing to the delivery of local, regional, and national strategies.

Key Responsibilities

• Design and oversee the implementation of technology solutions that align with business goals, ensuring they are scalable, secure, and integrated across systems.
• Architect digital platforms that span clinical, operational, and administrative domains.
• Ensure alignment with NHS and healthcare data standards (e.g., FHIR, HL7, SNOMED CT, GP Connect).
• Lead integration of third‑party systems and internal applications.
• Ensure seamless data exchange across platforms and organisations.
• Design solutions that may span multiple workstreams, whilst identifying downstream application dependencies. This role owns the solution through to delivery and is also responsible for understanding the wider Trust application estate.
• Develop an evolving and balanced solution architecture for projects, addressing business function needs and achieving alignment with known business function priorities and roadmaps, Enterprise Architecture principles, standards and governance processes, agreeing design changes and pragmatic trade‑offs.
• Cloud‑Native Design & Delivery: Lead the design of scalable, resilient digital solutions by leveraging cloud‑native technologies and platforms like Azure or AWS, using modern cloud services and frameworks (e.g., microservices, containers such as Docker/Kubernetes, and serverless computing).
• Create solution views and architecture diagrams for technical and non‑technical audiences.
• Champion clear communication of complex systems.
• Collaborate with stakeholders to define problems, desired outcomes, and constraints.
• Translate business requirements into technical specifications.
• Design solutions that integrate seamlessly with existing systems and data flows.
• Promote interoperability and data consistency across platforms.
• Develop the solution acceptance criteria to ensure the integrity of any proposed solutions across the technology estate and enable communication to relevant stakeholders.
• Collaborate with technical teams, business stakeholders, and partners to deliver solutions that balance user experience, security, and cost.
• Proven experience as a Solution Architect in enterprise environments.
• Identify and exploit the reuse of any components, patterns and techniques and document these for reuse by other projects.
• Establish and direct proof‑of‑concepts in innovation and make recommendations on technology adoption.
• Work with the Security and Information Risk functions to ensure any solution meets the needs of NHS security standards and principles such as DSPT and CAF.
• Manage logical to physical design, collaborating with both internal and external delivery partners.

Appointment & Employment

• All new appointments to the Trust, with the exception of executive positions, are subject to a 6‑month probationary period.
• Appointment to any position is conditional on the satisfactory completion of the core NHS Employment Checks Standards.
• The Trust may close any vacancy prior to the advertised closing date due to the high level of responses some vacancies receive.
• We are an approved sponsoring organisation. Applications will be considered from applicants requiring sponsorship alongside all other applications. Please be aware that not all roles are eligible for sponsorship.

Benefits

• Flexible working opportunities and a strong emphasis on work‑life balance.
• Annual leave: 27 days for new starters, plus bank holidays. Increases to 29 days after 5 years and 33 days after 10 years NHS service. Pro‑rated for part‑time staff.
• National Health Service pension scheme.
• Employee Assistance Programme.
• Money Advice Service.
• Generous maternity, paternity and adoption leave for eligible staff.
• On‑site nursery (based at RBH).
• Full educational library services.
• Cycle‑to‑work scheme and lockable storage for cycles.
• Bus‑to‑work scheme.
• Excellent rail and bus links.
• A huge range of health‑service discounts at hundreds of big brands from holidays to gadgets, restaurants and retail.

Recruitment Process

After applying via NHS Jobs, your submitted application will be imported into our preferred third‑party recruitment system (TRAC). All subsequent information regarding your application will be generated from apps.trac.jobs, and you will not be able to track the progress of your application or receive messages through the NHS Jobs website.