Solution Architect - lead

LA International; Luton; Hybrid; GBP 88,000 - 106,000; Full time

Job summary

LA International is seeking a Solution Architect - lead on a 12 month contract with extensions in the UK. The role is hybrid with 2-3 days onsite in Luton, offering £475-£575 per day via Umbrella.

The opportunity supports a world-leading program and requires senior architectural leadership across multiple product teams. You will shape end-to-end solutions, establish guardrails and patterns, and collaborate with Product, Tech and Delivery Leads to ensure alignment with enterprise strategy and

Qualifications

• 6–8 years in solution architecture
• Background in domain-driven design and event-driven architecture
• Strong communication and stakeholder management
• Experience in mission/product delivery environments
• Exposure to airline operations desirable

Responsibilities

• Provide architecture leadership for a product mission team, defining mission-level solution architecture and creating a clear architecture vision for product teams to align with.
• Shape the end-to-end solution across multiple product teams, platforms and technology domains, ensuring consistency and alignment.
• Establish solution guardrails, principles, reference architectures and patterns, identifying opportunities for reuse and optimisation, promoting architecture best practices.
• Partner with Product Leads, Tech Leads and Delivery Leads to ensure cohesive solution design and delivery.
• Align solutions with long-term enterprise strategy, architecture principles and standards.
• Identify and resolve cross-team solution dependencies and integration risks early.
• Communicate architecture and solution decisions clearly to both technical and business stakeholders.
• Coach teams on architectural thinking, reusable patterns and design approaches.
• Defining & owning end-to-end solution architecture
• Define the mission level architecture vision, scope and evolution roadmap, ensuring the solution meets mission outcomes, customer needs, and business objectives.
• Design cross-team integrations, shared components, and data flows, identifying and resolving solution risks, dependencies, and architectural gaps early.
• Provide clear solution architecture direction to Tech Leads, Product Leads, and Delivery Leads.
• Communicate solution decisions, trade-offs, and risks to technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Lead architecture governance activities to ensure solution assurance and compliance.
• Align solutions with enterprise strategy, architecture principles and standards, collaborating with IT Architecture team on architectural reviews, exceptions and guidance.
• Define solution guardrails, principles, reference architectures and patterns, ensuring scalability, reliability, security, and operability.
• Align multiple products to shared design principles, patterns, and integration contracts, ensuring product-level designs fit into a cohesive mission-level architecture.

Skills

Architect leadership

Domain-driven design

Event-driven architecture

Stakeholder management

Cloud native (AWS)

Microservices

Agile / product delivery

Effective communication

Coaching teams

Tools

AWS

REST APIs

Job description

Solution Architect - lead

12 Month contract initially + Extensions

Based: Hybrid based - 2-3 days onsite in Luton.

Rate -£475 - £575 p/d via Umbrella

We have a great opportunity with a world leading organisation where you will be provided with all of the support and development to succeed. A progressive organisation where you can really make a difference. We have a great opportunity for a Solution Architect - lead on a long term program of work.

Key Responsibilities

• Provide architecture leadership for a product mission team, defining mission-level solution architecture and creating a clear architecture vision for product teams to align with.
• Shape the end-to-end solution across multiple product teams, platforms and technology domains, ensuring consistency and alignment.
• Establish solution guardrails, principles, reference architectures and patterns, identifying opportunities for reuse and optimisation, promoting architecture best practices.
• Partner with Product Leads, Tech Leads and Delivery Leads to ensure cohesive solution design and delivery.
• Align solutions with long-term enterprise strategy, architecture principles and standards.
• Identify and resolve cross-team solution dependencies and integration risks early.
• Communicate architecture and solution decisions clearly to both technical and business stakeholders.
• Coach teams on architectural thinking, reusable patterns and design approaches.
• Defining & owning end-to-end solution architecture
• Define the mission level architecture vision, scope and evolution roadmap, ensuring the solution meets mission outcomes, customer needs, and business objectives.
• Design cross-team integrations, shared components, and data flows, identifying and resolving solution risks, dependencies, and architectural gaps early.
• Provide clear solution architecture direction to Tech Leads, Product Leads, and Delivery Leads.
• Communicate solution decisions, trade-offs, and risks to technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Lead architecture governance activities to ensure solution assurance and compliance.
• Align solutions with enterprise strategy, architecture principles and standards, collaborating with IT Architecture team on architectural reviews, exceptions and guidance.
• Define solution guardrails, principles, reference architectures and patterns, ensuring scalability, reliability, security, and operability.
• Align multiple products to shared design principles, patterns, and integration contracts, ensuring product-level designs fit into a cohesive mission-level architecture.

Continuous Architecture Practice Improvement

• Contribute to shaping and maturing the solution architecture practice.
• Champion architecture best practice, including safety/security by design, operational excellence, reliability, performance efficiency, cost optimisation, and sustainability.

Key Skills & Experience

• Lead SA who can handle large programs with good stakeholder management skills With at least 6 to 8 years' experience in solution architecture space
• a strong solution architecture background, particularly in domain-driven design and event-driven architecture
• strong communication and stakeholder management skills
• experience working in mission/product delivery environment
• ideally exposure to airline operations, especially crew pairing and roster optimiser is desirable
• Demonstrable experience in leading end-to-end solutions spanning multiple teams or domains, ensuring that they meet business outcomes.
• Proven ability to work in agile, product-based or mission-led organisations product way of working.
• Strong understanding of modern architecture (cloud native - AWS preferred, microservices, APIs, events, canonical data models).
• Exceptional communication and stakeholder management skills.
• Ability to influence architecture on a scale, from engineers to business leaders, by explaining technical solutions in clear, business-relevant terms.
• Excellent problem-solving and decision-making skills, able to assess trade-offs between time, cost and technical debts.
• Good understanding of strategic and emerging technology trends, and the practical application to evolving business models.
• Experience in coaching and developing technical teams on architecture thinking.

This is an excellent opportunity on a great project of work,

We welcome applications from all individuals, regardless of background or identity, and we encourage candidates who may not meet every listed requirement to still apply. If you require any adjustments or support during the recruitment process, please let us know and we will work with you to ensure a fair and accessible experience.