Solution Architect | Public Sector Consulting

IBM; Manchester; On-site; GBP 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

IBM Consulting is seeking a Solution Architect - Hybrid Solution to design and deliver secure, scalable architectures for complex enterprise environments in the UK. The role collaborates with business stakeholders, engineering teams and delivery leads to ensure architectures balance business outcomes with technical excellence and security.

You will shape architectures across applications, integrations, cloud services and enterprise platforms, guiding delivery from concept to production while

Qualifications

• Experience operating as a Solution Architect within complex enterprise, consulting or transformation environments.
• Strong governance and Design Authority processes knowledge.
• Proven ability to produce architecture artefacts such as Design Documents and architecture decision records.
• Excellent stakeholder engagement across business, technical and delivery teams.

Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end solution architecture activities from discovery through to delivery.
• Produce and maintain architecture artefacts including Solution Designs and High-Level Designs.
• Present architecture proposals through Design Authority and governance forums.
• Translate requirements into scalable technical solutions across applications and cloud services.
• Define integration patterns and API strategies for complex environments.
• Mentor engineers and junior architects where appropriate.

Skills

Solution architecture

Stakeholder engagement

Jira/Confluence

Java 17/21

REST APIs

Cloud & hybrid

AWS

RabbitMQ

IBM MQ

UML

Tools

Jira

Confluence

UML modelling tools

Job description

Introduction

A career in IBM Consulting is built on long-term client relationships and close collaboration worldwide. You’ll work with leading companies across industries, helping them shape their hybrid cloud and AI journeys. With support from our strategic partners, robust IBM technology, and Red Hat, you’ll have the tools to drive meaningful change and accelerate client impact. At IBM Consulting, curiosity fuels success. You’ll be encouraged to challenge the norm, explore new ideas, and create innovative solutions that deliver real results. Our culture of growth and empathy focuses on your long-term career development while valuing your unique skills and experiences.

Introduction

A career in IBM Consulting is built on long-term client relationships and close collaboration worldwide. You’ll work with leading companies across industries, helping them shape their hybrid cloud and AI journeys. With support from our strategic partners, robust IBM technology, and Red Hat, you’ll have the tools to drive meaningful change and accelerate client impact. At IBM Consulting, curiosity fuels success. You’ll be encouraged to challenge the norm, explore new ideas, and create innovative solutions that deliver real results. Our culture of growth and empathy focuses on your long-term career development while valuing your unique skills and experiences.

Your Role And Responsibilities

We’re looking for a Solution Architect - Hybrid Solution to help shape, design and deliver secure, scalable and resilient solutions across complex enterprise environments. This is a client-facing architecture role where you’ll work closely with business stakeholders, engineering teams, architects and delivery leads to translate requirements into high-quality solution designs that balance business outcomes, technical excellence, security and operational sustainability. You’ll be responsible for defining solution architectures across applications, integrations, cloud platforms and enterprise services, whilst ensuring alignment with architecture governance, design authority processes and strategic technology direction. Success in this role requires a blend of architectural thinking, technical depth and stakeholder engagement. We’re looking for architects who can operate comfortably between business discussions and detailed technical design, helping delivery teams move from concept through to implementation.

Key Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end solution architecture activities from discovery through to delivery.
• Produce and maintain architecture artefacts including Solution Designs, High-Level Designs (HLDs), option assessments and architecture decision records.
• Present architecture proposals through Design Authority and governance forums.
• Translate business, functional and non-functional requirements into scalable technical solutions.
• Define architecture approaches across applications, integrations, cloud services, data flows and supporting infrastructure.
• Collaborate with engineering teams to ensure architecture designs are successfully delivered and aligned to agreed standards.
• Support application modernisation and digital transformation initiatives.
• Define integration patterns and API strategies across complex enterprise environments.
• Work closely with stakeholders to balance delivery requirements, technical constraints and long-term architectural objectives.
• Provide technical leadership throughout project delivery, supporting issue resolution, risk management and architecture assurance activities.
• Contribute to architecture governance, peer reviews and technical quality standards.
• Support solution estimation, technical planning and delivery roadmaps.
• Mentor engineers, developers and junior architects where appropriate.

Required Technical And Professional Expertise

• Experience operating as a Solution Architect within complex enterprise, consulting or transformation environments.
• Strong understanding of architecture governance, Design Authority processes and solution architecture methodologies.
• Experience producing architecture artefacts including Solution Designs, HLDs, option assessments and architecture decision records.
• Strong stakeholder engagement skills with experience working across business, technical and delivery teams.
• Experience using architecture and delivery tooling such as Jira, Confluence and UML modelling tools.
• Good understanding of modern application architectures and software delivery practices.
• Strong understanding of:
• Java (17/21)
• XML and JSON schemas
• RESTful services and API-driven architectures
• Enterprise integration patterns
• Relational databases
• Experience working with cloud-hosted and hybrid solutions, ideally within AWS environments.
• Understanding of key AWS services including:
• EC2
• EKS
• S3
• Experience designing solutions involving messaging and integration technologies such as:
• RabbitMQ
• IBM MQ
• Experience supporting projects from requirements and design through to implementation and production deployment.

This role is subject to pre-employment screening in line with the UK Government’s Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS). An additional range of Personal Security Controls referred to as National Security Vetting (NVS) may apply, this could include meeting the eligibility requirements for The Security Check (SC) or Developed Vetting (DV).

Preferred Technical And Professional Experience

• Experience delivering Hybrid Cloud or cloud transformation programmes.
• Exposure to microservices architectures and cloud-native application design.
• Familiarity with container technologies such as Docker and Kubernetes.
• Understanding of DevSecOps, CI/CD pipelines and modern engineering practices.
• Experience operating within regulated, secure or enterprise-scale environments.
• Knowledge of architecture frameworks such as TOGAF.
• Experience participating in RFI/RFP activities, option evaluations and technology selection exercises.
• Experience working within Agile, Scrum or SAFe delivery environments.
• Exposure to observability, monitoring and operational readiness considerations.
• Experience supporting architecture governance forums, technical design reviews and enterprise change initiatives.
• Active UK Security Clearance.