Solutions Architect

Ocho People Ltd.; Belfast City District; Hybrid; GBP 85,000 - 110,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Bonus

Pension 8%

36 days holiday

Gym/parking stipend

Private health, dental and life insure

Hybrid Belfast office 2 days/wk

High-profile programme

Job summary

Ocho People Ltd. in Belfast is seeking a Solutions Architect to set and own the architecture for a major insurance modernisation programme, spanning data processing, system integrations and user workflows.

You’ll work with engineers, product owners and enterprise architects, sitting inside sprints rather than upstream governance. You’ll translate business complexity into clear designs, challenge trade-offs, and explain architectural direction to senior stakeholders, with hybrid working two days

Qualifications

• 5+ years as a Solutions Architect or senior design lead.
• Experience delivering cloud-native solutions on AWS with ADRs and NFRs.
• Experience integrating modern and legacy systems with agile teams.

Responsibilities

• Define and own the solution architecture across multiple teams and data pipelines.
• Translate architectural direction into actionable designs aligned with standards.
• Produce ADRs and non-functional requirements specifications.
• Own the API contract model between platform and experience layers.
• Lead Well-Architected Reviews across security, reliability, performance, cost.
• Identify architectural risks early, especially around integration contracts and data consistency.
• Support agile delivery, joining sprint ceremonies and architecture syncs.
• Collaborate with security and observability to ensure secure by default.
• Keep pace with AI and cloud developments and apply responsibly.

Skills

Solutions Architecture

AWS

Data Architecture

Stakeholder Management

Cloud-native/Microservices

API Design

Tools

AWS

Neptune

Neo4j

API Gateway

Serverless

Job description

Solutions Architect - Belfast (Hybrid)

At a Glance

• Belfast-based, hybrid: two days a week in the office, usually Tuesday and Thursday
• Shape the architecture for a major insurance modernisation programme across several engineering teams
• AWS-focused role covering integration, data and AI-enabled platforms
• Bonus, 8% pension, 36 days' holiday and private health, dental and life insurance
• Must be based in Northern Ireland with existing right to work (no sponsorship available)

About the Company

This is a leading global insurance organisation with a fast-growing technology presence in Northern Ireland. They're investing heavily in modernising how insurance products are created, managed and supported, and in using AI responsibly at enterprise scale. Their Belfast teams are building the platforms and practices behind it, and are part of one of the company's most important technology programmes.

Role Overview

As Solutions Architect, you'll set and own the architecture for a complex, evolving programme spanning data processing, system integrations and user-facing workflows. You'll work alongside engineers, product owners and enterprise architects, sitting inside sprints rather than governing from upstream. You'll turn business complexity into clear designs, challenge trade-offs, and explain architectural direction to senior stakeholders.

Key Responsibilities

• Define and own the solution architecture across multiple engineering teams, from data pipelines and integrations through to user-facing workflows
• Translate architectural direction into actionable designs, in line with enterprise architecture standards and domain roadmaps
• Produce and maintain solution architecture descriptions, ADRs, non-functional requirements specifications and Well-Architected Review assessments
• Own the API contract model between platform and experience layers, with clean boundaries and disciplined versioning
• Lead Well-Architected Reviews covering security, reliability, performance, cost and operational pillars
• Identify and escalation architectural risk early, especially around integration contracts, data consistency, scale and regulatory compliance
• Support agile delivery in real time, joining sprint ceremonies and architecture syncs without becoming a bottleneck
• Work closely with security and observability colleagues so designs are secure by default, traceable and supportable
• Keep pace with AI and cloud developments and find responsible ways to apply them to the platform

What You'll Need

Essential

• 5+ years as a Solutions Architect or in a senior technical design role, with direct accountability for architecture decisions on complex, multi-system programmes
• Proven delivery of cloud-native solutions on AWS (microservices, event-driven design, API gateway patterns, serverless, managed data services), with a strong record of architectural artefacts such as ADRs and NFR specifications
• Experience designing integrations across modern and legacy systems, with solid data architecture grounding and embedded stakeholder management in agile teams

Desirable

• Experience in insurance or financial services, such as claims, policy administration or regulatory compliance systems
• Exposure to AI/ML platform integration, large-scale modernisation programmes or graph databases (Neptune, Neo4j)
• AWS certification at Professional or Specialty level

Benefits & Package

• Salary dependent on experience, plus a bonus
• 36 days' holiday
• 8% pension contribution
• £90 per month stipend towards gym, parking and similar costs
• Private health, dental and life insurance
• Hybrid working: two days a week in the Belfast office, usually Tuesday and Thursday
• A high-profile programme with real influence over the architecture