Solutions Architect

Technopride Ltd; Guildford; On-site; GBP 70,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading technology company in Guildford is seeking an experienced Senior Solution Architect to drive high-quality architectural design and governance across complex enterprise initiatives. You will guide teams in delivering robust solutions while managing stakeholder expectations effectively. Ideal candidates will have extensive experience in hybrid and on-premises architectures and strong leadership skills. This role involves collaboration across technical and non-technical teams for effective communication of architectural decisions.

Qualifications

• Extensive experience defining, documenting, and architecting solutions across hybrid and on-premises cloud environments.
• Strong background in providing architectural support to DevOps teams and working within Agile delivery environments.
• Proven experience in technical selection processes, including RFI/RFP preparation and vendor evaluation.

Responsibilities

• Produce and ensure delivery of all architectural artefacts required under the established development methodology.
• Identify architectural, technical, and security risks, ensuring appropriate mitigation plans.
• Provide design assurance to confirm that implemented solutions align with architectures, standards, and quality expectations.

Skills

Extensive experience defining solutions

Architectural support to DevOps teams

Staff mentoring and guidance

Stakeholder management

Knowledge of modern IT technologies

Job description

We are seeking an experienced Senior Solution Architect to drive high-quality architectural design, governance, and technical leadership across complex enterprise initiatives. The ideal candidate will bring deep expertise in hybrid and on-premises environments, strong stakeholder management capabilities, and the ability to guide teams in delivering robust, secure, and scalable solutions.

Key Responsibilities

Architectural Delivery & Governance

• Produce, review, and ensure delivery of all architectural artefacts required under the established development methodology.
• Identify architectural, technical, and security risks, ensuring appropriate mitigation plans are defined, communicated, and executed in collaboration with relevant stakeholders.
• Ensure that architecture decisions, deviations, risks, and impacts are clearly communicated and agreed upon with all stakeholders.
• Provide design assurance to confirm that implemented solutions align with approved architectures, standards, and quality expectations.

Technical Leadership

• Provide technical leadership, mentorship, and guidance to other solution architects.
• Drive alignment of the technology landscape with the enterprise target architecture, including identifying and planning for legacy system retirement.
• Support solution delivery teams by offering architectural expertise throughout the project lifecycle.

Stakeholder Engagement

• Collaborate with cross-functional teams including developers, testers, project managers, operations, and senior leadership to ensure architectural clarity and alignment.
• Communicate complex architectural concepts and decisions to both technical and non-technical stakeholders using clear and effective techniques.

Skills & Experience

Essential

• Extensive experience defining, documenting, and architecting solutions across hybrid and on-premises cloud environments, including integration with legacy systems.
• Strong background providing architectural support to DevOps teams and working within Agile delivery environments.
• Proven experience in technical selection processes, including RFI/RFP preparation, vendor evaluation, and third-party product assurance.
• Experience leading architectural design authorities and working within enterprise architectural governance and portfolio management frameworks.
• Excellent stakeholder management skills, with the ability to influence at all organisational levels—from executive leadership to technical teams.
• Broad knowledge of modern IT technologies, architectural patterns, and styles, including event-driven architecture, serverless, microservices, SOA, and layered architectures.
• Ability to clearly convey architectural decisions and rationale through documentation, presentations, and discussions.

Desirable

• Familiarity with the Open Agile Framework (Open.org) is beneficial but not mandatory.