Solutions Architect

Thames Water Utilities Limited; Reading; Hybrid; GBP 76,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading water and wastewater company in Reading is seeking a Solutions Architect to design and implement solution architectures. You will be responsible for guiding the delivery of solutions, collaborating with various teams, and maintaining architecture models. The role offers a competitive salary of up to £90,000 and excellent benefits including a generous pension scheme and private medical health care. Join a company committed to making a difference every day.

Benefits

26 days holiday, increasing to 30

Generous Pension Scheme

Private Medical Health Care

Health MOTs and wellness benefits

Qualifications

• Able to lead a project from an architecture perspective.
• Hands-on experience with architecture frameworks.
• Solid understanding of business drivers and capabilities.

Responsibilities

• Design solution architectures and guide their implementation.
• Support product managers in service decisions.
• Maintain architecture models and related reference data.

Skills

Leadership in architecture

Experience in waterfall and agile

Communication skills

Programming in a high-level language

Process modeling (BPMN)

Education

Degree level education or equivalent

Tools

TOGAF

ArchiMate

Job description

Job title Solutions Architect Ref 39413 Division Digital Location Hybrid - Clearwater Court - RG1 8DB Contract type Permanent Full/Part-time Full-time Salary Competitive salary of up to £90,000 per annum depending on experience Job grade C Closing date 07/08/2025

A key part of the role will be to ensure we make progress on our key issues, whilst keeping solutions aligned to organisation and industry standards and with other programs for which a seamless collaboration with your team and with other Architects across Thames Water is fundamental.

As well as designing solutions, you’ll also play your part in driving forward the adoption and maintenance of our enterprise repository, which holds all of our IT design and reference information.

What you’ll be doing as a Solutions Architect

• Understand the problem space: delivery of solution architectures and designs through their full lifecycle, focusing in particular on the application domain as opposed to infrastructure.
• Understand the business drivers and business capabilities (future and current state) determine solution designs to drive the targeted business outcomes.
• Creating architectural designs to guide and contextualise solution development across products, services, projects, and systems, including applications, technologies, processes, and information.
• Facilitate the evaluation and selection of solution options, software product standards and services.
• Supporting product managers in product decisions to maintain, refresh or retire services, or systems, including applications, technologies, processes, and information.
• Using your experience on projects to suggest and implement changes to our modelling environment to better support the needs of our various stakeholders.
• Create and maintain the architecture models and related reference data in our enterprise repository as part of your normal project tasks.

Base Location – Hybrid – Clear Water Court Reading.

Working Pattern – 36 hours Monday to Friday.

What you should bring to the role

• Being able to lead a project from an architecture perspective, ensuring that all decisions that are architecturally relevant can be taken following the appropriate governance.
• Experience of working in both waterfall and agile environments.
• Practical experience using an architecture framework such as TOGAF or ArchiMate.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
• Educated to degree level or the equivalent.
• Experience with programming in a high-level language.
• Some exposure to process modelling, for example, in BPMN.

What’s in it for you?

• Competitive salary of up to £90,000 per annum, depending on experience.
• Annual Leave - 26 days holiday per year, increasing to 30 with the length of service. (Plus bank holidays)
• Generous Pension Scheme through AON.
• Private Medical Health Care.
• Access to lots of benefits to help you take care of yourself and your family’s health and wellbeing, and your finances – from annual health MOTs and access to physiotherapy and counselling, to Cycle to Work schemes, shopping vouchers and life assurance.

Who are we?

We’re the UK’s largest water and wastewater company, with more than 16 million customers relying on us every day to supply water for their taps and toilets. We want to build a better future for all, helping our customers, communities, people, and the planet to thrive. It’s a big job and we’ve got a long way to go, so we need help from passionate and skilled people, committed to making a difference and getting us to where we want to be in the years and decades to come.

Thames Water is a unique, rewarding, and diverse place to work, where every day you can make a difference, yet no day is the same. As part of our family, you’ll enjoy fast-tracked career opportunities, flexible working arrangements and excellent benefits.

Whether you’re interested in a role in one of our call centres or science labs, we’re looking for people like you with real passion and a burning desire to make things better.

So, if you’re looking for a sustainable and successful career where you can make a daily difference to millions of people’s lives while helping to protect the world's water for future generations, we’ll be here to support you every step of the way. Together, we can build a better future for our customers, our region and our planet.

Real purpose, real support, real opportunities. Come and join the Thames Water family. Why choose us? Learn more.

Our overarching aim is to ensure that Thames Water is a great, diverse, and inclusive place to work. We welcome applications from everyone and offer extra support for those who need it throughout the recruitment process . OWe aimto remove any real or perceived barriers to success, so if you need assistance, we’re here to help and support .

When a crisis happens, we all rally around to support our customers. As part of Team Thames, you’ll have the opportunity to sign up to support our customers on the frontline as an ambassador. Full training will be given for what is undoubtedly an incredibly rewarding experience. It’s also a great opportunity to learn more about our business and meet colleagues.

Disclaimer: Due to the high volume of applications we receive, we may close the advertisement earlier than the advertised date. We encourage you to apply as soon as possible to avoid disappointment.