Solutions Architect

Icon Solutions; Wimbledon; On-site; GBP 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

Icon Solutions is seeking a Solution Architect to lead end-to-end design for the Icon Payments Framework (IPF). You will drive architecture decisions, translate requirements into technical designs and guide engineering squads from pre-sales through go-live.

We value a strong back-end focus (Java), experience with real-time systems, cloud and microservices, and a consultative, stakeholding approach to client engagements.

Qualifications

• Proven experience as Solution/Technical Architect in financial services or payments tech.
• Experience designing end-to-end architectures for real-time, highly concurrent systems.
• Strong modelling skills across conceptual, logical and physical levels.
• Ability to translate requirements into technical designs and drive implementation.

Responsibilities

• Support pre-sales proposals with approach and estimation for IPF solutions.
• Review and enrich designs to produce engineering-ready architectures for scrum teams.
• Translate business requirements into technical solution designs and diagrams.
• Collaborate with clients, squads and Product Owners to implement features.
• Lead design authority workshops and governance across stakeholders.
• Create and maintain solution docs: integration views, deployment views, diagrams.
• Communicate architectural risks and dependencies to project teams.

Skills

Solution architecture

Java back-end

Cloud & Microservices

Event-driven patterns

CQRS/Hexagonal architecture

CI/CD & DevOps

Security architecture

Stakeholder management

Pre-sales & consulting

Tools

IPF connectors & flows

Job description

The Icon Payments Framework (IPF) provides institutions with faster and more cost-effective access to payments through an advanced and highly flexible payments specific platform which seamlessly integrates with core and back-office banking applications.

Our Solution Architects play a key role in the end-to-end solution design and engineering leadership for IPF client engagements from pre-sales through to go-live. With broad and deep technology background complimented by an excellent consulting repertoire, the Solution Architect will drive the solution road-map from a capability, technology, integration and infrastructure perspective.

About you:

• Proven experience in a Solution Architect, Technical Architect, Lead Engineer role within financial services or payments technology.
• Significant capability in the design & implementation of end-to-end application and technical architectures for highly concurrent, real-time transactional systems.
• Experienced in conceptual, application, integration, logical and physical modelling.
• Experience of analysing and implementing solutions to meet both functional and non-functional requirements.
• Strong back-end development background (e.g. Java) and familiarity with common software patterns and techniques.
• Experience across modern architectural / delivery standards and methods including Agile, TDD, BDD, CI/CD automation, DevOps practices, Cloud and Microservices Architecture.
• Technology enthusiast, avid follower of new technologies, design patterns and architecture styles .
• Experience and appreciation for the Payments Industry and regulatory landscape from both a technical, functional and business perspective .
• Familiarity with event-driven, reactive architectural patterns such as event sourcing, CQRS and hexagonal architecture .
• Security architecture awareness including identity management, authentication and role-based access design .
• Strong consulting and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to operate effectively in complex, multi-team client environments.

What Do Our Solution Architects Do?

• Supporting pre-sales proposals and propositions in the form of client meetings, approach and estimation for solutions.
• Review, challenge and enrich solution designs to produce engineering-ready designs for the scrum team, including skeleton Payments flows and Node designs leveraiging IPF connectors and flows.
• Translating business requirements and non-functionals into technical solution designs.
• Working with client, Internal Squads and Product Owners to create implementation features that can be coded by our engineering squads, with regular review sessions to ensure implementation meets the design.
• Conducting solution architecture reviews of existing system, providing impact analysis from IPF implementation perspective, and communicating the findings of the review back to stakeholders.
• Organising design authority workshops with client and IPF product stakeholders.
• Actively participating in internal and external technical governance committees.
• Govern IPF client implementation backlog from a technical and architectural perspective.
• Creating and maintaining structured solution documentation including integration views, deployment views, sequence diagrams and key design decisions.
• Engaging with the IPF product team to validate solution feasibility, communicate client requirements and ensure alignment with the product roadmap.
• Tracking and communicating architectural risks, issues and dependencies to keep the project team and stakeholders informed.
• Contributing to the IPF SA practice through knowledge sharing, pattern documentation and community engagement.

What Do They Enjoy The Most?

• Seeing the solutions we devise to problems in action with long-standing clients.
• Being supported to continually research, learn and refine specialist knowledge.
• Working in a truly collaborative environment where ideas and knowledge are freely shared.