Systems & Integration Architect (SQL, Data Flows, Legacy Systems)

Cloud People; Metropolitan Borough of Solihull; Hybrid; GBP 70,000 - 95,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

33 days holiday including bank hols

Private medical

Enhanced pension

Enhanced family leave

Income protection and life assurance

Job summary

Cloud People in Solihull is hiring a data architect for a brand-new role. You will map current data landscapes, identify gaps, and design a practical future state that the development team can implement.

You'll sit between a small development team and a business analysis group, owning architecture decisions and ensuring designs align with business goals. The role is hybrid with three fixed office days (Mon, Wed, Thu) and flexible hours.

Qualifications

• 5+ years in data architecture or related architecture roles.
• Hands-on experience reverse engineering existing or legacy systems.
• Experience tracing end-to-end data flows and embedded business rules.
• Strong SQL and relational database skills; ability to read code and APIs.
• Ability to explain technical concepts clearly to non-technical stakeholders.

Responsibilities

• Reverse engineer legacy systems to map how they actually behave.
• Trace data end to end: creation, transformation, storage and use.
• Design future state data architecture and data models.
• Define data interfaces and integration approaches across apps.
• Translate architecture into concrete designs for developers.
• Collaborate with Process and Development teams, explaining concepts clearly.
• Stay close to integration design, testing, and pragmatic adaptations.
• Keep state diagrams and decisions up to date.

Skills

SQL

Relational databases

Data architecture

Systems architecture

Communication

Tools

APIs

Stored procedures

Job description

Solihull, hybrid with three set office days a week (Monday, Wednesday and Thursday) and flexible hours

Company & role

This opportunity sits with a privately owned managed services provider. It is a growing SME, and a recent acquisition has brought a lot of new systems into the business on top of its own.

Nobody has ever owned how the data across those systems moves, flows and connects, so this is a brand new role. You will get under the skin of what is already there, establish the true current state (often where documentation is thin or simply wrong), and design a practical future state the Development team can build.

You will sit between a small Development team and a small business analysis and process team, reporting to the Head of Systems and Process Improvement. In practice you will be the data specialist in the business, working closely with both sides rather than inside a large data function.

Why This Role Stands Out

• A brand new role with a real problem to solve. You will be the first person to properly map how the business’s systems and data fit together.
• Real ownership. You own the design decisions within your remit, and your designs get built.
• Scale that suits a hands on architect. This is an SME, not a global enterprise data programme, so you will see the impact of your work quickly.
• A collaborative, open plan environment where you work day to day with developers and analysts, and where anyone can challenge an idea.
• Flexible hours. Work your 7.5 hours any time between 8am and 6pm.
• Strong benefits including 33 days holiday (including bank holidays), private medical, enhanced pension, enhanced family leave, income protection and life assurance.
• Worth knowing upfront: the pace is higher than most and the three office days are fixed. It suits people who are energised by growth and shifting priorities, and who value being in the room with the people they design for.

Key Responsibilities

• Reverse engineer existing and legacy systems through SQL, databases, stored procedures, APIs, integrations and application code to establish how they actually behave
• Trace data end to end, identifying where it is created, transformed, stored and used, along with embedded business rules, systems of record, dependencies and duplication
• Design future state systems data architecture, data flows, and conceptual and logical data models
• Define data structures, interfaces and integration approaches, setting out what needs to change across the affected applications
• Translate the architecture into technical and data designs developers can implement, then answer questions, resolve ambiguity and review implementations against the design
• Work between Process and Development, explaining technical concepts, constraints and options in plain terms to people across the business
• Stay close to integration design, testing and implementation, adapting the design pragmatically based on what testing shows
• Keep current and future state diagrams, models, decisions and dependencies accurate and usable

Ideal Experience

• 5+ years in data architecture, systems architecture or a closely related architecture role. Proven architecture experience matters more than the job title.
• Proven, hands on experience reverse engineering existing or legacy systems, ideally larger and more complex ones. This is essential.
• Experience tracing end to end data flows and identifying embedded business rules, dependencies and systems of record
• Strong SQL and relational database skills, including stored procedures
• A technical background, perhaps as a developer who moved into architecture or as a DBA. There is no coding in the role, but you will need to read code and understand APIs well enough to see how systems behave
• Experience designing conceptual and logical data models, integrations and interfaces, with a track record of designs that development teams have built
• Confidence owning design decisions and working largely independently
• The ability to explain technical concepts in a straightforward way to anyone in the business

To be clear, this is not a BI, reporting, data engineering or high level governance role. If you enjoy working out how complex systems really behave and turning that into designs developers can build, it is worth a conversation.