Solutions Architect

Ports North; Dublin; On-site; EUR 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

Ports North is seeking an experienced Solution Architect to lead end-to-end architecture for complex, distributed data, streaming and integration solutions in a large-scale enterprise environment.

You will shape architectural standards, collaborate with engineering teams, and ensure solutions are scalable, secure, resilient and production-ready. Significant leadership across multiple workstreams is expected.

Qualifications

• 10+ years' IT experience required.
• 5+ years in solution/technical architecture or senior design leadership.
• Experience with streaming/real-time data apps using Kafka.
• Understanding Kafka consumer groups, offsets, retries, dead-letter handling, ordering.
• Experience with Cloudera CDH/CDP.
• Designing data ingestion, transformation, storage and consumption.
• Strong knowledge of batch and real-time processing architectures.
• Experience in complex enterprise environments with multiple systems.
• Non-functional requirements including performance, scalability, resilience, security, observability and operations.
• Leading architecture across programmes/workstreams.

Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end solution architecture for large-scale data, streaming and integration.
• Provide architectural leadership across data, integration and streaming platforms.
• Design scalable solutions across Cloudera, Kafka, APIs and cloud platforms.
• Provide architectural oversight during delivery and ensure alignment with designs.
• Review designs and challenge implementation approaches.
• Identify risks, dependencies, assumptions and trade-offs.
• Work with engineering teams to ensure scalable, secure and production-ready solutions.
• Represent designs at architecture governance and review forums.
• Develop and promote architectural patterns, engineering standards and best practices.
• Provide technical leadership across multiple workstreams and mentor senior resources.

Skills

IT experience

Solution architecture

Kafka / streaming

Cloudera CDH/CDP

Data ingestion

Batch & real-time processing

Java / Spring Boot

NoSQL

AWS / Cloud

CI/CD

Observability

Architecture governance

Tools

Spark

Flink

Hive

Impala

Job description

We are currently looking for an experienced Solution Architect with a strong background in Big Data, Event Streaming and Real-Time Data Integration to join a large-scale enterprise technology environment.

This is a senior architecture role for someone who can operate across both solution design and technical delivery, providing architectural direction while working closely with engineering teams to ensure solutions are scalable, secure, resilient and production-ready.

The Role

You will take ownership of the end-to-end architecture for complex distributed data, streaming and integration solutions, while helping shape architectural standards, patterns and best practices across the wider data technology landscape.

Key responsibilities will include:

• Owning end-to-end solution architecture for large-scale distributed data, streaming and integration solutions.
• Providing architectural leadership across data, integration and streaming platforms.
• Designing scalable solutions across Cloudera, Kafka, APIs and cloud platforms, covering ingestion, processing, storage and consumption.
• Providing architectural oversight throughout solution delivery and ensuring engineering teams remain aligned with approved designs.
• Reviewing technical designs and challenging implementation approaches where appropriate.
• Identifying technical risks, dependencies, assumptions, non-functional requirements and architectural trade-offs.
• Working closely with engineering and delivery teams to ensure solutions are scalable, secure, resilient, supportable and operationally effective.
• Representing solution designs at architecture governance and review forums.
• Developing and promoting architectural patterns, engineering standards and best practices.
• Providing technical leadership across multiple workstreams and mentoring senior technical resources.

Essential Experience

We are looking for candidates with:

• 10+ years' overall IT experience, with significant experience across data platforms, integration or distributed systems.
• 5+ years' experience in solution architecture, technical architecture or senior design leadership roles.
• Strong experience architecting streaming or real-time data applications using Kafka or equivalent technologies.
• Strong understanding of Kafka consumer architecture, including consumer groups, offsets, retries, dead-letter handling, ordering, partitioning and scalability.
• Proven experience with Cloudera CDH/CDP or equivalent enterprise-scale distributed data platforms.
• Experience designing and delivering large-scale data ingestion, transformation, storage and consumption solutions.
• Strong understanding of both batch and real-time data processing architectures.
• Experience operating within complex enterprise environments involving multiple systems, platforms, vendors and governance processes.
• Strong understanding of non-functional requirements including performance, scalability, resilience, security, observability and operational support.
• Experience providing architectural leadership across multiple programmes, workstreams or delivery teams.

Technical Skills

Strong practical experience across a number of the following:

• Cloudera CDH/CDP / Distributed Data Platforms
• Apache Kafka / Event Streaming
• Spark, Flink, Hive, Impala or equivalent data processing technologies
• Java / Spring Boot / REST APIs
• HBase, Cassandra or equivalent NoSQL technologies
• AWS / Cloud-hosted data platforms
• DevOps and CI/CD
• Observability, resilience and operational support
• Event-driven and real-time integration architectures

Desirable

• Financial services or other highly regulated enterprise experience.
• Experience working with secure, enterprise-scale data platforms.
• Experience presenting solutions through architecture governance forums.
• Experience establishing architecture standards, patterns or technical communities.
• Exposure to data governance, lineage, metadata and data quality tooling.
• Experience with cloud-native data services, particularly within AWS.

About Korn Ferry

Korn Ferry unleashes potential in people, teams, and organizations. We work with our clients to design optimal organization structures, roles, and responsibilities. We help them hire the right people and advise them on how to reward and motivate their workforce while developing professionals as they navigate and advance their careers. To learn more, please visit Korn Ferry at www.Kornferry.com