Solution Architect

Join us as a Solution Architect at Barclays, where you'll spearhead the evolution of our digital landscape, driving innovation and excellence. You'll harness technology to revolutionise our digital offerings, ensuring unparalleled customer experiences.

To be successful as a Solution Architect, you should have experience with:

•            Architecting solutions across disparate technologies to resolve complex business issues, working with various stakeholder groups to influence their thinking about what is possible through technology innovation

•            Practical experience of one or more SDLC methodologies with the ability to exhibit deep technical understanding conveyed through crisp solution design artefacts and walkthroughs

•            Presenting complex technical ideas (both written and verbal) to an extensive and varied set of stakeholders, anticipate potential objections and persuade others to adopt the most appropriate view, backed by strong troubleshooting, analytical, and communication skills

Some other highly valued skills may include:

•            Application/Infrastructure/Enterprise Architect training and certification, e.g. TOGAF

•            Extensive experience with system integration, API design, and API management, including architecting enterprise-wide, end-to-end solutions with a focus on cloud-based technologies — specifically AWS, though Azure and Google Cloud are also beneficial

•            Financial Services domain experience or experience of working in a highly regulated environment, particularly with digital channels or mobile app solution architecture/design, as well as working in Agile program structures

You may be assessed on the key critical skills relevant for success in role, such as risk and controls, change and transformation, business acumen strategic thinking and digital and technology, as well as job-specific technical skills.

This role will be based in our Knutsford office.

Purpose of the role

To design, develop, and implement solutions to complex business problems, collaborating with stakeholders to understand their needs and requirements, and design and implement solutions that meet those needs and create solutions that balance technology risks against business delivery, driving consistency. 

Accountabilities

• Design and development of solutions as products that can evolve, meeting business requirements that align with modern software engineering practices and automated delivery tooling. This includes identification and implementation of the technologies and platforms.
• Targeted design activities that apply an appropriate workload placement strategy and maximise the benefit of cloud capabilities such as elasticity, serverless, containerisation etc.
• Best practice designs incorporating security principles (such as defence in depth and reduction of blast radius) that meet the Bank’s resiliency expectations.
• Solutions that appropriately balance risks and controls to deliver the agreed business and technology value.
• Adoption of standardised solutions where they fit. If no standard solutions fit, feed into their ongoing evolution where appropriate.
• Fault finding and performance issues support to operational support teams, leveraging available tooling.
• Solution design impact assessment in terms of risk, capacity and cost impact, inc. estimation of project change and ongoing run costs.
• Development of the requisite architecture inputs required to comply with the banks governance processes, including design artefacts required for architecture, privacy, security and records management governance processes.

Vice President Expectations

• Advise key stakeholders, including functional leadership teams and senior management on functional and cross functional areas of impact and alignment.
• Manage and mitigate risks through assessment, in support of the control and governance agenda.
• Demonstrate leadership and accountability for managing risk and strengthening controls in relation to the work your team does.
• Demonstrate comprehensive understanding of the organisation functions to contribute to achieving the goals of the business.
• Collaborate with other areas of work, for business aligned support areas to keep up to speed with business activity and the business strategies.
• Create solutions based on sophisticated analytical thought comparing and selecting complex alternatives. In-depth analysis with interpretative thinking will be required to define problems and develop innovative solutions.
• Adopt and include the outcomes of extensive research in problem solving processes.
• Seek out, build and maintain trusting relationships and partnerships with internal and external stakeholders in order to accomplish key business objectives, using influencing and negotiating skills to achieve outcomes.

All colleagues will be expected to demonstrate the Barclays Values of Respect, Integrity, Service, Excellence and Stewardship – our moral compass, helping us do what we believe is right. They will also be expected to demonstrate the Barclays Mindset – to Empower, Challenge and Drive – the operating manual for how we behave.