Solutions Architect - #2179271

Join our client’s developing architecture capability as a Solution Architect, helping shape cloud-based, AI-enabled and automation solutions from initial concept through to delivery!

Job Overview: You will be the first technical point of engagement for new business initiatives, translating operational problems and loosely defined ideas into credible, high-level solution designs. This role requires a strong combination of technical architecture expertise, practical engineering knowledge and stakeholder engagement, with the ability to bridge the gap between business teams and technical delivery functions.

Contract Details

• Contract: 6 months (with visibility to extend)
• Location: Leeds (hybrid – twice per week on-site)
• Rate: £700 per day (inside IR35)

Key Responsibilities

• Lead early technical discovery, working with stakeholders to understand business problems, desired outcomes, constraints and requirements.
• Translate business ideas into high-level, end-to-end solution architectures that are practical, scalable and deliverable.
• Produce key architecture artefacts, including solution designs, integration diagrams, data flows and Architecture Decision Records (ADRs).
• Design solutions across cloud, APIs, integrations, data and event-driven architectures, considering security and resilience from the outset.
• Assess technical options, costs, complexity, risks, dependencies and assumptions, recommending the most appropriate approach.
• Present and support solutions through architecture governance and Design Authority, working closely with Security, GRC, Platform and Engineering teams.
• Stay engaged throughout delivery, ensuring solutions remain aligned to the agreed architecture while contributing to architecture standards, reusable patterns and best practices.

Key Requirements

• Proven experience as a Solution Architect, Technical Architect or Senior/Lead Engineer with significant solution design responsibility.
• Strong cloud architecture experience across GCP, Azure or AWS, ideally within cloud-native or SaaS environments.
• Strong understanding of APIs, integrations, microservices and event-driven architecture.
• Ability to take an ambiguous business requirement and translate it into a practical, end-to-end technical solution.
• Strong stakeholder management and communication skills, with experience engaging senior business stakeholders and translating technical concepts for non-technical audiences.
• Experience producing high-level architecture designs and documentation, while identifying technical risks, dependencies, security and non-functional requirements.

Desirable Experience

• Experience with GCP and/or relevant cloud architecture certifications.
• Experience designing AI-enabled, automation or workflow solutions.
• Experience within back-office functions such as Finance, HR or Procurement, or within a complex enterprise environment.

Start date: ASAP