Solution Architect

Role: Solutions Architect
Location: Leeds (Hybrid)
Salary: £75,000
Take ownership of Application Architecture Modernisation and Cloud Adoption for a leading Financial Services Organisation. We're supporting a leading Financial Services organisation on a multi-year evolution of its core platforms and technology landscape. This role offers a rare opportunity to step in as the Architect, taking full ownership of architectural direction, governance, and process across the business. You'll operate across both technical depth and enterprise-level thinking, helping the organisation move from a predominantly on-prem Microsoft estate towards a more modern, API-led and cloud-ready architecture, at a pace that aligns with business risk and regulatory requirements.

What You'll Be Doing

This is a broad, high-impact role where you'll combine hands-on technical decision-making with strategic architectural leadership.

• Own the Architecture Function Act as the organisation's primary Architect, establishing architecture practices, governance, and processes, including involvement in and shaping of Technical Design Authority (TDA).
• Technical Leadership & Decision-Making Work closely with Engineers and senior stakeholders to drive key decisions across areas such as APIs, authentication, integration patterns, and application design
• Application & Platform Architecture Lead the evolution of a core Microsoft-based platform, currently on-prem, introducing scalable, modern architectural patterns.
• API & Integration Strategy Play a key role in shaping a more API-led ecosystem, including the potential introduction of an API Gateway and improved service-to-service communication
• Cloud Readiness & Transformation Support early-stage cloud adoption, helping define a pragmatic, low-risk path to Azure, balancing innovation with regulatory and operational considerations
• Collaboration Across Technology Partner closely with an established Infrastructure SME, ensuring a clear separation and alignment between infrastructure and application architecture
• Governance & Standards Introduce structure, best practices, and architectural governance across the technology landscape, ensuring consistency, scalability, and security.

What You'll Bring.

Strong Engineering Background

Previous hands-on development experience (ideally within the Microsoft stack), with the credibility to engage deeply with engineering teams

Architectural Experience (Solution or Enterprise)

Able to operate both tactically and strategically, with a clear understanding of how solutions fit within a wider enterprise context

Microsoft-Centric Expertise

Strong knowledge of .NET, C#, SQL Server, and designing within Microsoft-based environments

API & Integration Knowledge

Experience designing or working with API-driven architectures, authentication models, and modern integration patterns

Cloud Awareness (Azure Preferred)

Exposure to cloud architecture and migration concepts, even if the majority of experience to date is within on-prem environments

Governance & Stakeholder Engagement

Comfortable setting up architectural processes, contributing to design authorities, and influencing both technical and non-technical stakeholders.