Lead Solution Architect - Glasgow

Are you a seasoned Solution Architect with a passion for designing and implementing secure, user-friendly, and efficient systems within the dynamic financial services sector? This Lead Solution Architect position offers a compelling opportunity to shape the future of secure services and processes, balancing technological innovation with robust compliance and business objectives. Based in Glasgow, this role is ideal for individuals seeking to make a significant impact in a leading financial institution.

Key Advantages for Candidates

• Strategic Impact: You will be at the forefront of designing and implementing solutions that address complex business problems, directly influencing technological direction and business outcomes.
• Security & Compliance Focus: This role provides a unique platform to embed security and compliance by design, ensuring adherence to critical financial regulations like PSD2, ISO 20022, and GDPR.
• Innovation in a Regulated Environment: You'll have the chance to work with both legacy and modern cloud-based architectures, navigating the complexities of regulated environments and leveraging cutting-edge cloud capabilities (elasticity, serverless, containerization).
• Collaborative Environment: The position emphasizes close collaboration with a diverse range of stakeholders, including product, compliance, and technology teams, fostering a rich environment for knowledge sharing and consensus building.
• Career Development: Whether you thrive as a subject matter expert guiding technical direction or as a people leader developing talent, this role offers clear pathways for growth and influence within the organization.

Key Considerations for Your Career Path

To excel in this role, candidates should possess a strong foundation in the following areas:

• API Design & Security: Proven experience in designing, securing, and scaling RESTful APIs, ideally with a focus on OpenAPI/Swagger standards. A deep understanding of API gateways, authentication mechanisms (OAuth 2.0, mTLS), rate limiting, and monitoring is essential.
• Enterprise Architecture: Expertise in defining solution blueprints, selecting appropriate technology components, and ensuring alignment with enterprise architecture standards. This includes designing robust and scalable solutions that bridge internal systems with external partners.
• Financial Domain Knowledge: A solid understanding of core banking domains such as payments, customer onboarding, transaction processing, or treasury systems will be highly advantageous.
• Legacy & Cloud Integration: The ability to effectively navigate and integrate legacy systems with modern cloud-based architectures within a regulated context is a significant asset.
• Communication & Governance: The capacity to translate complex architectural decisions into clear, business-friendly language, manage architecture governance, and align stakeholders is crucial for success.
• Asynchronous Processing: Familiarity with platforms like Kafka or MQ for asynchronous processing and real-time event handling will be particularly valuable in today's transaction-heavy banking landscape.

Candidates will be assessed on critical skills including risk and controls, change and transformation, business acumen, strategic thinking, digital and technology expertise, and job-specific technical proficiencies. Demonstrating alignment with the organization's values of Respect, Integrity, Service, Excellence, and Stewardship, as well as the Barclays Mindset (Empower, Challenge, Drive), will be key to success.

This is an exceptional opportunity for a forward-thinking Lead Solution Architect to contribute to significant architectural advancements in a highly respected financial institution. If you are ready to leverage your expertise to drive innovation and ensure robust security and compliance, we encourage you to explore this exciting role.