Solutions Architect (Leeds)

We are looking for an experienced Senior Solutions Architect with over 16+ years of experience in designing and delivering robust, reliable, scalable and cloud-native solutions. The candidate should have good technical understanding of various tools and technologies including cloud service offering from various providers. The candidate should have a strategic mindset and the ability to collaborate with senior stakeholders, experience contributing to proposals, RFI (Request for Information) responses and bids, along with a strong grasp of architecture frameworks such as TOGAF and familiarity with GDS standards. Key Responsibilities: Design and lead the development of enterprise-scale solutions using Spring Boot Java, Node.js, AWS, event-driven and Microservices Architecture Engage with public sector clients to translate business challenges into secure, reliable and scalable architectural solutions Work collaboratively with cross-functional teams including Delivery Leads, Business Analysts, Developers, Testers and DevOps engineers Respond to RFI, RFP and bid requests, contributing architecture overviews, solution design documents and technical estimates Support proposal creation by defining solution scope, identifying key risks & assumptions and presenting high level solutions. Collaborate with stakeholders to ensure alignment with compliance, security and data governance standards. Advocate and implement best practices in solution design, performance tuning, and maintainability. Ensure architectural documentation is clear, complete, and maintained Participate in architecture reviews, technical governance and the creation of reusable solution patterns. Keep up to date with emerging technologies and apply relevant innovations in client environments. Apply TOGAF or similar frameworks in designing and documenting architecture Drive innovation and contribute to organisation-wide initiatives and capability building Required Experience & Skills: 16+ years’ experience as an solution architecture Proven technical leadership in Spring Boot, Node.js, REST APIs and AWS (including Lambda, S3, RDS, EventBridge, ECS Fargate, Secret Manager, API Gateway etc). Experience designing event-driven, microservices-based architectures and working with event stores. Demonstrable experience delivering complex solutions for private & public sector clients. Strong experience preparing and presenting technical responses for bids, proposals, and RFIs. Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to interact effectively with both technical teams and senior stakeholders. Experience in working in Agile methodologies and working with multidisciplinary delivery teams Comfortable managing relationships with delivery leads, practice heads, and client-side leadership. Knowledge of TOGAF or other architectural frameworks. Passion for staying updated with emerging technologies and applying them in solutioning. Desirable / Nice to Have: Familiarity with GDS (Government Digital Services) guidelines and assessment processes AWS Solutions Architect – Professional or Associate certification Experience with DevOps, CI/CD, Docker/Kubernetes, and infrastructure-as-code tools (Terraform, CloudFormation) Experience with hybrid/multi-cloud solutions