Solution Architect - Guidewire in Cardiff

The Guidewire Solution Architect is part of the Architecture practice within the CTO organisation, supporting the design and delivery of end-to-end solutions across Admiral’s core insurance platforms, digital customer channels and integration landscape.

The role provides technology consultancy, architecture leadership and solution design expertise, with primary focus on Guidewire Policy Center, Billing Center, Digital Portal and Customer Engagement solutions.

Working closely with Lead Solution Architects, Engineering teams, Product Owners, Delivery Leads, Heads of Technology and Business Stakeholders, the role ensures that solutions are scalable, secure, maintainable and aligned with Admiral’s Enterprise Architecture Principles, Technology Roadmaps and Strategic Vision.

The role contributes to enterprise roadmaps, architecture standards, governance forums and wider transformation initiatives, helping to ensure that change delivered through projects, programmes, value streams and innovation initiatives delivers business value while maintaining alignment with Admiral’s target architecture and strategic technology direction.

Key Responsibilities

• Provide technical leadership and architecture support for value streams, working with Lead Solution Architects to own solutions from ideation through to delivery and ensure business value is realised through successful implementation.
• Define end-to-end solution architectures spanning Guidewire platforms, Digital Channels, Integration Platforms, Enterprise Services and supporting technology ecosystems.
• Provide architectural leadership for Guidewire Policy Center, Billing Center and digital customer-facing solutions.
• Define solution approaches for Guidewire product configuration, integration design, platform extensions, customer journeys and digital capabilities.
• Lead architecture workshops with business and technical stakeholders to understand requirements, assess impacts, evaluate solution options and drive architectural decisions.
• Lead and contribute to governance forums, ensuring solutions adhere to established architecture principles, standards and patterns, and identifying and managing divergence where required.
• Define integration strategies between Guidewire platforms and enterprise applications using APIs, messaging, event-driven architectures and enterprise integration patterns.
• Support strategic initiatives, platform modernisation programmes and technology transformation activities across the insurance landscape.
• Produce high-quality architecture artefacts, including Solution Outlines, High Level Designs, Architecture Decision Records, Option Papers, conceptual and logical architecture designs, integration designs, technical risk assessments and roadmaps.
• Ensure architectural decisions, assumptions, dependencies, risks, principles and non-functional requirements are documented and communicated effectively across stakeholders.
• Work closely with engineering teams to ensure architectural intent is maintained throughout delivery and implementation.
• Identify and manage architectural risks, technical debt, technology constraints and cross-programme dependencies.
• Build productive relationships with business and technical stakeholders to maintain alignment between business objectives and technology strategy.
• Contribute to and maintain a detailed understanding of the architecture landscape across supported value streams.
• Contribute to the architecture repository using Admiral architecture modelling tools, standards and language.
• Promote architecture best practice within Admiral and support the continuous evolution of enterprise architecture standards and patterns.
• Support innovation through research and evaluation of emerging technologies and industry trends, producing recommendations on opportunities, threats and strategic technology direction.
• Keep the Head of Solution Architecture and CTO leadership informed of significant architecture risks, issues, dependencies and strategic considerations.

Essential Skills And Experience

• Strong experience architecting solutions using Guidewire Policy Center and Billing Center.
• Proven experience designing end-to-end enterprise solutions within Guidewire ecosystems, balancing business requirements, platform capabilities and architecture standards.
• Experience supporting Guidewire upgrades, migrations and platform modernisation programmes.
• Strong understanding of Guidewire platform architecture and associated design principles.
• Experience with Guidewire configuration concepts, including Product Configuration, Product Designer, Business Rules, Workflows, Data Model Extensions, Screen Configuration, User Experience Design, Rating and Underwriting concepts.
• Experience defining architecture and design approaches for Guidewire customisation, extension and configuration while promoting adoption of out-of-the-box platform capabilities.
• Experience designing and reviewing integrations between Guidewire platforms and enterprise applications.
• Strong understanding of Guidewire integration capabilities, including REST APIs, web services, messaging frameworks, batch interfaces and event-driven integrations.
• Experience designing solutions involving Guidewire platforms, Digital Channels, Customer Portals and Enterprise Services.
• Strong understanding of API architecture, integration patterns, messaging architectures and service-oriented design principles.
• Experience with one or more enterprise integration technologies such as TIBCO, Mule Soft, Azure or GCP Integration Services, or Kafka-based platforms.
• Experience designing enterprise solutions that satisfy security, resilience, scalability, performance, supportability and operational requirements.
• Understanding of cloud architecture principles and modern software engineering practices.
• Experience working with Agile delivery teams, Dev Ops principles and CI/CD delivery pipelines.
• Experience producing architecture artefacts, including Solution Outlines, High Level Designs, Architecture Decision Records, integration designs and option assessments.
• Experience facilitating architecture workshops, stakeholder engagement sessions and solution design discussions.
• Strong stakeholder management skills, with the ability to communicate effectively at all organisational levels.
• Recognised expertise in architecture, solution design, technology strategy and the practical application of architecture within enterprise environments.
• Ability to take innovative approaches to problem solving and develop pragmatic, value-driven solutions.
• Ability to keep organisational objectives and strategic direction in mind when making architecture decisions.
• Understanding of commercial considerations, ensuring architecture recommendations reflect business value and strategic goals.
• Proactive approach to identifying risks, opportunities and continuous improvement initiatives.
• Desired Skills And Experience
• Experience with Guidewire Cloud Platform implementations and modern deployment approaches.
• Knowledge of Guidewire Data Hub, Info Center or insurance reporting ecosystems.
• Experience delivering Digital Portal, Customer Self-Service or Customer Engagement solutions.
• Experience with containerisation and platform technologies such as Kubernetes, GKE or AKS.
• Experience within Insurance, Financial Services or other highly regulated industries.
• Knowledge of enterprise data architecture, analytics and reporting platforms.
• Experience evaluating AI-assisted engineering, architecture tooling or Gen AI-enabled solutions.
• Knowledge of Enterprise Architecture frameworks, governance practices and architecture modelling approaches.
• Awareness of current and emerging standards associated with IT practice nationally and internationally, including standards published by organisations such as IEEE, IEC, BSI and ISO.
• Understanding of principles, methods and techniques for managing technology investment, budgeting and value-driven delivery.
• What Success Looks Like
• Solution architectures are clear, robust and aligned with Admiral’s Enterprise Architecture Principles, Technology Roadmaps and Strategic Vision.
• Guidewire, digital and integration solutions are designed to be scalable, secure, maintainable and operationally sustainable.
• Architecture decisions are well documented, appropriately governed and clearly communicated to business and technical stakeholders.
• Engineering teams understand the architectural intent and are enabled to deliver solutions effectively.
• Stakeholders have confidence that solution options, risks, dependencies and trade-offs are clearly understood and managed.
• Architecture governance is applied pragmatically, supporting delivery while maintaining alignment with standards and strategic direction.
• Technical risks, constraints, dependencies and technical debt are identified early and managed effectively.
• Architecture recommendations support business value, commercial considerations and long-term technology strategy.
• Working Arrangements
• This is a remote role, with an expectation to attend the Ty Admiral Cardiff office once per month or as and when required.

Benefits

Everyone receives 33 days holiday (including bank holidays) when they join us, increasing to a maximum of 38 days (including bank holidays) over time.

They also have the option to buy or sell up to five additional days of annual leave.

Up to £3,600 of free shares each year after one year of service.

We are a Disability Confident Leader and, where reasonable adjustments are required, we invite suitable candidates to the first stage of selection.

We are fully committed to ensuring that progression is not slowed or halted by barriers related to race, gender, age, sexuality or any of the protected characteristics.

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