At a Glance
- Tasks: Lead architectural transformation for a major finance platform, ensuring alignment with tech standards.
- Company: Join a top-rated tech workplace recognised for its culture and innovation.
- Benefits: Competitive salary, private healthcare, flexible hours, and generous leave options.
- Other info: Opportunity for continuous personal development and career growth in a dynamic environment.
- Why this job: Shape the future of finance technology while working with cutting-edge cloud solutions.
- Qualifications: Deep experience in architecture, cloud platforms, and strong stakeholder management skills.
The predicted salary is between 80000 - 100000 £ per year.
We’re looking for a seasoned Principal Solutions Architect to provide architectural leadership across a major finance platform modernisation programme. This role sits at the core of transforming our finance technology landscape, covering domains such as core financials, billing, payments, revenue management, and financial data services.
In this role, you will guide the end‑to‑end architecture of a cloud‑native, AWS‑hosted finance ecosystem, ensuring strong alignment to financial processes, regulatory requirements, and enterprise technology standards. You will establish clear technical governance and drive a coherent target state across multiple autonomous teams delivering finance capabilities.
You’ll combine enterprise‑level architectural leadership with hands‑on support, helping teams navigate complex financial workflows, data integrity challenges, and integration patterns across finance systems. A key focus will be enabling the transition from legacy finance platforms to a modern, scalable, and auditable architecture, while supporting ongoing financial operations and reporting needs.
The role requires both breadth and depth across application, data, integration, security and cloud architecture, alongside a strong understanding of finance platforms, controls, and compliance considerations. You’ll also bring strong stakeholder management skills, working closely with finance, technology, and product leaders to shape and deliver a robust financial systems architecture.
Please be advised that this role will require regular travel into London.
Knowledge Skills & AbilitiesWhat you'll do:
- Lead architecture across all domains — application, integration, data, cloud and security
- Define and evolve the target-state architecture for a modernised holiday-packaging platform
- Govern solution decisions and run architecture decision review forums
- Establish architectural standards, patterns, guardrails and governance models
- Translate business capabilities, value streams and operational processes into technical architectures
- Review high‑level and low‑level design artefacts for alignment and quality
- Oversee API strategy, integration patterns, and AI-readiness
- Shape contact-centre architecture and integrations using Amazon Connect
- Enable teams to deliver safe value with your expertise in information security and data privacy
- Map and manage cross‑programme dependencies and multi‑company integration challenges
- Support teams with technical spikes, PoCs, and de‑risking complex design areas
- Influence senior stakeholders and navigate organisational politics across group-level entities
- Support executive decision-making through technical appraisal
- Align architectural decisions with technical strategy, commercial targets, risk constraints and delivery timelines
- Set and guide operating models for the transition to BAU and day 2 operations
What you'll bring:
- Deep experience spanning application, data, integration, security and cloud architecture
- Experience within React Environments, Snowflake and IaC (Ideally Terraform)
- Proven track record designing and governing public cloud‑based platforms (AWS preferred)
- Strong working knowledge of modern event-driven/API/microservice patterns
- Familiarity with customer support and finance journeys
- Experience with governance in large delivery programmes
- Ability to influence, review and guide architecture across distributed, autonomous product teams
- Good grasp of enterprise capability modelling, value streams, and end‑to‑end business flows
- Experience integrating numerous third‑party vendors and systems
- Skilled at managing architectural risk, decision trade‑offs, and long-term maintainability
- Exceptional stakeholder engagement and communication skills
- A team enablement and host-leadership mindset, promoting best practices and engineering culture
- Comfort balancing strategic leadership with hands-on architectural contribution
Great to have:
- Travel or retail industry experience is desirable, but strong experience in any large-scale consumer or regulated digital platform is equally relevant
- Experience designing multi-tenant, internationalised systems
- Knowledge or experience of architecting for compliance with ISO 27001, SOC 2, and PCI-DSS frameworks
- Practical experience of applying Team Topologies and Conway's Law as part of architecture practice
- Background in modernising large monolithic platforms under commercial constraints
- Knowledge of fraud‑management, revenue‑management, and financial architecture domains
- Familiarity with secure‑by‑design frameworks and regulated-cloud standards
- Experience contributing to or establishing enterprise architecture functions
- Exposure to multi-cloud or hybrid integration environments
- Experience with modern data product architectures, data meshes, and reverse ETL
- Prior consulting experience delivering complex transformation programmes
Behaviours:
- An open and genuine communicator
- Able to take responsibility for your actions
- Always learning and wanting to improve
- Takes responsibility for own development
- Love what you do
- Value and support your team
- Embrace who you are
- Open minded and willing to explore new ideas
What We Offer:
We value our team and to attract exceptional people, we offer an excellent package! In 2023, 2024 and 2025 we were recognised as one of the Best Workplaces in Tech by Great Place To Work UK, the global authority on workplace culture. As a Leighton employee you can look forward to:
- A competitive salary this will be dependent on experience.
- A contributory pension scheme
- Private healthcare
- 25 days annual leave, plus bank holidays and the opportunity to buy or sell holiday
- A flexible approach to working hours
- Continuous personal development, career path and training
- And more....
Principal Solutions Architect - Finance, Data and Platform in Newcastle upon Tyne employer: Leighton
At Leighton, we pride ourselves on being an exceptional employer, offering a dynamic work culture that fosters innovation and collaboration. As a Principal Solutions Architect, you will not only lead transformative projects in finance technology but also benefit from our commitment to employee growth through continuous development opportunities and a flexible working environment. Recognised as one of the Best Workplaces in Tech, we provide competitive salaries, comprehensive benefits, and a supportive atmosphere that values your contributions and encourages you to thrive.
StudySmarter Expert Advice🤫
We think this is how you could land Principal Solutions Architect - Finance, Data and Platform in Newcastle upon Tyne
✨Tip Number 1
Network like a pro! Get out there and connect with folks in the finance and tech space. Attend meetups, webinars, or industry events. You never know who might have the inside scoop on job openings or can put in a good word for you.
✨Tip Number 2
Show off your expertise! When you get the chance to chat with potential employers, don’t hold back on sharing your knowledge about cloud architecture, financial systems, or integration patterns. This is your time to shine and demonstrate why you're the perfect fit for the role.
✨Tip Number 3
Prepare for those interviews! Research the company’s current finance platform and think about how you can contribute to their modernisation efforts. Bring examples of your past work that align with their needs, especially around AWS and compliance frameworks.
✨Tip Number 4
Don’t forget to apply through our website! It’s the best way to ensure your application gets seen by the right people. Plus, we love seeing candidates who are proactive and engaged with our brand.
We think you need these skills to ace Principal Solutions Architect - Finance, Data and Platform in Newcastle upon Tyne
Some tips for your application 🫡
Tailor Your Application:Make sure to customise your CV and cover letter to highlight your experience in finance platforms and cloud architecture. We want to see how your skills align with the role, so don’t hold back on showcasing your relevant projects!
Showcase Your Leadership Skills:As a Principal Solutions Architect, you'll be guiding teams and influencing stakeholders. Use your application to demonstrate your leadership experience and how you've successfully navigated complex projects in the past.
Be Clear and Concise:When writing your application, keep it straightforward. We appreciate clarity, so avoid jargon unless it's necessary. Make sure your key achievements stand out and are easy to spot!
Apply Through Our Website:We encourage you to apply directly through our website. It’s the best way for us to receive your application and ensures you’re considered for this exciting opportunity. Plus, it’s super easy!
How to prepare for a job interview at Leighton
✨Know Your Architecture Inside Out
Make sure you have a solid grasp of the architectural principles relevant to finance platforms. Brush up on cloud-native architectures, especially AWS, and be ready to discuss how you've applied these in past projects. This will show your depth of knowledge and ability to lead architectural discussions.
✨Showcase Your Stakeholder Management Skills
Prepare examples that highlight your experience in engaging with various stakeholders. Think about times when you influenced decisions or navigated complex organisational dynamics. This is crucial for a role that requires collaboration across finance, technology, and product teams.
✨Demonstrate Your Hands-On Experience
While leadership is key, don’t forget to showcase your hands-on skills. Be ready to discuss specific technologies like React, Snowflake, and Terraform, and how you've used them in real-world scenarios. This balance of strategic and practical knowledge will set you apart.
✨Prepare for Technical Governance Questions
Expect questions around governance models and architectural standards. Think about how you've established guardrails in previous roles and be prepared to discuss your approach to managing architectural risk and decision trade-offs. This will demonstrate your capability to guide teams effectively.
