Solution Architect

End Date

Salary Range

We support flexible working – click here for more information on flexible working options

Flexible Working Options

Job Description Summary

Job Description

Where does the role sit?

We're the API & Digital Services Platform within Lloyds Banking Group and this role sit in one of the labs that make up this platform i.e., the API lab. The API & Digital Services Platform’s vision is to enable smarter API & SOE lead innovation whilst ensuring resilient digital services today.

About this opportunity

Are you passionate about designing the future of our platforms? This is your chance to join our dynamic team and make a huge difference. As a Solution Architect, you'll be a part of projects that enhance our digital presence and improve customer engagement.

Join a collaborative team that champions innovation and continuous improvement. In this role, you’ll design and deliver solutions across our product portfolio, with a strong focus on our API Gateway platform. You’ll also have the chance to mentor peers and support junior engineers, helping to build a culture of learning, growth, and shared success.

Day to day, you'll

• Provide technical systems integration expertise to the API & Digital Lab your Group Transformation colleagues, guiding implementations and coaching colleagues on infrastructure delivery.

• You’ll transform business requirements and specifications into infrastructure designs and explore the delivery options, iterating ideas as you go.

• Strong analytical skills to assess business needs and develop effective solutions

• Ability to understand and model complex systems, recognise patterns, and design scalable and robust architectures

• Background in DevOps and Site Reliability Engineering, with a strong understanding of industry guidelines

• Considering design influences such as capacity, reliability and performance targets, or environment needs to develop and test, you’ll bring the best solution to life.

• Taking the lead in all aspects of infrastructure platform throughout their lifecycle means you could be involved with:

  • Infrastructure build activities with internal or 3rd party service providers

  • Application integration with other labs & feature teams Group Transformation or 3rd party products

  • Supporting testing cycles

• Excellent communication skills to collaborate with partners, explain technical concepts to non-technical audiences

• Finally, you’ll support service resilience tests if applicable and lead resources to address infrastructure defects found over the Warranty Period

It’s a truly collaborative set up where you’ll get to discuss solutions with domain experts to validate solutions and work with Software Engineers to deliver new capabilities to our business.

And beyond the technical elements?

• Provide requirements for cost estimates for the infrastructure change to support budgetary planning.    

• Support demand planning forecasts for internal and 3rd party resources to reduce risk of supply.

So what about your skills and experience?

We’d be looking for varying levels of experience across the following areas:

• Systems integration experience spanning multiple infrastructure technologies (Server, Storage, Network, Database, Application server) in a Design and/or implementation role.

• Experience of private and public Cloud delivery would be desirable.

• Experience of end-to-end project delivery.

• Agile environment experience

• A Systems Thinking qualification or exposure to the methodology and working practices will set your application apart.

• Previous Banking/Finance industry experience will be very useful.

• API Microservice Architecture knowledge, skills & Experience

• IBM Datapower and IBM API Connect knowledge & experience

Desirable, but not essential skills:

• Experience in building CI/CD pipelines to deliver changes incrementally to production

• Experienced in day-to-day administration of Deploy and Release activities

• Exposure and/or Experience with cloud technologies Google Cloud Platform (GCP) or others (AWS, ICP/OCP, Azure)

• Containers, Orchestration, and Service Mesh: Experience with Docker, Kubernetes, Istio, etc.

• Interests in different programming languages and technologies

About working for us

Our ambition is to be the leading UK business for diversity, equity and inclusion supporting our customers, colleagues and communities and we’re committed to creating an environment in which everyone can thrive, learn and develop.

We were one of the first major organisations to set goals on diversity in senior roles, create a menopause health package, and a dedicated Working with Cancer Initiative.

We offer reasonable workplace adjustments for colleagues with disabilities, including flexibility in office attendance, location and working patterns. And, as a Disability Confident Leader, we guarantee interviews for a fair and proportionate number of applicants who meet the minimum criteria for the role with a disability, long-term health or neurodivergent condition through the Disability Confident Scheme.

We provide reasonable adjustments throughout the recruitment process to reduce or remove barriers. Just let us know what you need.

We also offer a wide-ranging benefits package, which includes:

• A generous pension contribution of up to 15%

• An annual performance-related bonus

• Share schemes including free shares

• Benefits you can adapt to your lifestyle, such as discounted shopping

• 30 days’ holiday, with bank holidays on top

• A range of wellbeing initiatives and generous parental leave policies

Ready to start growing with purpose? Apply today

At Lloyds Banking Group, we're driven by a clear purpose; to help Britain prosper. Across the Group, our colleagues are focused on making a difference to customers, businesses and communities. With us you'll have a key role to play in shaping the financial services of the future, whilst the scale and reach of our Group means you'll have many opportunities to learn, grow and develop.

We keep your data safe. So, we'll only ever ask you to provide confidential or sensitive information once you have formally been invited along to an interview or accepted a verbal offer to join us which is when we run our background checks.  We'll always explain what we need and why, with any request coming from a trusted Lloyds Banking Group person. 

We're focused on creating a values-led culture and are committed to building a workforce which reflects the diversity of the customers and communities we serve. Together we’re building a truly inclusive workplace where all of our colleagues have the opportunity to make a real difference.