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Head of Solution Architecture

Northampton, United Kingdom; Knutsford, United Kingdom

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Key information

Date live: 09/04/2024

Business Area: Customer Digital and Data

Area of Expertise: Technology

Contract: Permanent

Reference Code: JR-0000012172

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It’s happening at Barclays.

Be a part of a place where challenges are measured in billions, qubits and nanoseconds. Build your career in an environment where we’re advancing machine learning, leveraging blockchains, and harnessing FinTech. Working in Barclays technology, you’ll reimagine possibilities: learning and innovating to solve the challenges ahead, delivering for millions of customers.
We are shaping the future of financial technology.
Why not join us and make it happen here?

Where will you be located?

Explore location

Key Accountabilities

  • The primary focus of the role will be the leadership of all solution architecture resources in BB, ownership of the solution architecture practice and all associated transformation work to drive the transformation of the BB Tech estate in support of business objectives.  
  • A significant focus will be to drive adoption of new ways of working, engineering practices and achieve efficient and reliable software development and delivery. 
  • To support the engineering transformation and allow us to pivot to the future workforce plan, this role will be responsible for seamless collaboration with product management and service design, and the development of execution ready requirements to reduce lead times.  
  • The identification and development of technical requirements in support of a modernisation of the BB Tech stack, will significantly reduce the time and effort required to deliver software updates, resulting in faster time to market.
  • Role will be crucial in driving a major shift and transformation of the BB Tech  platforms and ways of working to enable customer obsession and value delivery at pace.

Purpose of the role

To design, develop, and implement solutions to complex business problems, collaborating with stakeholders to understand their needs and requirements, and design and implement solutions that meet those needs and create solutions that balance technology risks against business delivery, driving consistency. 

Accountabilities

  • Design and development of solutions as products that can evolve, meeting business requirements that align with modern software engineering practices and automated delivery tooling. This includes identification and implementation of the technologies and platforms.
  • Targeted design activities that apply an appropriate workload placement strategy and maximise the benefit of cloud capabilities such as elasticity, serverless, containerisation etc.
  • Best practice designs incorporating security principles (such as defence in depth and reduction of blast radius) that meet the Bank’s resiliency expectations.
  • Solutions that appropriately balance risks and controls to deliver the agreed business and technology value.
  • Adoption of standardised solutions where they fit. If no standard solutions fit, feed into their ongoing evolution where appropriate.
  • Fault finding and performance issues support to operational support teams, leveraging available tooling.
  • Solution design impact assessment in terms of risk, capacity and cost impact, inc. estimation of project change and ongoing run costs.
  • Development of the requisite architecture inputs required to comply with the banks governance processes, including design artefacts required for architecture, privacy, security and records management governance processes.

Director Expectations

  • Provide expert advice to senior functional management and committees to influence decisions made outside of own function, offering significant input to function wide strategic initiatives.
  • Manage, coordinate and enable resourcing, budgeting and policy creation for a significant sub-function.
  • Escalates breaches of policies / procedure appropriately.
  • Foster and guide compliance, ensure regulations are observed that relevant processes in place to facilitate adherence.
  • Focus on the external environment, regulators, or advocacy groups to both monitor and influence on behalf of Barclays, when appropriate.
  • Demonstrate extensive knowledge of how the function integrates with the business division / Group to achieve the overall business objectives.
  • Maintain broad and comprehensive knowledge of industry theories and practices within own discipline alongside up-to-date relevant sector / functional knowledge, and insight into external market developments / initiatives.
  • Use interpretative thinking and advanced analytical skills to solve problems and design solutions in often complex/ sensitive situations.
  • Exercise management authority to make significant decisions and certain strategic decisions or recommendations within own area.
  • Negotiate with and influence stakeholders at a senior level both internally and externally.
  • Act as principal contact point for key clients and counterparts in other functions/ businesses divisions.
  • Mandated as a spokesperson for the function and business division.

All Senior Leaders are expected to demonstrate a clear set of leadership behaviours to create an environment for colleagues to thrive and deliver to a consistently excellent standard. The four LEAD behaviours are: L – Listen and be authentic, E – Energise and inspire, A – Align across the enterprise, D – Develop others.

All colleagues will be expected to demonstrate the Barclays Values of Respect, Integrity, Service, Excellence and Stewardship – our moral compass, helping us do what we believe is right. They will also be expected to demonstrate the Barclays Mindset – to Empower, Challenge and Drive – the operating manual for how we behave.

We’re committed to providing a supportive and inclusive culture and environment for you to work in. This environment recognises and supports ways to balance your personal needs, alongside the professional needs of our business. Providing the opportunity for all our employees, globally to work flexibly empowers each of us to work in a way that suits our lives as well as enabling us to better service our customers’ and clients’ needs. Whether you have family commitments or you’re a Carer, or whether you need study time or wish to pursue personal interests, our approach to working flexibly is designed to help you balance your life. If you would like some flexibility then please discuss this with the hiring manager.

We’re a global, vital and highly respected financial organisation with an inspiring Purpose. Operating in 39 countries and employing around 100,000 people across the world, we help communities, individuals and businesses thrive. And we’ve created financial solutions and technology that the world now takes for granted. A career with us can offer incredible variety, depth and breadth of experience, and the chance to learn from some of the best minds in technology and finance.

To find out more about Barclays' strategy please click here.

Barclays offers a diverse, inclusive and engaged culture. A place where people can bring their whole selves to work and be respected for who they are, valued for what they do and celebrated for their contribution to our business and our community.

We are an equal opportunity employer and opposed to discrimination on any grounds. It is the policy of Barclays to ensure equal employment opportunity without discrimination or harassment on the basis of race, colour, creed, religion, national origin, alienage or citizenship status, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, marital or domestic/civil partnership status, disability, veteran status, genetic information, or any other basis protected by law.

Barclays is required by law to confirm that you have the Legal Right to Work in any role that you apply for. If you currently hold a work visa sponsored by Barclays, or you would require sponsorship from Barclays, you must declare this as part of your application. Sponsored visas are role and entity specific and any changes must be reviewed. It is important that you ensure you are working on the correct visa at all times. Failure to accurately disclose your visa status or Legal Right to Work may result in your application or any employment offer being withdrawn at any time.

Who succeeds in
Tech at Barclays?

For a career with us, you need to be prepared to take big steps forward, curious to face the challenges ahead, and driven to focus on the outcomes. We need people with the Barclays mindset to make it happen here.

Qualities we look for:motivator, supporter, connector, driver, communicator, transformer, maker, observer

What you'll get in return

Competitive holiday allowance
Life assurance
Private medical care
Pension contribution

Our technology

Supporting our 48 million customers and clients worldwide takes a lot of forward thinking. It means harnessing technology to support the economy. It means making a difference to people’s lives. And it requires the maintenance and development of a global, technological infrastructure. At Barclays, technology helps us keep transactions moving, manages data, and protects our customers. Join a world where your work creates unique moments of impact. Make it happen here.

This is Barclays Northampton

Northampton is one of our most important UK centres. We’re home to all card and payment services across the Barclays business; we’re also home to Barclaycard. This is a vast operation, with a huge influence and impact on the financial services industry and on the lives of millions of British people.

Unique initiatives to enhance your wellbeing like our colleague allotment, helping to build community through getting closer to nature.

You can experience a wealth of diverse and surprising career paths right here in Northampton, across Barclays UK or even globally.

Our building is environmentally friendly and people-friendly too, with excellent facilities designed to make work a pleasure.

Northampton is the perfect blend of town and country, a growing and thriving centre for business, and a wonderful place to live and work.

This is Barclays Northampton

Northampton is one of our most important UK centres. We’re home to all card and payment services across the Barclays business; we’re also home to Barclaycard. This is a vast operation, with a huge influence and impact on the financial services industry and on the lives of millions of British people.

Focus on wellbeing

Unique initiatives to enhance your wellbeing like our colleague allotment, helping to build community through getting closer to nature.

Big opportunities

You can experience a wealth of diverse and surprising career paths right here in Northampton, across Barclays UK or even globally.

The workplace of the future

Our building is environmentally friendly and people-friendly too, with excellent facilities designed to make work a pleasure.

Discover Northampton

Northampton is the perfect blend of town and country, a growing and thriving centre for business, and a wonderful place to live and work.

Barclays

Working flexibly

We’re committed to providing an inclusive culture and environment, that recognises and supports ways to balance your personal needs, alongside the professionaC8l needs of our business. Providing the opportunity for all our employees globally to work flexibly empowers each of us to work in a way that suits our lives, as well as enabling us to better service our customers’ and clients’ needs.

Our approach to working flexibly is designed to support you to balance your life and to accommodate diverse needs, whilst still allowing us to meet our business needs. If you’d like to request a flexible working arrangement, please discuss this with your hiring manager.

Hybrid working: Our approach to hybrid working ensures there’s the right balance of working alongside colleagues at our onsite locations, as required for each role. For business areas that offer a hybrid working experience, this will be in a structured way, where colleagues work at an onsite location on fixed, ‘anchor’, days of the week. Some roles may require full onsite working. Please discuss the working pattern requirements for the role you are applying for with the hiring manager.

We continue to embed and review our hybrid working environment and remain in a phase of testing and learning. This means that working arrangements could change, with reasonable notice, to align with the needs of our business.

Barclays is built on an international scale.

Our geographic reach, our wide variety of functions, businesses, roles and locations reflect the rich diversity of our worldwide customer base. All of which means we offer incredible variety, depth and breadth of experience. And the chance to learn from a globally diverse mix of colleagues, including some of the very best minds in banking, finance, technology and business. Throughout, we’ll encourage you to embrace mobility, exploring every part of our operations as you build your career.

Find more information

Multicultural ERGs at Barclays

Making an Impact in Tech.

Barclays Mentoring Application

What makes a tech career at Barclays?

Hear from our employees on why they joined and how they're having real-life impact. Tech at phenomenal scale. It's happening here.  

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