Solution Architect

A leading London Market insurance business has an exciting opportunity for a Solution Architect to join a growing UK & Bermuda Architecture team and be responsible for translating business vision and requirements into solution architecture and designs for new transformative technology solutions. 

This role also needs to work closely with other Architects within the team, as well as IT, Change Management, third party suppliers and business stakeholders to ensure alignment between individual solutions and the broader business and technology context. 

Key Responsibilities

• Lead on architectural design of new technology solutions, ensuring that the design aligns with the overall  architecture vision, meets all business requirements, including NFRs, and maintains a focus on security, quality and technology risk management.
• Recommend solution options as a result of initial scoping, feasibility analysis or development of Proof-of-Concepts as appropriate.
• Author or oversee production of solution architecture documentation ensuring it is comprehensive, clear and maintained.
• Participate in vendor or product selection (RFI/RFP) processes, providing technical input and solution due diligence of proposals
• Present solution designs at the Technical Design Authority and take ownership of resulting actions and recommendations.
• Support the Enterprise Architecture team with the continuous development of technical standards and best practices, leveraging industry standards to continually improve processes and techniques.
• Provide technical consultation to project delivery teams (internal and external) throughout the delivery lifecycle.
• Provide initial estimates where required for technical work, or validate estimates where provided by 3rd parties.
• Work collaboratively with IT Application and Infrastructure teams to ensure that technical dependencies between new and existing solutions are identified and planned for.
• Proactively keep up to date with latest developments in both the technology and business domains to identify opportunities.

Essential Skills / Experience

• 3-5 years’ experience as a Solution Architect or similar technical solution design role in a regulated industry (preferably Financial Services) having designed scalable, resilient and secure solutions.
• Evidence of working within of the global (re)insurance and/or Lloyd’s or London specialty insurance markets.
• Knowledge of common enterprise application and integration design patterns, exposure to and experience working with structured architecture approaches (e.g. TOGAF, Zachman).
• Experience with enterprise application integration strategies and related technologies (e.g. Azure Integration Services, Mulesoft or Boomi).
• Good knowledge of and evidence of exploiting at least one major Cloud platform for the delivery of cloud-native solutions (e.g. Azure, AWS or GCP).
• Experience working across the software development lifecycle using both Agile and Waterfall delivery methodologies.
• Thorough knowledge and understanding of development best practices, continuous integration, and automated deployment processes.
• Ability to build good relationships with internal and external stakeholders and colleagues.
• Strong problem-solving skills with an ability to apply knowledge of best practices and a structured approach to analysis to solve challenges.
• Strong written and verbal communication, presentation and technical writing skills.
• Experience and knowledge of (re)insurance specific business applications such as Policy Administration System suites, Quote & Bind Portals, Claims Management systems.
• Experience and knowledge of Microsoft enterprise technologies (e.g. Microsoft Power Platform products such as Power BI, Power Automate and Power Apps).
• Commercial development experience using C#, .NET Core, and SQL in an enterprise context
• Experience or knowledge of:
• REST APIsService Oriented ArchitectureEvent Driven ArchitecturesMicroservice-based/API-centric architecturesTDD, BDD, Unit Testing
• Experience with data modelling principles, methods and tools for designing relational or non-relational schemas.
• Technical education or recognized industry certifications are also desirable.