OUP’s application portfolio includes digital customer‑facing systems, content and data platforms, ecommerce services, learning and assessment solutions, online journals, and research tools. Within this broader portfolio, the Academic Division depends on a focused set of platforms supporting journals and research publishing, CMS‑driven content production, Higher Education learning, ebook and assessment delivery, interoperability services, dictionary products, and language data applications. Together, these platforms form the Academic Product Technology portfolio and provide the core capabilities required to operate and evolve Academic’s publishing products.
The Solution Architect is the lead architect for Academic Product Technology, providing technical design leadership to ensure platforms and integrations are cohesive, scalable, and aligned with OUP’s and the Academic Division’s technology strategy. The role works closely with Enterprise Architects and collaborates with other Solution Architects across key capability areas to shape high‑quality, end‑to‑end solution designs for complex, multi‑system and multi‑partner implementations. The Solution Architect also provides leadership and mentoring to Application Architects across the wider Academic Product Technology team.
The role delivers value by translating requirements into clear solution approaches, shaping and documenting architectural designs, guiding implementation and testing, and ensuring adherence to architectural standards and patterns. Acting with primary architectural accountability across assigned domains, the Solution Architect aligns teams around shared principles, supports delivery excellence, and ensures solutions meet expectations for performance, security, and long‑term maintainability, enabling the continued evolution of Academic’s digital products.
Where there is no Application Architect for a capability area, the Solution Architect will take a hands‑on role. This applies to Author Services in Journals (e.g. Swift) and Learning Services in Higher Education (e.g. Oxford Learning Link and Interoperability Web Services).
We operate a hybrid working policy that requires a minimum of 2 days per week in the Oxford office.
About You
To be successful in this role, you will ideally have/be:
- Experience in technically leading development teams, acting as the technical authority, guiding and coaching development team members
- Experience in working with Scrum, Kanban and Scaled Agile methodologies
- Experience in shaping, advising on, and delivering solutions to required quality within agreed budget and timescales
- Deep domain knowledge and experience
- Experience operating as a Solution or Application Architect in a complex global organisation
- A deep understanding of technology and how it can be both developed and used to meet business requirements
- Experience in delivering solutions within a customer facing product delivery environment
- Knowledge of Enterprise Architecture principles
- Experience of cloud-based technologies, especially AWS
- Overall knowledge of application capabilities, integration, data design methodologies and industry best practices
We care about work/life balance here at OUP. With this in mind we offer 25 days’ holiday that rises with service, plus bank holidays and Christmas closure (3-days) and a 35-hour working week. We are open to discussing flexibility in respect to working patterns, dependent on role. We also have a great variety of active employee networks and societies.
We help make your money go further by contributing to your pension up to 12%, offering loans and savings schemes through our partnership with Salary Finance, in addition to travel to work schemes and access to a wide range of local discounts.
This role comes with the added benefit of private medical insurance and a management bonus.
Please see our Rewards and Recognition page for more information.
We are committed to supporting diversity in our workforce, and ensuring an inclusive environment where all individuals can thrive. We seek to employ a workforce representative of the markets that we serve and encourage applications from all.
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