Solutions Architect
Department: Tech Services
Employment Type: Permanent - Full Time
Location: Bristol, UK
Reporting To: David Rocke
Compensation: £60,000 - £80,000 / year
Description
We’re building the UK's next generation engineering powerhouse, providing critical technology that strengthens national security and resilience. We specialise in turning advances in sensing, AI, and communications into operational capability for the edge, where connectivity may be degraded or denied. Our work focuses on accelerating the deployment of technology, improving decision‑making for frontline teams, and protecting people and critical assets in demanding environments. Headquartered in Bristol, Rowden employs around 160 people and operates over 20,000 square feet of engineering and manufacturing facilities. We have a growing international footprint and are one of Europe’s fastest‑growing engineering businesses.
About the role – We’re looking for an experienced Solutions Architect to join a client‑facing team, providing technical assurance, governance, and architectural oversight for a workstream. This role sits at the heart of technical decision‑making. You will review and assure supplier architecture, guide integration into the customer environment, and ensure that delivered solutions are technically coherent, supportable, and fit for purpose.
Working closely with a Delivery Manager and a Data Architect, you will provide independent technical challenge, support delivery teams, and engage with wider customer stakeholders to assure both design and live service operation. The focus is on governance, interoperability, and long‑term sustainability rather than hands‑on implementation. This role is based in Corsham (one day per week) and Bristol (two days per week).
Candidates must be eligible for SC Clearance. More information about security clearance is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/united-kingdom-security-vetting-clearance-levels.
Key areas of responsibility
- Provide architectural oversight and technical assurance, reviewing and challenging architectural deliverables including High‑Level Designs (HLDs) and Low‑Level Designs (LLDs).
- Hold the delivery partner to account for technical decisions, ensuring designs align with agreed architectural principles, integration constraints, and customer standards.
- Provide architectural guidance on hosting, access, and design documentation to support effective technical integration into the customer network and operational environment.
- Assure interoperability across systems and platforms, including the evaluation of architectural designs for deployment to alternative or evolving hosting environments.
- Support delivery by engaging with customer technical stakeholders, providing clear technical direction, and resolving architectural issues that may impact delivery or live service.
- Provide technical governance and assurance of the live service, ensuring architecture decisions remain valid, documented, and supportable through service operation.
- Evaluate emerging requirements, including new data types or evolving user needs, and assess the impact on existing architecture and delivery approaches.
- Recommend architectural patterns, options, and trade‑offs to support informed decision‑making by the customer.
- Support the establishment and ongoing operation of technical governance, standards, and assurance artefacts as the service and capability evolves.
Key skills, experience and behaviours
We are looking for someone with strong technical judgement and the confidence to operate as an independent architectural authority. You will be comfortable balancing delivery pressures with governance and providing constructive challenge in complex environments.
Essential skills and experience
- Demonstrable experience operating as a Solutions Architect or equivalent role in complex, multi‑stakeholder environments.
- Proven ability to review, assure, and challenge supplier architecture and technical deliverables.
- Strong understanding of system architecture, integration, hosting, and service considerations across the delivery lifecycle.
- Experience providing client‑side technical governance and assurance rather than direct solution delivery.
- Ability to engage credibly with senior technical stakeholders, delivery teams, and suppliers.
- Comfortable operating at pace, managing ambiguity, and supporting evolving requirements.
- Strong written and verbal communication skills, able to articulate architectural decisions, risks, and trade‑offs clearly.
Desirable (not essential)
- Experience working in secure, regulated, or government environments.
- SFIA Level 5 capability in Architecture, Solution Design, or Technical Governance.
- Familiarity with service governance and live service assurance models.
- Experience working alongside data, security, or infrastructure architects.
- Knowledge of common architectural frameworks or patterns used in large‑scale systems.
- Experience supporting delivery assurance on behalf of a customer organisation.
About you
- You are comfortable taking ownership of technical quality and acting as a trusted advisor to your customer.
- You have the confidence to challenge supplier designs constructively and back that challenge with sound technical reasoning.
- You think in systems, considering how components interact, how services operate over time, and how design decisions affect users and operations.
- You are pragmatic and delivery‑focused, recognising when to be precise and when to help teams move forward.
- You value clear governance, good documentation, and repeatable decision‑making, and you enjoy helping to establish structure where it does not yet exist.
Working at Rowden – Diversity and inclusion
Rowden is a Disability Confident Committed company, and we actively encourage people with disabilities and health conditions to apply for our roles. Please let us know your requirements early on so we can ensure we have everything you need to help the recruitment process and experience as easy as possible.
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