Senior Solution Architect

Senior Solution Architect

Department: Tech Services

Employment Type: Permanent - Full Time

Location: Bristol, UK

Reporting To: David Rocke

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 are looking for a Senior Solutions Architect to provide technical leadership, architectural direction, and assurance on behalf of our customer. This is a client‑side role, working alongside a Data Architect and Delivery Manager to govern and assure the delivery of a supplier‑led capability.

You will operate at an enterprise level, shaping solution direction, assuring technical quality, and ensuring that delivered systems integrate effectively across the customer estate. You will provide authoritative technical guidance, resolve complex architectural challenges, and ensure long‑term coherence across platforms, services, and hosting environments.

This role balances delivery support with governance, providing independent challenge to the delivery partner while enabling progress and maintaining alignment with customer objectives.

This role is hybrid, 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 here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/united-kingdom-security-vetting-clearance-levels

Key areas of responsibility

• Provide senior architectural oversight and assurance of solution designs.
• Hold the delivery partner to account for technical decisions, ensuring alignment with agreed architectural principles, standards, and integration requirements.
• Provide authoritative technical guidance on hosting, access, and design documentation to ensure interoperability and effective integration across the customer environment.
• Support delivery by engaging with a broad range of customer stakeholders, providing clear technical direction and resolving complex architectural issues.
• Lead technical governance and assurance across both design and live service, ensuring architectural integrity over time.
• Investigate and assess hosting options across the customer landscape, understanding constraints, capabilities, and trade‑offs.
• Interpret user requirements and translate them into coherent architectural solutions that balance performance, risk, and delivery constraints.
• Evaluate technologies and solutions across the wider customer environment, recommending appropriate architectural patterns and approaches.
• Identify, assess, and manage technical risks, ensuring they are clearly understood, communicated, and mitigated.
• Support the development and operation of governance frameworks, standards, and assurance artefacts to enable consistent and repeatable delivery.

Key skills, experience and behaviours

We are looking for a senior architect who can set direction, provide authoritative technical leadership, and operate confidently at enterprise level across complex and evolving environments.

Essential skills and experience

• Demonstrable experience operating as a Senior Solutions Architect or equivalent in complex, multi‑stakeholder environments.
• Proven ability to lead architectural assurance and governance across supplier‑delivered systems.
• Broad technical understanding across hosting, integration, networking, and service architecture.
• Experience translating user needs into coherent architectural solutions.
• Ability to operate at enterprise level, influencing senior stakeholders and setting technical direction.
• Experience identifying and managing technical risks across the lifecycle.
• Strong communication skills, able to clearly articulate complex technical concepts, risks, and trade‑offs.

Desirable (not essential)

• Experience working in secure, regulated, or government environments.
• SFIA Level 6 capability in Architecture or Solution Design.
• Experience operating in a client‑side assurance or governance role.
• Familiarity with service governance and live service assurance models.
• Experience working alongside data, security, or platform architects.
• Knowledge of common architecture frameworks and patterns used in large‑scale systems.

About you

• You are confident setting technical direction and making decisions that shape long‑term outcomes.
• You bring clarity and structure to complex problems, helping teams move forward with confidence.
• You challenge constructively and are comfortable holding suppliers to account while maintaining strong working relationships.
• You understand how systems operate end‑to‑end, and consider integration, failure modes, and operational impact in your decisions.
• You balance governance with delivery, ensuring that standards are upheld without slowing progress unnecessarily.

Working at Rowden

We are committed to building a flexible, inclusive, and enabling company. Our aim is to create a diverse team of talented people with unique skills, experience, and backgrounds, so please apply and come as you are!

We also recognise the importance of flexible working and support this wherever we can. We typically operate a flexible, hybrid‑working model, with an average 3 days in the office each week (dependent on the role). We welcome the opportunity to discuss flexibility, part‑time working requirements and/or workplace adjustments with all our applicants.

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 that we can make sure you have everything you need up front to help make the recruitment process and experience as easy as possible.

Finally, if you feel that you don’t meet all the criteria included above but have transferable skills and relevant experience, we’d still love to hear from you!

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