Card Solutions Architect - Contract Role - Sheffield

Salary: £69,000 - 109,000 per year

Requirements:

• 15 years of experience in software engineering and solution architecture, with a strong focus on banking and payments systems
• Deep domain knowledge of card processing systems (e.g., authorization, clearing, settlement, dispute management)
• Proven experience designing high-throughput, low-latency transactional systems
• Experience operating within large-scale, matrixed enterprise environments
• Strong background in cloud-native architecture (AWS, Azure, or GCP), including relevant certifications
• Demonstrated ability to handle complex, ambiguous technical problems and translate them into structured solutions
• Strong stakeholder engagement across business, engineering, and infrastructure teams
• Technical Skills in Architecture & Design: Microservices, event-driven architecture, domain-driven design (DDD), layered architecture
• Integration expertise with RESTful APIs, OpenAPI specs, messaging systems (Kafka, MQ), asynchronous processing
• Familiarity with Cloud & Infrastructure: Cloud-native design, containerization (Docker, Kubernetes), CI/CD pipelines
• Knowledge of Data Management: Distributed data systems, RDBMS/NoSQL, data modeling, data consistency patterns
• Understanding of Security: Secure-by-design principles, IAM, encryption, threat modeling, regulatory compliance
• Skills in Resilience: High availability, fault tolerance, disaster recovery, observability (logging, monitoring, tracing)
• Experience designing across channels: web, mobile, API gateways, and backend orchestration layers
• Exposure to legacy integration with mainframe systems (desirable but not essential)
• Strong focus on cybersecurity and secure architecture practices
• Ability to mentor engineers and architects, driving technical best practices and governance
• Comfortable working across global teams with distributed stakeholders

Responsibilities:

• Own and deliver end-to-end solution architecture for card-based systems, ensuring alignment with enterprise architecture principles and platform roadmaps
• Translate business requirements (BRDs) into solution designs, decomposing into MVPs, epics, and detailed technical stories
• Design and implement scalable, resilient, and secure architectures across distributed systems
• Define integration patterns (REST APIs, messaging, event-driven architecture) across internal platforms and external partners
• Provide hands-on architectural leadership to engineering teams, ensuring design consistency and adherence to standards
• Govern solutions through architecture review boards, ensuring compliance with security, data, and infrastructure standards
• Identify and mitigate technical risks, including performance, scalability, and security concerns
• Collaborate with vendors and third parties to define interoperability models and integration contracts
• Contribute to technology strategy, including cloud adoption, modernization, and legacy transformation initiatives
• Promote adoption of modern engineering practices including microservices, API-first design, and domain-driven design

Technologies:

• API
• AWS
• Azure
• Backend
• CI/CD
• Cloud
• DDD
• Docker
• GCP
• IAM
• Kafka
• Kubernetes
• Mobile
• NoSQL
• OpenAPI
• REST
• Security
• Web
• microservices
• Architect

More:

We are seeking two highly experienced Senior Solution Architects with deep expertise in card processing platforms to drive architecture and design across a large-scale commercial cards ecosystem. Our team values collaboration and innovation, and we offer an inclusive environment where your contributions have a significant impact. Join us to advance your career in a dynamic setting and be part of our mission to deliver exceptional solutions.

last updated 39 week of 2026