Solutions Architect

Admiral Financial Services (AFSL) is an exciting, new divison of Admiral Group based in the the centre of Cardiff. We have the freedom and innovation of a small start up with the security of a large parent company, Admiral.

The journey started when we launched unsecured personal loans in June 2017. We went on to be the first direct to consumer car finance provider in December 2017. Since then, we have gone from strength to strength and have some really exciting plans for the future!

We’re looking for people who are keen to learn, excited about getting stuck in and are ready for a challenge to help us to achieve our aim of creating a special lending business for our customers.

As a business it is important to us that our staff are transparent, creative and curious whilst being actively involved in our culture.

The Role

As a Solutions Architect you will work across a variety of business areas to guide technical initiatives from their inception through to their implementation and contribute to the overall technical strategy of the company.

You are an experienced technologist with a strong track record of building software solutions. You are comfortable leading a team in a design session, working through implementations with engineers and presenting to senior managers. You are a technology leader and think strategically about solving business problems. You have a strong and varied set of technical skills and know how to use them to make a positive impact within a company.

Responsibilities

• Build strong relationships across all business areas and translate concepts so that they can be understood by everybody
• Help to build business requirements and translate those requirements into a solution that aligns with our technology strategy and legal and regulatory responsibilities
• Take a leading role in the evolution of our technical architecture
• Act as a technical authority for any initiatives you are responsible for
• Act as a technical authority and provide governance and oversight over technical implementations
• Keep up to date with relevant developments in technology
• Produce documentation of a high-quality and to enough detail to enable decisions or drive delivery
• Use trials or POCs to prove or discount elements of your designs

Requirements

• Proven track record of designing cloud native solutions
• Experience of Agile / Scrum methodologies
• Experience in at least one high level programming language and a background in application development
• Ability to identify options and balance trade-offs in the pursuit of optimal solutions
• An understanding of how to identify and mitigate security threats in technical designs
• Excellent document production skills – design documents and architecture diagrams
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills

Desirable

• AWS design, implementation and support experience
• Relevant AWS certifications
• Experience of working in financial services sector
• Proven experience of being accountable for the delivery of complex systems
• Knowledge and understanding of the AWS Well Architected Framework
• Experience of implementing low/no-code systems such as BPM tools and ability to balance the trade-offs of using them

Technologies

Our technology stack makes use of:

• Amazon Web Services (including EKS, ECS, API Gateway, Lambda, Kinesis, RDS)
• Kubernetes
• Docker
• Go, Python, Javascript
• AngularJS
• MySQL, MongoDB
• Terraform

This role would suit existing architects or developers in a lead role who would like to move into more of a solutions space.

​The Team:

You will report to the Chief Architect but your role is one that requires a high degree of collaboration across other areas such as Product Engineering, DevOps, Data and Infosec.

The Rewards

• Flexible working options
• 28 days holiday (including bank holidays)

About Admiral

We're Wales’ only FTSE 100 company. We have forward-thinking approaches and provide endless opportunities to test, learn and grow. There's a reason we've been named a Best Place to Work: our progressive culture, core values, and commitment to diversity and inclusion have created a working environment where people share ideas, aren’t afraid to speak up and change things, and above all, feel valued.

Admiral has grown from being a small start-up into a multi-national organisation. The company is constantly investigating new products, services and markets and is now present in eight countries with a diverse product portfolio.

Our success goes hand-in-hand with having a strong culture where we put our people and customers first. Our philosophy is simple yet effective: people who like what they do, do it better, and this, in turn, means that our customers receive the level of service and products that they deserve. Our culture is honest, open and wholeheartedly focused on four key areas:

Communication, Equality, Reward & Recognition, and Fun.

Salary, Benefits and Work-Life Balance

We do not have a set salary for this position, as it will be dependent on the successful candidate’s experience. We are happy to see CVs from all candidates who meet the requirements and will be happy to discuss the remuneration package.

At Admiral, we are proud to be a diverse business where we put our people and customers first. We have great benefits to ensure employees have a great work-life balance; it's one of the reasons why we're consistently voted one of the Sunday Times’ Best Big Companies to work for in the UK.

We want you to have an element of freedom to define a working lifestyle that supports this, so accommodate flexible hours wherever possible.

You can also view some of our other key benefits here; https://admiraljobs.co.uk/employee-benefits/.

If you think this role is for you and would like to be considered for this opportunity, please click “apply now” to complete an online application form.

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