Solution Architect - Fintech

N Brown – who we are and why work for us?

At N Brown, we’re committed to building a diverse workforce and creating an inclusive environment that values equality for all. Our vision is that by ‘championing inclusion, we’ll become the most loved and trusted fashion retailer’. Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging are, therefore, at the heart of our culture.

We’re a forward-thinking digital retailer with a financial services proposition to be proud of. We’re customer-obsessed, serving them through three core brands: JD Williams, Simply Be, and Jacamo. We’re experienced, with over 160 years of trading under our belt. We’re inclusive, as we believe in fashion without boundaries; and we’re sustainable, striving to make as little impact on the planet as possible.

The Role

We’re looking for a passionate and experienced Solutions Architect with a proven track record of commercial delivery of technology value to join a new ‘start-up’ division within N Brown. As a member of the Castle project team, you’ll be at the heart of a unique and exciting venture to assemble a new financial services platform. With a background in technology disruption or financial services (preferably retail credit), you’ll leverage your industry knowledge to design and architect key solutions for the platform. Operating like an independent start-up, within an established organisation, you’ll be completely at home with agile frameworks and will fully embrace iterative and flexible delivery approaches. 

What type of person are we looking for?

• Driven by boundless curiosity and experimentally minded, always starting with ‘why?’.
• Tenacious and persistent, willing to go above and beyond to deliver great outcomes.
• Focused and decisive, able to ruthlessly prioritise to stay on track.
• Energised by collaboration and a champion of radical candour.
• Work hard whilst maintain our sense of humour, and don't take ourselves too seriously.
• Have a start-up attitude to getting stuff done.

What will you do as a Solutions Architect at N Brown?

• Develop and articulate current state physical and logical architectures.
• Evangelise the adoption of future state technology architectures becoming the authority in this space.
• Work with the Product teams to coordinate the assessment of new technologies and how they can be effectively introduced to the enterprise.
• Work closely with stakeholders across functions, becoming a strong partner to the business and influencing outcomes from ideation through to implementation.
• Cultivate relationships with all levels of technical stakeholder to ensure architectural governance is applied in a uniform fashion.
• Influence technology direction and strategy.
• Govern system designs to ensure that appropriate patterns and standards are applied effectively.
• Question the status-quo to drive better outcomes across the enterprise.
• Work with the rest of the Architecture community and business stakeholders to build transformation roadmaps.
• Participate in the creation of RFI/RFP documentation and assessment of bid responses from external technology vendors.
• Represent the wider Castle function.
• Work with IT stakeholders and contribute the evolution and delivery of our IT strategy.

What skills and experience will you have?

• Excellent communication skills and a proven ability to influence outcomes – strong interpersonal skills are essential.
• Proven experience in an architecture role within a Financial Services environment
• An understanding of the end-to-end Credit process, with a particular focus on E-Commerce
• Practical experience of governing solutions in an architecture function.
• Flexibility and a desire to learn.
• Awareness of IT industry trends and being vendor and technology neutral to enable best-fit solutions to be found.
• The ability to plan and rationalise project goals working from limited information and ending in a holistic design.
• Decisiveness – be capable of presenting proposed solutions with confidence, providing clear guidance for outcomes.

Desirable: 

• Experience with AWS, preferably holding or working towards AWS Certified Solution Architect certification.
• Experience with performing a Solution Architecture role during large scale transformation programmes.
• Experience of business activity around areas such as financial, commercial, procurement, human resources, security, and logistics operating models. 
• A broad understanding of current techniques and tooling including API-first design, Cloud Native, Containerisation and PaaS on AWS, Azure or GCP. 
• Experience of working with Product or Agile teams at the same time, effectively governing architectural designs to enable continuous delivery. 

What’s in it for you?

• Hybrid working and flexible start times  
• 24 days holiday (+ 8 bank holidays) with the option to buy an additional 10 days
• Annual bonus scheme
• Enhanced maternity and adoption leave
• Company pension with up to 8% N Brown contribution
• Mental Health support both internally and externally, including access to our wellbeing champions and counselling services
• A range of financial wellbeing support
• Colleague discount across all N Brown brands
• Onsite café with subsidised rates and local restaurant discounts!
• Life Assurance and Private Medical Insurance
• Paid volunteer time – all our colleagues can take a full day paid to volunteer for a charity of their choice

Ways of Working

We offer hybrid working which varies across the business depending on the role you’re in. For this role, the expectation would be 1 day every other week (usually a Monday). Our Head Office is located in the Northern Quarter in Manchester City Centre. So if you are travelling by train, tram or bus we’re perfectly located, plus we’re surrounded by cool cafes, trendy bars and the best places to eat!

Our working hours are 36.17 per week and our core working hours are between 10am - 4pm. Given we don’t have strict working hours you can find the working pattern that’s right for you.

Our promise to you:

We’re an equal opportunity employer and value diversity. We do not discriminate based on race, religion, colour, national origin, sex, gender, gender expression, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.

What happens when you apply to a role at N Brown?

As soon as we receive your application, we’ll send you an email to let you know. We always aim to come back to you as soon as possible with an update and we really appreciate you taking the time to apply for a role with us. Good luck!