Lead Solution Architect

We're Kingfisher, a team made up of over 74,000 passionate people who bring Kingfisher - and all our other brands: B&Q, Screwfix, Brico Depot, Castorama and Koçtaş - to life. That's right, we're big, but we have ambitions to become even bigger and even better. We want to become the leading home improvement company and grow the largest community of home improvers in the world. And that's where you come in.

At Kingfisher our customers come from all walks of life, and so do we. We want to ensure that all colleagues, future colleagues, and applicants to Kingfisher are treated equally regardless of age, gender, marital or civil partnership status, colour, ethnic or national origin, culture, religious belief, philosophical belief, political opinion, disability, gender identity, gender expression or sexual orientation.

We are open to flexible and agile working; therefore, we offer colleagues a blend of working from home and our offices. This role will require a weekly presence in our Screwfix head office in Yeovil.

Join us as a Lead Solution Architect and play a pivotal role in steering IT solutions to support Screwfix to deliver on their business goals through technology. We're looking for someone with strong experience in retail technology environments, with a deep understanding of how technology supports core retail operations.

Responsibilities

• Architectural Decisions: Steer the architectural decision making within the banner, offering expert guidance to ensure banner decisions are in sync with business and technical requirements, while maintaining compliance with governance steps.
• Strategic Design Collaboration: Collaborate with stakeholders to craft end to end high level designs that mesh with existing systems, achieve business aims, and align to architectural principles.
• Product Selections: Support banner owned product selection processes, providing guidance to support their decision making, ensuring that the most suitable products and technologies are chosen to meet business capability requirements, align with architecture principles and technology strategy.
• Architectural Leadership: Provide architecture leadership and guidance across banner projects, fostering the adoption cloud native technologies and identifying effective architectural patterns.
• Banner Architecture Knowledge: Produce and maintain key Banner Architecture knowledge base and artefacts; conceptual as is / to be and transition state roadmap reflecting business and IT strategies.
• Stakeholder Management: Serve as the chief architectural liaison for Screwfix, ensuring stakeholders are clearly informed and engaged with project direction and outcomes.
• Line Management: Lead and develop Solution Architects aligned to or working on Screwfix activity, guiding their contributions to align with strategic objectives and fostering professional growth.
• Enhancing Architectural Practice: Actively lead the enhancement of the Architecture chapter, innovating and advancing architectural practices and methods.

Qualifications & Skills

• Strong leadership in stakeholder engagement and influence, orchestrating colleague collaboration to support banner led architectural decisions.
• Skilled in clarifying complex technical terms, adeptly presenting sophisticated IT concepts to non technical audiences to support clear understanding and informed decision making.
• Extensive experience architecting integration solutions that span business, data, applications, and technology domains.
• Understands cloud technologies, with a particular emphasis on implementing and cloud native integration patterns.
• Possesses a strategic interest in diverse IT technologies and their impact on business innovation and efficiency.

Behaviours Be Customer Focused - constantly improving our customers' experience

• We listen to our customers and colleagues.
• We innovate products and experiences to stay ahead.

Be Human - leading with purpose, humanity and care

• We do the right thing.
• We invest in our people and build great teams.

Be Curious - thrive on learning, thinking beyond the obvious

• We focus externally, globally and build the long term.
• We experiment and share our learnings.

Be Agile - building trust and empowering people to work with agility

• We act with pace, not perfection, role modeling 80/20.
• We take risks, fail fast and adapt quickly.

Be Inclusive - inspiring diverse teams to achieve together

• We celebrate difference as a strength.
• We collaborate, breaking down silos.

Be Accountable - owning the plan, delivering results and growth

• We focus on performance outcomes.
• We prioritise and simplify for others.

What we offer Private Health Care

Opportunity to receive up to family level cover with AXA. Join within three months of starting or at annual renewal in April. (This benefit is subject to Benefit In Kind taxation).

Kingfisher Pension Scheme

Immediate eligibility through auto enrolment. Contribute 8% to receive a max 14% from the Company.

25 Days' Holiday

25 days per annum plus bank holidays as stated in your contract (pro rated for part time colleagues).

Staff Discount

20% discount at B&Q and Screwfix. Eligible after 3 months service.

Kingfisher Share Incentive Plan (SIP)

Share ownership in a tax efficient way. Save between £10 to £150 per month. Join at any time once three months service is reached.

Life Assurance

x4 Salary plus benefit equal to value of your Retirement Account (if an active member of KPS MP) or x1 Salary if not active member.

Bonus

Competitive bonus scheme that aligns to work level of role.

Kingfisher Share Save

Save with the option to buy Kingfisher plc shares at the end of a 3 or 5 year period. Offered annually. Three months service is required at the annual invitation date, normally in October.

Training & Development

There are so many ways you can grow, learn, and develop here at Kingfisher. At whatever pace suits you.

Conversations with senior leaders Resources and tools to help you grow

Improving without instruments to help you learn is near impossible. That's why we make sure you have everything at your fingertips to find exactly what you need to keep growing.

Initiatives that measure development

With plans that ask you what you want to achieve and when you want to achieve them by, tracking progress and keeping development at the forefront of conversation is easy.

Find your path

The scale of group functions within Kingfisher is huge. That means you have the chance to build different career paths within multiple areas of the organisation.

Sharing is caring

We aren't selfish here at Kingfisher. Whatever your level of experience, you'll work with colleagues who are always welcoming and ready to share their knowledge whenever you need it.

Reach for the stars

So your ambitions are high? Good thing we have opportunities to find experiences in line with more senior roles and responsibilities. Here, you can evolve your career, no matter your level.

Why Kingfisher

We're an innovative, international retailer on a journey to actively make a difference. Always striving to take that next step. You can be part of the difference. From bottom to top you can progress in a collaborative environment. So, why not Kingfisher?

Application Process What to expect from our application process Step 1: Application

Send in your application via our Kingfisher Careers website.

Step 2: Review

A member of the Talent Acquisition team will then review your application let you know if you have progressed to the next stage of the process.

Step 3: Interview 1

You'll then have a telephone interview/one to one conversation with a recruiter.

Step 4: Interview 2

As you progress, you'll be invited to attend a face to face or virtual interview.

Step 5: Feedback

Your recruiter will be in contact with feedback and, if successful, the details of your job offer!

At Kingfisher, we value the perspectives that any new team members bring, and we want to hear from you. We encourage you to apply for one of our roles even if you do not feel you meet 100% of the requirements.

In return, we offer an inclusive environment, where what you can achieve is limited only by your imagination! We encourage new ideas, actively support experimentation, and strive to build an environment where everyone can be their best self. Find out more about Diversity & Inclusion at Kingfisher here!

We also offer a competitive benefits package and plenty of opportunities to stretch and grow your career.

Interested? Great, apply now and help us to Power the Possible.