Payments Solutions Architect - Payments & Treasury - London

Payments Solutions Architect - Payments & Treasury - London Rate: £700 - £1000 per day Location: London or Brussels Contract: 12 months Working Model: Hybrid - approximately 8 days per month onsite Travel: Occasional travel between London and Brussels, approximately once every 6 weeks

The Opportunity

We are looking for a Senior Cash & Banking Architect to join a major financial services organisation and support the modernisation of its Cash & Banking technology landscape. This is a senior architecture role sitting at the intersection of payments, cash management, treasury and technology architecture. You will help shape the future architecture of business-critical banking platforms while working across both modern and legacy technology environments. We are particularly interested in candidates with strong experience in payments and cross-border payments, who understand the end-to-end payment lifecycle and can translate complex business requirements into scalable technology solutions. You do not need previous experience within this organisation or detailed knowledge of its existing cash platforms. A strong foundation in payments, banking and architecture is the priority.

Key Responsibilities

• Define and shape architecture across cash, payments and treasury platforms.
• Support the modernisation of existing banking and payment systems.
• Provide architecture expertise across the end-to-end payment lifecycle, including payment initiation, processing, clearing and settlement.
• Design solutions using event-driven architectures, APIs and microservices.
• Define integration patterns across multiple platforms and technology environments.
• Work with both modern platforms and established/legacy banking systems.
• Support the evolution from legacy messaging and integration approaches towards modern standards and architectures.
• Lead architecture workshops and working sessions with business and technology stakeholders.
• Evaluate solution options, architectural trade-offs, dependencies and risks.
• Present and defend architecture recommendations to senior stakeholders.
• Work collaboratively with engineering teams, business teams, product owners and other architects.

What We're Looking For Payments & Banking

• Strong experience within the payments domain.
• Good understanding of cross-border/international payments.
• Understanding of the complete payment lifecycle through to clearing and settlement.
• Experience with SWIFT messaging.
• Knowledge of ISO 20022 and modern payment messaging standards.
• Familiarity with legacy SWIFT MT messaging alongside newer MX/ISO 20022 standards.
• Knowledge of cash management and/or treasury concepts.
• Experience gained within banking, financial-market infrastructure, clearing, settlement or a relevant financial-services consultancy.

Architecture

• Significant experience as a Solution Architect, Domain Architect, Enterprise Architect or Payments Architect.
• Strong understanding of event-driven architecture.
• Experience designing API and microservices-based architectures.
• Strong enterprise integration knowledge.
• Experience working across complex, highly integrated technology landscapes.
• Understanding of integration between mainframe and open-system environments would be advantageous but is not essential.
• Experience modernising legacy banking or payments platforms would be highly desirable.

Leadership & Stakeholder Management

This is not simply a technical design position. We are looking for an architect who is comfortable operating at a senior level and influencing important technology decisions. You should be able to:

• Lead architecture and solution-design workshops.
• Facilitate discussions between business and technology teams.
• Clearly explain complex architecture decisions.
• Challenge existing approaches constructively.
• Respond confidently when your proposed architecture is challenged.
• Explain the assumptions, risks and trade-offs behind your recommendations.
• Adapt your approach as new information becomes available.

Ideal Background

• Relevant candidates may currently be working within: Corporate or Transaction Banking Payments Cash Management Treasury Technology Financial Market Infrastructure Clearing & Settlement Post-Trade Technology Banking / Payments Transformation Financial Services Consulting
• Previous experience within a CSD or financial-market infrastructure organisation would be valuable, but is not a prerequisite.

Rates depend on experience and client requirements