Project description
We are a global systems integration company delivering technology and transformation services to banks and financial institutions. Building on our established core banking practice, we are expanding our capability around Thought Machine Vault Core, the cloud-native core banking platform.
This is a dual-mandate role. In the near term, you will act as the lead Solution Architect on a client programme implementing Thought Machine, owning the end-to-end technical solution. In parallel, you will play a central part in building our Thought Machine capability — contributing to pre-sales, developing reusable assets and accelerators, and growing the skills of the wider team through training and mentoring.
You will be a hands-on, credible technical authority who can operate equally well in a delivery context, a sales conversation, and an internal capability-building setting.
Responsibilities
- Delivery
- Own the end-to-end solution architecture for the Thought Machine implementation, from high-level design through to detailed technical design.
- Design product models (Smart Contracts), ledger structures, and the configuration approach within Vault Core.
- Define the integration architecture between Thought Machine and surrounding systems (payments, channels, cards, data platforms, regulatory and reporting) using APIs and streaming/event-based patterns.
- Guide data migration strategy and non-functional design (performance, scalability, resilience, security).
- Provide technical leadership and governance to the delivery team; review designs, resolve technical risks and issues, and ensure solution integrity.
- Act as the senior technical point of contact for the client, translating business requirements into robust, deployable solutions.
Capability Development
- Help build and scale the firm's Thought Machine practice — defining reference architectures, accelerators, delivery assets, and best practices.
- Support the growth of internal talent through training, mentoring, and knowledge-sharing (including contribution to a Thought Machine training academy / enablement programme).
- Establish and promote architecture standards, patterns, and reusable artefacts across projects.
Pre-Sales
- Support business development and pre-sales activity: solution shaping, estimation, proposals, and client presentations.
- Contribute to responses to RFIs/RFPs and participate in client workshops and demonstrations.
- Act as a subject-matter expert, representing the firm's Thought Machine credentials to prospective clients.
Cross-Project
- Provide solution architecture oversight across multiple concurrent Thought Machine engagements as the practice grows.
SKILLS
Must have
- - Proven experience as a Solution Architect / Technical Architect in core banking or financial services systems integration.
- Hands-on experience with Thought Machine Vault Core — including Smart Contracts, the data model, and the platform's API/integration model.
- Strong understanding of retail and/or corporate banking products (deposits, lending, current accounts, interest and fee structures).
- Deep expertise in integration architecture — RESTful APIs, event-driven/streaming patterns (e.g. Kafka), and microservices.
- Experience designing and deploying solutions on cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, or Azure), including containerisation (Docker, Kubernetes).
- Experience leading core banking migration or implementation programmes.
- Strong grasp of non-functional requirements — scalability, performance, resilience, and security — in a regulated banking environment.
- Excellent client-facing and communication skills, able to engage both technical and executive stakeholders.
- Ability to work across delivery, pre-sales, and capability-building activities simultaneously.
Nice to have
- Experience with Temenos or other core banking platforms (e.g. Finastra, Mambu).
- Thought Machine certification or formal accreditation.
- Experience in a **systems integrator or consultancy** environment.
- Background in **pre-sales / bid work** and solution estimation.
- Experience building or scaling a practice/capability, including developing training material and mentoring.
- Knowledge of payments ecosystems and real-time payment schemes.
- Familiarity with DevOps / CI-CD tooling and infrastructure-as-code.
- Relevant cloud certifications (AWS/GCP/Azure architect-level).