Solution Architect – Payments Migration

Solution Architect – Payments Migration

Overview
We are seeking a hands-on Solution Architect with deep payments scheme experience to lead data architecture across mainframe and target platforms. This role focuses on pragmatic delivery within live, high-risk payments environments—not generic architecture design.

Key Responsibilities

• Own payments data architecture across legacy and target platforms
• Define data mappings, extraction approaches, and migration controls
• Design and support safe, controlled payments migrations with minimal live risk

Required Experience

• Senior-level leadership in payments migration within PMI programmes
• Deep UK payments scheme expertise: BACS, Faster Payments (FPS)
• Strong international payments experience: SWIFT, SEPA
• Hands-on architecture and design in core payments processing environments
• Direct experience with scheme integration, migration, and transformation initiatives

Risk, Controls & Regulation

• Proven experience in payments risk, controls, and regulatory assurance
• Familiarity with CASS and CISA-aligned control or assurance frameworks

Data Engineering (Critical)

• Hands-on payments data migration in banking environments
• Strong mainframe data expertise, including IBM DB2:
  • Indexing, partitioning, clustering, archiving
  • Query optimisation in high-volume systems
• Safe data extraction without impacting live payment processing
• Data mapping, lineage, reconciliation, and validation

Technical Environment

• Mainframe-integrated architectures
• Messaging and translation layers (e.g. MQ, MT/MX)

Delivery & Working Style

• Operates independently in ambiguous, constrained legacy environments
• Able to reconcile documented vs actual system behaviour
• Proactively identifies and escalates risks early
• Clear communicator with SMEs, engineering, delivery, and operations teams