Solution Architect - VP

Purpose of the role

To lead the portfolio management team in the delivery of successful projects, while ensuring that portfolio management processes and practices are aligned with controls and governance standards and that projects are aligned with the organisation’s strategic objectives. 

Accountabilities

• Leading of portfolio management team, including setting of portfolio vision, management of portfolio performance, and provision of guidance and support to portfolio analysts.
• Monitoring of portfolio performance, including tracking of project progress, managing budgets, identification of thematic risks and issues, and reporting on portfolio status to senior management.
• Management of portfolio documentation, including aggregation of portfolio book of work, schedules, and budgets, and ensuring that portfolio documentation is up-to-date and accurate.
• Facilitation of portfolio governance, including ensuring that projects are aligned with the organisation’s strategic objectives, aligned with the controls and governance standards and that portfolio thematic risks and issues are managed effectively.
• Managing the portfolio Book of Work outlining the sequence and dependencies of change initiatives, considering factors like resource availability, stakeholder buy-in, and potential risks.
• Facilitation of change management activities, to ensure that change initiatives are successfully implemented and embedded in the organisation.
• Continuous improvement of portfolio management practices, including identification of areas for improvement and implementation of changes to improve portfolio performance.
• Collaboration with stakeholders, including senior management, project teams, and external partners, to ensure that portfolio management practices are aligned with their needs and expectations.
• Development of portfolio management processes that are aligned with controls and governance standards and that support the delivery of successful projects.

Vice President Expectations

• To contribute or set strategy, drive requirements and make recommendations for change. Plan resources, budgets, and policies; manage and maintain policies/ processes; deliver continuous improvements and escalate breaches of policies/procedures..
• If managing a team, they define jobs and responsibilities, planning for the department’s future needs and operations, counselling employees on performance and contributing to employee pay decisions/changes. They may also lead a number of specialists to influence the operations of a department, in alignment with strategic as well as tactical priorities, while balancing short and long term goals and ensuring that budgets and schedules meet corporate requirements..
• If the position has leadership responsibilities, People Leaders are expected to demonstrate a clear set of leadership behaviours to create an environment for colleagues to thrive and deliver to a consistently excellent standard. The four LEAD behaviours are: L – Listen and be authentic, E – Energise and inspire, A – Align across the enterprise, D – Develop others..
• OR for an individual contributor, they will be a subject matter expert within own discipline and will guide technical direction. They will lead collaborative, multi-year assignments and guide team members through structured assignments, identify the need for the inclusion of other areas of specialisation to complete assignments. They will train, guide and coach less experienced specialists and provide information affecting long term profits, organisational risks and strategic decisions..
• Advise key stakeholders, including functional leadership teams and senior management on functional and cross functional areas of impact and alignment.
• Manage and mitigate risks through assessment, in support of the control and governance agenda.
• Demonstrate leadership and accountability for managing risk and strengthening controls in relation to the work your team does.
• Demonstrate comprehensive understanding of the organisation functions to contribute to achieving the goals of the business.
• Collaborate with other areas of work, for business aligned support areas to keep up to speed with business activity and the business strategies.
• Create solutions based on sophisticated analytical thought comparing and selecting complex alternatives. In-depth analysis with interpretative thinking will be required to define problems and develop innovative solutions.
• Adopt and include the outcomes of extensive research in problem solving processes.
• Seek out, build and maintain trusting relationships and partnerships with internal and external stakeholders in order to accomplish key business objectives, using influencing and negotiating skills to achieve outcomes.

All colleagues will be expected to demonstrate the Barclays Values of Respect, Integrity, Service, Excellence and Stewardship – our moral compass, helping us do what we believe is right. They will also be expected to demonstrate the Barclays Mindset – to Empower, Challenge and Drive – the operating manual for how we behave.

Join us as a Vice President – Solution Architect where you will spearhead the evolution of our infrastructure and deployment pipelines, driving innovation and operational excellence. You will harness cutting-edge technology to build and manage robust, scalable and secure infrastructure, ensuring seamless delivery of our digital solutions.  
 

To be successful as Vice President – Solution Architect you should have experience with:

• Enterprise-scale solution architecture leadership, defining target architectures, technology roadmaps, design standards, and architectural governance across complex banking platforms.
• Experienced in architecting strategic banking platforms using event-driven, API-led, cloud-native, and domain-centric design principles.
• Extensive experience in designing and implementing large-scale modernization of legacy banking applications, including migration of Deposits, pricing, interest, and accounting capabilities to strategic platforms.
• Cloud and platform transformation, leading large-scale implementations on BCP (Barclays Cloud) or AWS with a strong focus on resilience, security, scalability, observability, and regulatory compliance.
   

Some other highly valued skills may include:

• Good understanding of Demand Deposit Accounts (DDA), Cash Management, and Liquidity Management, including account servicing, balance management, cash concentration, sweeping, pooling, virtual accounts, and liquidity optimisation solutions.
• Strong understanding of corporate banking products and services, including payments, collections, receivables, account services, and treasury management.
• Strong data architecture and database expertise across enterprise relational, distributed, and NoSQL platforms.
• Proven experience in regulatory-driven architecture and design, ensuring auditability, traceability, data governance, and compliance with banking regulations.
• Experience delivering highly resilient and available banking platforms supporting critical customer journeys and large-scale transaction processing.
• Excellent senior stakeholder engagement and technology leadership skills, including mentoring architects, influencing strategic investment decisions, driving cross-functional alignment, and partnering with business and operations leadership.
   

You may be assessed on key critical skills relevant for success in role, such as risk and controls, change and transformation, business acumen, strategic thinking and digital and technology, as well as job-specific technical skills.
The role is based out of Pune.