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Head of Architecture
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Head of Architecture | International Payments & FX Business | London (Hybrid)
About Our Client
Our client is a regulated financial services firm specialising in international payments and FX, operating across complex and fast-growing markets. The business is investing in a multi-year technology transformation to modernise how it operates as it expands into new regions.
The Opportunity
We're looking for a visionary Head of Architecture to lead the organisation's architectural strategy and play a pivotal role in a multi-year transformation toward a next-generation, AI-enabled operating model. You'll own end-to-end enterprise architecture, modernise design principles, and guide a talented team of architects through this evolution.
The Team
You'll lead a small team of enterprise and domain architects and report directly to the CTO, working within a collaborative Technology Leadership Team. Architecture sits at the centre of this transformation - re-platforming the organisation for an intelligent future rather than replicating legacy systems.
What You'll Do
- Define and own the current-state, transitional, and target-state architectures across business, data, applications, and technology domains.
- Design and implement the architecture needed to support a next-generation, AI-enabled operating model - including autonomy layers, orchestration patterns, and human-in-the-loop principles.
- Develop enterprise architecture models, reference architectures, and standards aligned to that operating model, and translate roadmaps into modular work packages for iterative, continuous delivery.
- Champion event-driven, microservices-based, cloud-native architectures and their associated patterns.
- Lead, mentor and develop a high-performing architecture team, building modern engineering practices and capability maturity.
- Shape strategic technology roadmaps in partnership with senior stakeholders across Payments, FX, Data, AI, and Platform domains.
- Lead complex, multi-disciplinary change across legacy and modern systems, driving architectural simplification and scalable patterns.
- Govern architectural decisions pragmatically - balancing innovation, technical debt, and regulatory expectations.
- Act as a trusted advisor to senior executives on strategic technology decisions.
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What We're Looking For
- Proven experience leading architecture functions in high-change, transformation-heavy environments.
- Deep expertise in Payments, FX, or high-scale transaction-processing platforms.
- Hands-on experience architecting distributed, event-driven, microservices-oriented systems.
- Strong communication and stakeholder-influencing skills with senior leadership.
- Experience working across modern and legacy technologies, including pathways for modernisation.
- Comfortable operating in regulated environments with strong cross-functional engagement.
- Familiarity with TOGAF, ArchiMate, or similar architecture frameworks.
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Nice to Have
- Experience with AI, agentic architectures, intelligent orchestration, or autonomous workflows.
- Cross-border FX and payments background.
- Systems engineering, data architecture, or platform engineering experience.
- Technical degree.
Salary & Benefits
- Basic salary £150,000+, plus discretionary bonus
- Hybrid working — 4 days on-site
- Employer pension contribution up to 10% (matched in increments)
- Life Assurance — 4x annual salary
- Group Income Protection
- Private Medical Insurance, including optical, dental and audiology cover (may extend to partner/children)
- Competitive annual leave, plus 2 volunteering days a year
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