PACT Solutions
Senior Integration and Solution Architect
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Location: Bristol or Manchester hybrid (regular travel to partner sites across the UK and Ireland as needed)
Role Type: Permanent (full-time preferred, flexible working considered)
About PACT Solutions:
PACT Solutions is a specialist management and digital transformation consultancy working exclusively with higher education institutions across the UK. We help universities solve complex challenges across strategy, student records, data, change and delivery. Our work often sits at the heart of major institutional transformation, helping partners improve the student journey, modernise operations and deliver change more effectively.
PACT has grown quickly and is now entering its next phase. We are moving from a founder-led boutique consultancy into a more scaled and structured business, while protecting the quality, culture and partner focus that have made us successful.
Our culture is crucial to our success. Each day, our team significantly contributes to our business and that of our partners.
We combine the agility and collaborative spirit of a close-knit consultancy with the credibility, structure, and professionalism needed to deliver meaningful digital transformation.
Our values sit at the heart of everything we do and are core to our business.
- Partnership: We work with you, not for you.
- Integrity: We do the right thing, even when it requires difficult conversations.
- Curiosity: We dig deeper to uncover what will truly deliver value.
- Transformation: We focus on outcomes that create lasting, measurable improvement.
The Role
We are looking for a Senior Integration and Solution Architect to own the architecture of data integration solutions across our higher education partners. You will define the integration framework: the principles, patterns, standards and technical decisions that determine what is built and how it is built.
This is an architecture role, not a day-to-day delivery management role. Working alongside colleagues who lead programme and technical delivery, you will provide the architectural direction and assurance that enable secure, resilient and maintainable integrations across complex transformation programmes.
You will combine strong consulting skills with practical experience of Azure Integration Services and software engineering. You will shape target-state architectures, guide solution design and support teams to apply consistent, reusable approaches.
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Purpose of the role
To support the delivery of effective, practical and people-centred change activity that helps PACT’s partners adopt new systems, processes and ways of working successfully.
Key Responsibilities
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Integration and solution architecture
Own the integration architecture for assigned partner programmes and shape the target-state integration landscape.
Define and evolve integration principles, reference architectures, patterns, standards and reusable components.
Translate business, data and operational requirements into clear solution architectures, design decisions and technical roadmaps.
Set the approach to API design, data contracts, message design, asynchronous processing, error handling, security, observability and resilience.
Assess architectural options and technical trade-offs, providing clear recommendations to partners and delivery teams. -
Solution design and technical assurance
Design practical, scalable and maintainable integrations using Azure Integration Services, including Azure Service Bus, APIs and related Azure services.
Provide architectural assurance at key design, build, test and deployment points, ensuring solutions conform to agreed standards.
Review technical designs, code and documentation to improve consistency, quality and long-term supportability.
Support the resolution of complex integration issues and design risks, focusing on root cause and sustainable architectural outcomes. -
Stakeholder and consulting leadership
Lead architecture workshops, discovery sessions and design forums with senior business and technical stakeholders.
Build trusted relationships with stakeholders up to Head of Service and senior manager level.
Explain complex technical concepts in clear business language and challenge constructively where decisions create avoidable risk or compromise.
Work closely with programme, product, data and technical delivery colleagues so architectural decisions are understood and actionable. -
Capability development
Develop PACT's integration framework, methodologies, standards, reusable assets and propositions.
Coach consultants and engineers in sound integration design and engineering practice.
Contribute to internal knowledge sharing and the continued development of PACT's Data Integration capability.
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What we offer
- The opportunity to shape integration architecture across major higher education transformation programmes.
- Work with Azure Integration Services, Azure Service Bus, Python and.NET in complex enterprise environments.
- Development of consulting, architecture and technical capability.
- A clear progression path through PACT's consulting career pathway, including Principal-level opportunities.
- The opportunity to shape PACT's Data Integration capability.
This role sits at the Senior Consultant within PACT’s consulting career pathway (Analyst → Consultant → Senior Consultant → Lead → Principal), providing a strong foundation to develop core consulting and delivery skills.
Essential experience
- Significant experience as an Integration Architect, Solution Architect or similar senior architecture role in complex enterprise environments.
- Strong integration architecture capability, including API design, messaging patterns, asynchronous processing, event-driven integration and data contracts.
- Ability to define architectural principles, standards, patterns and reusable components, and apply them across multiple systems and teams.
- Hands-on experience with Azure Integration Services, particularly Azure Service Bus, APIs and related Azure services.
- Strong Python and/or .NET development capability, with experience building or assuring production-grade integration services.
- Ability to design secure, scalable and maintainable integrations, including observability, error handling, resilience and supportability.
- Experience facilitating architecture workshops, communicating technical trade-offs and influencing senior stakeholders.
- Experience reviewing and assuring technical designs, documentation and engineering outputs.
Desirable
- Experience within higher education.
- Experience integrating enterprise platforms such as SIS, ERP, CRM and VLE systems.
- Experience with Azure DevOps, CI/CD pipelines, source control and automated testing.
- Experience in consultancy or transformation environments.
PACT offers a flexible and supportive approach to work, including hybrid and flexible working arrangements. Our benefits package includes enhanced pension contributions, an annual bonus and enhanced parental leave, helping our people balance a rewarding career with the commitments that matter to them.
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