Royal London
Senior Sonata SME Engineer
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Senior Sonata SME – Permanent Position Location: Edinburgh, Glasgow, or Alderley Park (Wilmslow) Working Style: Hybrid (50% remote, 50% office-based)
About the Role
As the Senior Sonata SME, you will provide specialist expertise across the Bravura Sonata platform, ensuring its effective design, configuration, enhancement, and operation in alignment with business and technology objectives. You will act as the key technical advisor for:
- Product configuration
- Platform capability and solution design
- Business process alignment
- Change delivery
- Continuous improvement
Your role involves collaborating across technology teams, business stakeholders, delivery teams, and external partners to maintain Sonata’s stability, scalability, and strategic relevance.
Key Responsibilities
Solution Design, Configuration & Change Delivery
- Lead technical expertise in Sonata enhancements, projects, and strategic initiatives.
- Translate business requirements into scalable Sonata solutions, including:
- Configuration, workflows, rules, and integration impacts
- Product setup and process optimisation
- Review proposed changes, identify risks/dependencies, and ensure alignment with platform standards and business goals.
- Provide design assurance and guidance to delivery teams throughout the change lifecycle.
Platform Governance & Business Alignment
- Provide governance oversight for Sonata configuration, usage, and platform practices.
- Ensure solutions meet business needs, regulatory requirements, and Sonata platform strategy.
- Partner with stakeholders to:
- Define platform improvements
- Challenge requirements when necessary
- Identify optimisation opportunities
- Support prioritisation of enhancements and continuous improvement initiatives.
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Testing, Releases & Vendor Engagement
- Provide Sonata expertise in testing, releases, and implementation, including:
- Solution validation and release readiness
- Post-release assurance
- Act as the key point of contact for:
- Product discussions, upgrades, and roadmap alignment
- Platform capability assessments
- Contribute to platform governance forums and strategic technology decisions.
Knowledge & Capability Development
- Maintain Sonata standards, documentation, and knowledge assets.
- Promote consistent platform practices and knowledge sharing across:
- Delivery, support, and coaching teams
- Coach teams on Sonata capabilities to reduce platform knowledge dependency.
Skills & Experience
Technical Skills (Core)
- Deep understanding of Oracle DB (schema, queries, operations).
- Awareness of Oracle AQ and JMS message creation.
- Desirable knowledge of the Sonata data model.
- Strong grasp of underlying Sonata application technology (e.g., configuration, workflows).
- SQL query writing (Oracle/SQL Server).
- Detailed expertise in Sonata’s:
- Configuration capabilities
- Job setup mechanisms
- Transformation scripts
- User/Group/Permissions flexibility (SSO via Azure Entra)
- Sonata installer process
- Source of Truth (SoT) architecture
- Ability to:
- Design SBS requests using tools like SOAPUI or ReadyAPI
- Diagnose performance issues
- Manage return-to-trunk upgrades successfully
- Good knowledge of Operational Data Store (ODS) and Wherescape Red application.
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Nice-to-Have
- Monitoring tools (e.g., App Dynamics, LogicMonitor)
- Sonata Workflow experience
- Managing multiple Sources of Truth
- ServiceNow familiarity
- Exposure to Agile methodologies
Essential Soft Skills & Perspectives
- Broad expertise in UK Pensions.
- Problem-solving and troubleshooting attitudes.
- Ability to multi-task efficiently under pressure.
- Impeccable attention to detail.
- Can-do mindset with a commitment to continuous improvement.
About Royal London
We are the UK’s largest mutual life, pensions, and investment company, offering protection, savings, and asset management products. Our People Promise reflects our commitment to:
- Inclusivity, responsibility, enjoyment, and fulfilment.
- Core values: Empowered, Trustworthy, Collaborate, Achieve.
Benefits
- 28 days annual leave + bank holidays (28+ days).
- Up to 14% employer pension matching.
- Private medical insurance.
- Values-driven culture where all talent is celebrated.
Applications are welcome even if you don’t meet every requirement—showcase what you can bring! Let’s learn together.
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