The Department

Our Technology team continues to go from strength to strength, playing a vital role in firm-wide innovation and strategy. Far from being a support function, Technology is integral to the firm's growth agenda, backed by strong leadership engagement and sustained investment.

The Role

As a Senior Solution Architect, you will lead the shaping and delivery of complex, high-impact application and technology solutions that advance the firm's strategic objectives. Reporting directly to the Head of Architecture, you will act as a trusted advisor to senior business and technology stakeholders, translating business capabilities, processes and operating needs into coherent target-state architectures.

You will lead cross-domain design across the firm's application estate, data, security, cloud services, interoperability and service operations. You will define multi-year roadmaps, provide assurance across major programmes, raise architecture maturity and deputise for the Head of Architecture where required. This is a broad, business-facing role that focuses on the application estate. Integration and API design are important components to this. You will help define target states and transition roadmaps, evaluate application and supplier options, guide delivery and ensure solutions remain supportable, secure and commercially sustainable.

Strategic Programmes currently underway

The successful candidate will lead the solutioning across several significant transformation initiatives which include major upgrades, re-platforming, migrations to cloud, de-coupling and decommissioning.

• Matter Lifecycle Management: Modernising the end-to-end lifecycle supporting client work (from client onboarding and matter inception through delivery, billing, closure, retention and archive.
• Client Intake, Risk and Compliance: Enhancing the client onboarding process, conflicts management, risk assessment, regulatory compliance and information governance.
• Practice and Financial Management: Improving pricing, time recording, billing, financial operations, profitability management and reporting.
• Document, Information and Knowledge Management: Improving how information is created, managed, governed, searched and reused across the firm.
• CRM, Marketing and Relationship Intelligence: Developing a joined-up view of clients, matters and relationships to support growth and client service.
• Data, Integration and AI Enablement: Establishing trusted data, interoperability, analytics, AI capabilities and secure access to enterprise information.
• Application Portfolio and Service Modernisation: Defining application roadmaps, reducing technical debt, and driving consolidation, modernisation, re-platforming and retirement initiatives.
• Architecture Maturity and Governance: Strengthening architecture standards, governance, roadmaps, target-state architectures and decision-making.

Duties And Responsibilities

• Lead business capability analysis, discovery and solution shaping across major programmes and complex change initiatives.
• Translate strategic objectives, operating models and business processes into target-state application and solution architectures.
• Own end-to-end solution direction across applications, data, security, cloud services, interoperability, user experience and service operations.
• Develop multi-year application roadmaps, transition states, investment priorities and sequencing recommendations.
• Lead application portfolio rationalisation, lifecycle planning and decisions to invest, modernise, consolidate, replace or retire.
• Identify and manage capability gaps, cross-programme dependencies, architectural risks and technical debt.
• Lead option analysis and technology decisions, balancing business value, commercial considerations, delivery risk, security, regulation and operational sustainability.
• Own and quality-assure capability views, option papers, target-state designs, transition roadmaps, high-level designs, security and data considerations and non-functional requirements.
• Provide architectural leadership and assurance to product, programme, delivery and engineering teams, resolving complex cross-domain design issues.
• Lead solution design across legal and business capabilities such as client intake, risk, matter management, financial management, document and knowledge management, CRM, data and AI enablement.
• Govern interoperability, API and messaging approaches where required, ensuring they support the wider application solution and target architecture.
• Architect data flows and access models that uphold client confidentiality, information barriers, privacy, retention, security and regulatory obligations.
• Lead build, buy, reuse, rationalise and retire decisions, including vendor evaluation, commercial assessment, due diligence and contract-related technical input.
• Define and assure non-functional requirements covering performance, resilience, availability, accessibility, operability, disaster recovery and supportability.
• Present and defend recommendations at senior governance forums, clearly articulating outcomes, options, trade-offs, costs, risks and dependencies.
• Drive architecture maturity through proportionate governance, reusable patterns, standards, templates, repositories and decision records.
• Mentor Solution Architects, SMEs and technical leads, and deputise for the Head of Architecture where required.