Solution Architecture Lead

In this role you will define the architectural method and standards and orchestrate Product Line Architects to deliver consistent, high-quality solution architectures. You’ll own design assurance, the architecture runway and the enterprise solution architecture, ensuring alignment with enterprise standards and strategic intent. You will lead governance for design decisions, risk, and traceability across lines of business, while collaborating with security and cross-functional teams. This position offers impact at scale within a hybrid, cross-functional environment and an opportunity to shape the architecture landscape at National Grid.

• Competitive salary
• Bonus up to 30%
• Contributory pension with 12% company contribution
• Flexible benefits (cycle scheme, share incentive plan, technology schemes)
• Digital GP and wellbeing app
• Access to Work + Family Space (emergency childcare and eldercare)

• Own the design assurance process and chair the design review forum
• Provide architecture assurance positions on major investments
• Manage architecture decision records and exception processes with accountable owners
• Publish and maintain architecture patterns and non-functional requirements
• Ensure traceability from product designs to enterprise standards
• Define method and quality bar for costed option assessments and outlines
• Lead the architecture runway and ensure work is funded ahead of demand
• Own the enterprise solution architecture and its roadmap
• Oversee integration architecture standards for APIs, events, and data flows
• Collaborate with Cyber Security to embed security and privacy by design
• Line manage and develop the Product Line Architect community
• Chair the architecture community forum for peer reviews

• Extensive experience designing and governing Azure-based cloud-native apps
• Strong understanding of event streaming, messaging, observability, metrics, and tracing
• Proven track record leading architecture for custom software with DevOps, CI/CD, IaC
• Experience establishing design assurance, patterns, and non-functional standards at scale
• Experience maintaining architecture decision records and enterprise traceability
• Strong integration architecture background across APIs and data flows
• Familiarity with OT contexts, real-time monitoring, telemetry, and network operations
• Experience in strategic/investment/product planning aligned with business strategy
• Ability to deliver architectural work through architects who do not report directly
• Ability to operate at senior manager level and navigate a matrix organization
• Strong leadership, relationship, communication and presentation skills

• leadership
• collaboration
• stakeholder management
• Azure-based cloud-native architectures
• microservices
• event-driven architectures