Lead Solution Architect – Open Finance & Digital Banking Transformation

General Description

Key Responsibilities

• Own and evolve the target architecture for Open Finance and digital banking platforms across multiple business domains.
• Define and govern enterprise solution architecture covering customer-facing platforms, partner ecosystems, developer portals, and API services.
• Design scalable, secure, and resilient architectures supporting both regulated Open Finance APIs and commercial partner API offerings.
• Lead architecture decision-making, documentation, and governance processes across business and technology teams.
• Collaborate with product owners, engineering teams, risk, compliance, security, and executive stakeholders to align technology solutions with business objectives.
• Define API architecture standards, integration patterns, identity models, security controls, and platform governance frameworks.
• Drive cloud-native architecture initiatives across AWS environments, including microservices, event-driven architectures, and modern API management platforms.
• Establish architecture principles for identity, authentication, authorization, consent management, and partner onboarding journeys.
• Support regulatory compliance requirements related to Open Finance, information security, risk management, business continuity, and data governance.
• Lead architecture reviews, solution assessments, and technology evaluations across multiple programmes and workstreams.
• Define observability, resilience, disaster recovery, monitoring, and operational architecture standards.
• Partner with delivery teams to ensure successful implementation and alignment with architecture principles.
• Promote AI-enabled architecture practices and identify opportunities to leverage AI across architecture, governance, documentation, and delivery processes.
• Apply AI-assisted approaches to architecture activities including solution design, impact assessments, documentation generation, technical analysis, and engineering collaboration.
• Evaluate opportunities to embed AI capabilities within banking platforms and enterprise ecosystems while ensuring alignment with regulatory, security, and governance standards.
• Provide executive-level architecture guidance and translate complex technical concepts into business-focused recommendations.

Required Experience

• Proven experience as a Solution Architect, Enterprise Architect, Lead Architect, or Principal Architect within banking or financial services environments.
• Minimum
• 10+ years
• of experience delivering enterprise-scale digital transformation, banking technology, or platform modernization programmes.
• Strong experience designing and implementing
• Open Banking, Open Finance, API platforms, or digital banking solutions
• .
• Experience architecting customer-facing banking platforms supporting Retail, SME, and Corporate Banking services.
• Strong knowledge of enterprise integration patterns, API architecture, microservices, and event-driven systems.
• Experience with API management platforms such as
• Kong, Apigee, MuleSoft, WSO2, IBM API Connect, or similar technologies
• .
• Strong AWS cloud architecture experience within enterprise or regulated environments.
• Experience working with security, compliance, risk, and governance requirements in financial institutions.
• Strong stakeholder management skills with the ability to engage both executive leadership and technical delivery teams.
• Experience producing architecture documentation, standards, architecture decision records (ADRs), and governance artefacts.
• Strong understanding of software delivery lifecycles, Agile methodologies, and enterprise architecture practices.
• **Demonstrated hands-on experience using AI as part of day-to-day Solution Architecture responsibilities**
• , with the ability to articulate practical use cases and outcomes.
• Experience leveraging AI tools to improve architecture design, documentation, technical analysis, delivery effectiveness, and engineering productivity.
• Ability to understand, review, and discuss code and technical implementation approaches with engineering teams.
• Excellent communication, leadership, and problem-solving skills.

Preferred Experience

• Experience with Open Banking or Open Finance regulatory frameworks.
• Experience within UAE, GCC, or international banking environments.
• Knowledge of API security standards including
• OAuth 2.0, OpenID Connect (OIDC), FAPI, mTLS, and Strong Customer Authentication (SCA)
• .
• Experience with developer portals, partner onboarding platforms, API monetization, and ecosystem management.
• Experience with event streaming technologies such as

Kafka

• or similar platforms.
• Familiarity with observability platforms such as
• Dynatrace, CloudWatch, X-Ray, or equivalent solutions
• .
• Experience supporting banking compliance, audit, risk, and governance initiatives.
• Practical experience embedding AI-enabled practices into architecture and delivery processes, including AI-assisted design, architecture automation, code analysis, documentation generation, and governance workflows.
• Exposure to AI governance frameworks and the responsible use of AI within regulated financial services environments.
• TOGAF, AWS, Enterprise Architecture, Cloud Architecture, or related certifications are advantageous.
• The ideal candidate should be able to demonstrate:
• How AI is currently used to support architecture design and decision-making.
• Examples of using AI to accelerate documentation, impact assessments, technical reviews, or engineering collaboration.
• Experience leveraging AI tools to improve software delivery and team productivity.
• An understanding of AI governance, security, and compliance considerations within regulated environments.
• Practical examples of how AI has been integrated into their architecture practice and normal ways of working.

Work Setup

• **Hybrid Work Setup – Abu Dhabi, UAE**

Initial 6 Months, Extendable