Job Description

Purpose of the role

To develop, and evolve the banks technology architecture through relevant solutions, strategies and execution plans aligned to and prioritized by business and technology objectives, including the development, evolution and adoption of foundational platforms and products. 

Accountabilities

• Development, evolution and implementation of the banks technology architecture and strategies aligned to the business and technology objectives, unlocking execution and run.
• Collaboration with stakeholders, including Enterprise Architecture teams and other developers to provide subject matter expertise and share knowledge to foster continuous improvement, and clients to understand and deliver on their technical needs.
• Motivation and leadership of a diverse collection of technologists, business and operations teams and enterprise leaders, with goal to align business & technology strategy & standards, identifying opportunities and connecting people.
• Assessment of new technologies to address current and future business needs, through a combination of curiosity and problem-solving skills.
• Determination of the optimal solutions while balancing continuous requirements imposed by compliance, governance, security and funding, through deep understanding of the business and customer outcomes and maintaining a strong and steady grasp on the underlying technologies.
• Monitoring and analysis of the performance, resiliency and stability of applications to identify and resolve issues and communicate and document key findings to stakeholders.
• Compliance with applicable regulatory standards and identification of industry developments that may impact the banks operations and controls to enhance the banks application portfolio.
• Support of engineering and architecture community initiatives to mentor team members, streamline operations, share and grow knowledge.

Vice President Expectations

• To contribute or set strategy, drive requirements and make recommendations for change. Plan resources, budgets, and policies; manage and maintain policies/ processes; deliver continuous improvements and escalate breaches of policies/procedures..
• If managing a team, they define jobs and responsibilities, planning for the department’s future needs and operations, counselling employees on performance and contributing to employee pay decisions/changes. They may also lead a number of specialists to influence the operations of a department, in alignment with strategic as well as tactical priorities, while balancing short and long term goals and ensuring that budgets and schedules meet corporate requirements..
• If the position has leadership responsibilities, People Leaders are expected to demonstrate a clear set of leadership behaviours to create an environment for colleagues to thrive and deliver to a consistently excellent standard. The four LEAD behaviours are: L – Listen and be authentic, E – Energise and inspire, A – Align across the enterprise, D – Develop others..
• OR for an individual contributor, they will be a subject matter expert within own discipline and will guide technical direction. They will lead collaborative, multi-year assignments and guide team members through structured assignments, identify the need for the inclusion of other areas of specialisation to complete assignments. They will train, guide and coach less experienced specialists and provide information affecting long term profits, organisational risks and strategic decisions..
• Advise key stakeholders, including functional leadership teams and senior management on functional and cross functional areas of impact and alignment.
• Manage and mitigate risks through assessment, in support of the control and governance agenda.
• Demonstrate leadership and accountability for managing risk and strengthening controls in relation to the work your team does.
• Demonstrate comprehensive understanding of the organisation functions to contribute to achieving the goals of the business.
• Collaborate with other areas of work, for business aligned support areas to keep up to speed with business activity and the business strategies.
• Create solutions based on sophisticated analytical thought comparing and selecting complex alternatives. In-depth analysis with interpretative thinking will be required to define problems and develop innovative solutions.
• Adopt and include the outcomes of extensive research in problem solving processes.
• Seek out, build and maintain trusting relationships and partnerships with internal and external stakeholders in order to accomplish key business objectives, using influencing and negotiating skills to achieve outcomes.

All colleagues will be expected to demonstrate the Barclays Values of Respect, Integrity, Service, Excellence and Stewardship – our moral compass, helping us do what we believe is right. They will also be expected to demonstrate the Barclays Mindset – to Empower, Challenge and Drive – the operating manual for how we behave.

The Acquiring & Payments Lead Architect is accountable for defining and assuring the end‑to‑end technology architecture across Merchant Acquiring and Payments platforms, enabling Barclays to operate secure, resilient, and scalable payment services for clients globally.

The role leads architectural strategy across complex legacy estates and modern cloud‑native fintech platforms, guiding large‑scale platform migrations and integration programmes.

Acting as a trusted advisor to Executive and C‑suite stakeholders, the role provides clear, outcome‑focused architectural recommendations that balance business growth, cost, resilience, regulatory compliance, and technology modernisation.

This role plays a critical part in shaping Barclays’ long‑term payments landscape, ensuring architectural decisions support strategic objectives while reducing risk and technical debt.

To be successful as a Acquiring & Payments Lead Solution Architect you should have:

• Deep expertise in payments and merchant acquiring architecture, including POS, eCommerce, gateway integrations, and scheme connectivity within high-volume, low-latency environments

• Strong experience designing and delivering complex architectures across legacy and cloud-native platforms, including microservices, APIs, containerisation, and event-driven systems

• Proven ability to engage with senior stakeholders, including C-suite, translating complex architectural decisions into clear business outcomes

Some other highly valued skills may include:

• Strong understanding of regulatory and security requirements within payments, including PCI-DSS, operational resilience, and data governance

• Experience with modern engineering practices including DevOps, cloud adoption strategies, and large-scale platform migration programmes

• Expertise in complex data architectures, including transaction processing, reconciliation, auditability, and integration across distributed systems

You may be assessed on the key critical skills relevant for success in role, such as risk and controls, change and transformation, business acumen, strategic thinking and digital and technology, as well as job-specific technical skills.