Lead Specialist, Solution Architect

Job Title: Lead Specialist, Solution Architect 

Division: Assessment & Qualifications Delivery

Location: Bangalore or Chennai, India (Hybrid)

Role Summary

As a Solution Architect (E30), you will design and deliver new services on Microsoft Azure aligned with Pearson’s enterprise standards. Your remit includes the development of secure, scalable solution architectures, while ensuring integration across legacy on-premise and AWS components where needed. You will collaborate with product owners, business analysts, delivery teams (including technical architects and developers) and external partners to convert business requirements into effective technical solutions. This includes evaluating solution options, estimating costs and ensuring that designs meet both functional and non-functional requirements (e.g. security, performance, availability, scalability). Clear communication and stakeholder engagement are essential in this role.

Key Responsibilities

• Solution Architecture Design: Lead the design of end-to-end solutions on Azure (and advise on on-premise or AWS where needed), selecting optimal services and patterns to meet both functional and non-functional requirements. Produce architecture blueprints, dataflows and interface specifications.
• Solution Option Analysis & Cost Estimation: Work with business analysts and product owners to evaluate multiple solution options, ensuring the trade-offs are understood. Provide cost and effort estimations (including infrastructure, licensing and operational considerations), and help recommend solutions that balance performance, scalability and total cost of ownership.
• Technical Leadership & Governance: Serve as design authority throughout delivery. Provide guidance, mentoring and quality assurance to delivery teams and third-party partners. Develop and refine architectural standards where gaps exist to ensure consistent best practices.
• Support Delivery Teams: Collaborate closely with delivery teams—including technical architects, developers, testers and DevOps engineers—to interpret and implement architecture designs correctly. Assist with troubleshooting technical issues, and ensure that Technical Architects and developers share a common understanding of architecture decisions and design patterns.
• Stakeholder Collaboration: Engage with product owners, business analysts, subject matter experts and external partners to refine requirements. Communicate complex technical concepts clearly to diverse audiences, ensuring alignment and shared understanding.
• Vendor Oversight: Work with third-party delivery teams, reviewing their architectures, holding them accountable to Pearson’s standards and supporting them in meeting quality targets.
• Documentation & Planning: Produce system diagrams, interface specifications and implementation roadmaps. Ensure design decisions are thoroughly documented and communicated.
• Innovation & Continuous Improvement: Monitor industry trends and evaluate new technologies (e.g. infrastructure automation, AI, data platforms) for relevance to Pearson. Propose enhancements that support robust, modern and cost-effective solutions.
• Compliance & Security: Ensure all solutions comply with Pearson’s security and data privacy standards. Participate in design reviews and governance forums to ensure compliance with enterprise architecture policies.
• Lifecycle Support: Support implementation teams from development through deployment, addressing technical issues and ensuring solutions deliver the intended business value.

Essential Experience & Skills

• Extensive Solution Architecture Experience: Proven track record of designing and implementing complex enterprise solutions, with a strong emphasis on Azure cloud services and cloud-native principles.
• Architecture & Design Expertise: Ability to produce architecture blueprints, dataflows, integration diagrams and detailed specifications.
• Cloud Proficiency: Deep understanding of Azure compute, storage, networking, security and infrastructure-as-code (e.g. ARM, Terraform). Familiarity with cybersecurity best practices.
• Technical Leadership & Collaboration: Experience overseeing design implementation, defining architectural standards and providing technical guidance to teams and vendors.
• Solution Analysis & Cost Estimation: Ability to evaluate solution options and provide well-reasoned recommendations based on technical fit, effort and cost.
• Stakeholder Engagement: Strong communication and interpersonal skills; able to articulate architecture rationale to technical and non-technical stakeholders and foster alignment.
• Problem Solving & Adaptability: Proven analytical skills and adaptability; comfortable working in dynamic environments and adjusting solutions as requirements evolve.
• Business Insight: Ability to balance technology decisions with business outcomes to ensure solutions deliver value.
• Education & Certification: Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science or related field; Master’s degree and/or relevant certifications (e.g. BCS Intermediate Certificate in Enterprise Architecture, Azure Solutions Architect Expert) are highly regarded.

Desirable Skills

• Knowledge of relational databases, data modelling and data analytics solutions.
• Familiarity with DevOps practices, CI/CD pipelines and containerisation (e.g. Docker, Kubernetes).
• Experience with Agile methodologies, TDD and other modern development practices.
• Programming/scripting for automation (PowerShell, Python).
• Good understanding of AWS PaaS services (such as RDS/SQL, SNS, Aurora) to support integrated or legacy components.
• Understanding of business continuity and disaster recovery planning.
• Awareness of AI/ML and emerging technologies and their impact on architecture.

Job Location and Hours

The role is aligned to our Bangalore or Chennai offices in India, working a 45 hour week. All our roles are hybrid working; our current policy requires our team to work from their base office 3 times per week.