Solutions Architect

It is the people at Shakespeare Martineau that make us so special. By understanding what our people want, giving them the support they need, recognising everyone’s contribution and realising the unique power of teams; together we win.   As a firm we are focused on proactively building and developing diverse teams, bringing different backgrounds, personalities and perspectives together. We play to our strengths, pushing ourselves to be consistently better than yesterday and deliver amazing solutions for our clients. We empower our teams with a high degree of individual responsibility; we self-manage and encourage everyone to be responsible for their own learning, knowing it makes us even better at what we do!    

We believe in trusting our people to make the right decisions for themselves from how you dress to how, when and where you work – we focus on outputs.  

Want to find more about our amazing benefits?

Our Solutions Development team is responsible for producing the requirements, developing, delivering and supporting innovative solutions to the Business – In a nutshell – full end to end lifecycle of applications. In addition, we lead the delivery of significant business change projects where project management and business change expertise are considered critical. 

Based mainly in the Birmingham office, we are a diverse team with outsourced development and testing operations in Moldova, Romania and India. We use all the latest tools and methodologies like Agile, Azure DevOps and Jira to work remotely and collaboratively and deliver applications which give out business a unique differentiator in the market.

An excellent opportunity has arisen to join our Development Team as a Solution Architect, working with a team of highly skilled developers and delivering complex internal system development projects across a variety of products and technologies.

As an experienced Solution Architect, you will lead development projects across predominantly Microsoft C# .Net MVC, SQL Server technologies and Web API’s as well as infrastructure focussed requirements and solutions. Managing the successful delivery of these solutions will require you to plan, coordinate and lead activities across the full delivery lifecycle. You will have to ensure that all solutions developed are in-line with the strategic objective from an Architectural Perspective. This will include working closely with the department’s Team Leaders, Business Analysts and Developers, as well as liaising with key project stakeholders as required.

This role offers challenges across a wide variety of projects and responsibilities, including the opportunity to influence the future direction of the Architecture and systems used across the business.

To apply for this role, you must also have proven technical capability and a track record in software development and/or architecture combined with experience in the leadership of solution management/ software development teams and delivery of projects within a software development environment. You will be joining a team of diverse skills and experience and the job requires a motivated individual who is experienced in taking responsibility and can independently deliver results on both departmental and business projects, whilst championing the firms’ culture and values.

Your key duties will be:

• actively promote and be an advocate for the SHMA values 
• build effective relationships with colleagues, team members and the business to provide professional communications advice to a range of people at all levels
• work together on ideas to improve service and processes
• positively contribute towards all communication activity and support with problem solving.
• build and maintain a working knowledge of the business and our emerging strategy
• building and integrating information systems to meet the company’s needs.
• assessing the systems architecture currently in place and working with technical staff to recommend solutions to improve it.
• resolving technical problems as they arise including troubleshooting problems and issues which support and project teams cannot resolve
• providing supervision and guidance to development teams on issues such as API, database and integration architecture design
• continually researching current and emerging technologies and proposing changes where needed.
• providing updates to stakeholders on product development processes, costs, and budgets and preparing business cases for new solutions
• undertaking analysis projects in the form of consultancy to identify best options for the business
• working on a wide range of projects involving the implementation of new and existing systems, solutions and processes
• taking responsibility for making key decisions to ensure the successful implementation of all initiatives

Skills and experience you will have:

• to be approachable and willing to assist others
• the ability to motivate, inspire and positively influence colleagues
• display a high degree of flexibility in approach and thrive in a constantly changing environment
• a minimum of 3-5 years’ experience of solution architecture
• proven experience in leading and managing the delivery of system/software development projects in a structured environment
• experience in a variety of software development approaches and methodologies including Agile and Waterfall
• experience in both architecture and implementation-level software and system design
• experience in requirements capture, analysis techniques and process improvement approaches
• understanding of infrastructure design elements like AD design and networking
• experience in the development of software using Microsoft C# .Net MVC, SQL Server technologies and Web API’s
• capable of understanding and contributing to the technical solution from design through to code level
• Self-starter, positive & enthusiastic “can do” attitude – looks for solutions rather than problems

Key competencies you will need:

• strong facilitation and coaching skills
• excellent personal organisation and the ability to prioritise and carry out multiple tasks
• the ability to influence and drive projects to meet key milestones and overcome challenges
• to be comfortable working without routine supervision
• a desire to remain technically capable and an expert in current technologies

We embrace agile working and offer a blended approach to where and how we work.

We appreciate that people have different needs and preferences and we’re keen to be flexible, after all, we value what you do, not where you do it.

We have hubs in Birmingham, Leicester, London, Milton Keynes, Nottingham, Solihull, Stratford-upon-Avon and Sheffield.  This role can be predominantly home based with occasional travel into our Birmingham hub, as required. 

Please be aware, for some vacancies, where we receive high numbers of applications we may need to bring the close date forward.

Due to the nature of the work undertaken, confirmation of employment will be subject to a variety of checks which will be carried out once an offer of employment is accepted. Details of the checks can be found here.

Shakespeare Martineau is a committed equal opportunities employer. We seek to attract, develop and retain talented people from a diverse range of backgrounds and cultures. We value and respect individuality and encourage a culture within our business where people can be themselves and be valued for their strengths and experiences. Everyone who either applies to or works for the firm is treated equally, regardless of their gender, age, ethnic origin, nationality, marital status, sexual orientation or religious beliefs.