A market leading financial client based in North Yorkshire requires a Solution Architect on a contract basis. You will be required to work on the architectural design of internal and external projects and provide product architecture and technical expertise to the client and to the client's project team throughout the product lifecycle, from pre-sales to live support. The successful candidate will have the following skills and experience: • Systems Integration Skills • Messaging skills, i.e Message flows, transformation, formatting • Payments, FPS, BACS experience or awareness • ATM experience or awareness in terms of Switching and Back Office • POS experience or awareness • End to end Solution Design experience • Estimating experience • Extensive IT experience, with significant experience in an architectural role • Experience in a range of technologies, ideally including Java, Oracle, Weblogic, BASE 24, Advantage • Experience within the payments industry (desirable) • Strong written and verbal communication skills with the ability to listen, present and communicate complex architectures clearly and concisely with technical and non-technical audiences • Strong problem solving skills • Strong client focus • Understanding of the system development lifecycle from pre-sales to live operation and support, ideally from a managed services perspective • Ability to assemble a broad set of technologies and services to create a complete solution to a business requirement: application software, middleware, database, hardware, storage, network • Understanding of solution trade-offs such as cost, scope, timescale, and balance between long-term strategic and short-term pragmatic considerations • Ability to work with domain and technology experts to develop solution from high level architecture to detailed design level - recognised as a subject matter expert • Ability to provide technical authority and governance role through lifetime of project • Experience managing relationships with clients at the senior technical and business management level • Experience managing technical relationships with suppliers and partners • Excellent interpersonal skills including facilitation, negotiation, collaboration and influencing • Commercially and politically astute, able to see solutions in wider context of the client's strategy and customer engagement • Ability to work at a professional level with little management direction and leadership