Solutions Architect

WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR

We need an experienced solution architect with 8-12+ years who works closely with the IT Systems Architect on internal BSS systems modernisation, vendor rationalisation and application portfolio simplification. Embedded in workstreams, you break down strategic designs into implementable features whilst ensuring system stability, architectural consistency and long-term flexibility.

ESSENTIAL EXPERIENCE

End-to-End Solution Design & Leadership

- Proven experience creating E2E architectures with business and product stakeholders

- Skilled in HLD/LLD documentation, UML and architecture tooling

- Balances functional and non-functional requirements (scalability, resilience, security, cost)

- Effective in cross-functional, multi-vendor environments, liaising with stakeholders and client architects

- Familiar with Agile delivery practices and Behave/BDD (Gherkin syntax) for collaborative workflows

BSS Platform & Integration Architecture

- Deep BSS platform experience: Order Management, Product Catalogue, CRM (Salesforce), Billing, Service Orchestration, Inventory, Service Assurance - understanding data models, system processes and integration patterns at implementation level

- Integration architecture: microservices, API gateways, event-driven architectures, event brokers (Kafka), queues - handling 120+ integration points across systems and legacy stacks

- Lead-to-Cash (L2C) and Order-to-Cash (O2C) solutions in Tier-1 telecom operator environments

- TMF standards: Product Ordering (TMF641), Service Ordering, Service Activation, Service Inventory (TMF638)

API Development & Integration

- Strong expertise in API lifecycle design using OpenAPI specifications (OAS) - can read and write API specs

- Hands-on with TMF/ODA frameworks for product and service APIs

- Expertise in integration patterns (OpenAPI, REST, gRPC, GraphQL)

- Strong background in pub/sub and event brokers (Kafka, RabbitMQ) including security (TLS/SASL), scaling and schema evolution

- Knowledge of headers, correlation/tracking IDs, authentication/authorisation and versioning

Product, Data & Application Foundations

- Product and data modelling: can actually do BSS/TMF product modelling and data modelling - able to critique models and drive refactoring

- Skilled in product modelling (TMF ODA/SID, canonical data models)

- Proficient in backend programming (Python, Java, C++)

- Experienced in data persistence across SQL (Postgres, MySQL), NoSQL (Cassandra, MongoDB) and TSDB (TimescaleDB, InfluxDB, Prometheus TSDB)

- Skilled in schema design, optimisation and performance tuning

Distributed Systems & State Management

- Strong understanding of distributed systems, transaction management and telemetry pipelines

- Understands how state is managed across multiple systems, how rollbacks occur, compensation patterns, fallback handling

TMF Open API

- Customisation and extension of schemas (extension knowledge is critical)

- Understands their role in inter-component integration, how to change schemas, sync and async patterns

- Deep understanding of TMF SID (Product/Service domains) and TMF Open APIs used across BSS/OSS

HIGHLY DESIRABLE

Cloud Services & Observability

- Experience designing for multi-cloud, hybrid and on-prem environments

- Skilled in cloud-native patterns (PaaS, SaaS, serverless, containers, orchestration)

- Cloud platforms (AWS or GCP): commonly used IaaS/PaaS services

- Proficient with observability frameworks (Prometheus, ElasticSearch, Grafana, OpenTelemetry) for metrics, logs and traces

Platform Technologies & BSS Vendor Platforms

- Open source workflow engines (Temporal)

- Stream/batch processing (Flink, Spark)

- Test automation: Robot Framework and BDD - can review BDD robot files

- BSS vendor platforms: Salesforce, Amdocs, Ciena

- BSS/OSS proficiency: awareness of Product Catalogue, CPQ, SOM, EPC and their interactions

- Telecom domain knowledge: basic knowledge of WAN, overlay and security products

Delivery & Governance

- Leads architectural decision-making and design transformation initiatives

- AI/Agentic: enthusiasm for AI-driven process automation

- DevOps/CI-CD pipelines

- Architecture governance: Design Authority, ACF, DRT participation

- Agile/SAFe delivery

WHAT YOU'LL DO

Deliver hands-on solution architecture working closely with IT Systems Architect on internal BSS modernisation: create E2E designs, write HLDs/LLDs, review BDD test automation, model distributed state across systems, drive product/data model refactoring, lead vendor rationalisation and application portfolio simplification. Participate in technical spikes and POCs, mentor engineers, contribute to platform modernisation.