Solutions Architect AI

Hays are now looking for a Solution Architect for one of our local clients.

Circa £700 p/d Inside IR35
Hybrid / 2 days p/w in Leeds, the rest is WFH
6 Month initial contract, extensions likely
Must have Generative AI, LLM, RAG or Agentic AI solution architecture experience

We are looking for an experienced Solution Architect to take ownership of solution design across new technology initiatives and products. You'll work closely with engineering, product and business stakeholders, turning business problems into secure, scalable and practical technical solutions that can be successfully delivered.This role would suit an engineering-led architect who is still comfortable working at a technical level and has strong experience across cloud-native applications, APIs, microservices, integrations and event-driven architectures.

What you'll be doing

Own end-to-end solution architecture from initial requirements and options analysis through to delivery.
Translate business requirements into clear, pragmatic technical designs and recommended approaches.
Produce high-level solution designs, architecture diagrams, integration patterns and data flows.
Design modern cloud-native, microservices, API-first and event-driven solutions.
Build security, identity, resilience, data protection, observability and scalability into solutions from the outset.
Work closely with engineering teams throughout delivery to ensure solutions remain aligned with the architecture.
Identify technical risks, dependencies and cost considerations at an early stage.
Support architecture governance and design reviews, working with Security, Platform and other technical stakeholders.
Contribute to reusable architecture patterns, standards and reference architectures.
Support the adoption of emerging technologies, including Generative AI and Agentic AI, where appropriate.
What we're looking for

Strong experience as a Solution Architect, Technical Architect or senior engineer with significant solution design responsibility.
A strong software engineering background with the technical credibility to work closely with development teams.
Generative AI, LLM, RAG or Agentic AI solution architecture.
Experience designing solutions across AWS, Azure or GCP.
Strong understanding of microservices, REST APIs, integration patterns and event-driven architecture.
Experience with cloud-native and serverless technologies.
Good understanding of security and identity concepts such as OAuth2/OIDC, IAM, RBAC and Zero Trust.
Experience designing secure solutions within enterprise or regulated environments.
Understanding of Terraform/IaC, CI/CD, containers and modern DevOps practices.
Experience across relational and/or NoSQL data platforms and enterprise system integration.
Comfortable producing architecture artefacts and participating in technical/design governance.
Able to operate effectively in ambiguous environments and make pragmatic architectural decisions.
Desirable

AI governance, evaluation, guardrails or human-in-the-loop design.
Workflow automation.
ERP, CRM, Finance, Procurement or HR platform integration.
Experience within complex enterprise or regulated environments.

If you're interested in this role, click 'apply now' to forward an up-to-date copy of your CV, or send a copy of your CV to

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